Kelly needs to be playing at right back PLEASE.
We should have enough, but you never know, this is a crucial game as probably the only 'banker' we have had - apart from Notts County and we would have drawn that if it was a league match.
Nope. For my money this is a tougher match than the Stoke and Aston Villa ones.
I said before the Swansea game, 'why is everyone expecting us to just go to the Liberty Stadium and pulverise them?' There was definitely overconfidence for that game on here. To be expected I guess, given where we were in the table, but still. I said a draw would still be a good result there, and it was. We remained unbeaten and went back to the top of the league.
While a draw wouldn't be a good result at home to Southampton, this will be a very tough match. Look at Pochettino's record with the Saints and it doesn't come across as anything special; look closer in to it and you'll realise that they have played very well and got some superb results against the big clubs under his guidance, while struggling to mirror that against lesser teams. With him at the helm last season they beat Manchester City and ourselves comfortably at St Mary's, both by a 3-1 scoreline. Also dismissed Rafa's Chelsea 2-1. Not only that, but they were brilliant at Old Trafford, by far the better team, and extremely unfortunate to lose 2-1 there. Likewise they were undone by a late Bale wonder goal in their 1-0 loss at White Hart Lane, in a game I watched Southampton control for the majority.
Pochettino has applied a pressing style of play to Southampton since his arrival, and it seems to have worked very effectively against teams possessing better quality than them. It appears to have generally been less effective against teams of a similar or lower standard than them, however. I think we can all agree that even without Coutinho and Suarez we have a better team than Southampton, but that doesn't mean their style of play will work less against us- I think we can all admit that the best way to play against Rodgers' Liverpool is to press and force us to go long. Hard to sustain for a full 90 minutes, but effective when it is being used.
They've got some talented footballers, which is why I've tipped them for a top ten finish this season. Boruc seems to have rediscovered his Celtic form between the sticks, Shaw and Clyne are very promising young full-backs who will have great futures in the game, particularly the former. Lovren is a good centre-half. Wanyama is excellent at breaking stuff up in the middle, while Schneiderlin's allround game is really good. Lambert we all know about, and Osvaldo is a good signing.
If we play it right, then we should win the match. Southampton most definitely lack width. Lallana starts out wide left but cuts inside almost every time. Rodriguez, Lambert and Osvaldo are all likely to start; it is a case of shoehorning them all in for Saints due to their lack of wingers, as all three of those are centre forwards by trade.
So I really think 3-5-2 could be the right way to against these, formation-wise. Three of Toure/Skrtel/Sakho/Agger at centre-back to deal with their vast array of central attacking players; preferably Henderson right wing-back, Enrique obviously on the left. I'd go with Gerrard, Lucas and Allen in the centre. They're very strong in midfield so having those three in there should go some way to cancelling out those strengths of theirs. Moses floating around behind Sturridge, and hopefully they will have the necessary cutting edge. If not then we would have the option of throwing on Aspas, Alberto, Sterling and Ibe if/when chasing a goal.
We could still beat them playing a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 of course; we're Liverpool and it's at Anfield, and we have the better players. Make no mistake though, this shall be an extremely tough test. I said prior to the season, when looking at our first five games, Stoke and Villa should both be certain wins, and thankfully we got the job done in both. Then I felt we had three games ranging from very tough (Man Utd) to tough (Swansea and Southampton). From those three games I said that no points would be catastrophic, one point rubbish, two points poor, three points or four points disappointing, five points okay, six points good, seven points very good and nine points incredible. We're still on par for seven, which I maintain would be a very good return from three difficult games. Especially when more winnable games are on the horizon, with Suarez' return imminent.
I'll go for a nervy 1-0, and I would happily take that!
