Southampton 0-2 Liverpool: Three Key Players
By Jack Deery
The south coast saw all kinds of different weather on Sunday, however it was the same average performance from Southampton after being beaten 2-0 by Liverpool.
After rain, hail, sleet and sun hit St. Mary’s stadium, the Saints lined up against a Liverpool side that featured a number of familiar faces. Former Saints Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sadio Mane and Virgil Van Dijk were in Liverpool’s starting XI with Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren coming on as subs to play in front of a crowd that was once theirs.
Following Newcastle’s shock win against Man United, to put Southampton in the bottom three, it was vital that Saints started quickly and strongly. However, with six minutes on the clock a Wesley Hoedt mistake allowed Mo Salah to put through Roberto Firmino, who gave Alex McCarthy no chance as he slotted it home.
After a nervy start from Mauricio Pellegrino’s men, they slowly started to grow into the game. Last week’s MOTM Mario Lemina was outshining the whole Liverpool midfield with another excellent display.
A miss from new signing Guido Carrillo, two from James Ward-Prowse and one from Pierre Hojbjerg looked to be costly when some slick passing football from Liverpool led Roberto Firmino to return the favour to his Egyptian teammate, who made it 2-0 on the stroke of half-time.
Early in the second half, Mario Lemina had to be taken off with what looked like an illness problem and appeared to stop any chance of a Southampton revival. The second half performance was very poor from Southampton who conjured up next to no chances. The loss leaves them 18th in the table with 11 games to go, making every game a cup final for the South Coast side.
But who were Southampton’s shining lights from a game that provided so little. Our contributor Jack Deery has his say.