Southampton 0-0 Liverpool: In game and Post Match discussion

Chelsea already won?

Yes. They beat Middlesborough 1-0. 

Well I didn't see much of the game, only motd. Did listen to the commentary and the only thing I can simile from it all, is that we totally dominated, just failed to put away some very good chances.
No disgrace drawing at the saints, just a wee bit disappointed as I've almost come to expect a win every time we play, whoever, where ever. With the little amount of game I saw, I opted for Matip for motm and it seems it was the popular choice !
So it's back to wining ways next week then!
That'll do me fine 😁
COYM REDS

Yes. They beat Middlesborough 1-0. 

Nothing to gloat about!

Yes. They beat Middlesborough 1-0. 

You been waiting all weekend to come back with that reply 

You been waiting all weekend to come back with that reply 

It was rather predictable. That's why I said, it's disappointing we missed those 3 points to stay top.

That 14,000 mile figure is something to contend with, flying abroad to most holiday resorts takes some recovery time, to expect optimum physical performance in that recovery time is not realistic.

No excuse.

12 months ago, City were destroyed in half an hour after an international break. While 2 months ago, Leicester were destroyed after an international break. So if it was no problem then, it shouldn't be any problem now.

These players are full time professional athletes, playing football games is their job, and they travel in the lap of luxury in every direction. We should be playing twice a week now, but hopefully we will be playing twice a week next year, so they have to be able to cope.

Furthermore, the "14,000 miles" was spent in first class, not left in economy like everyone else. The more successful they are, the more games they have to play. That's just the way it is in our sport. I don't accept fatigue as an excuse and I have no sympathy for any "inconvenience" it causes, as there are many professions much more tiring and stressful than kicking a ball round a pitch twice a week.

It was rather predictable. That's why I said, it's disappointing we missed those 3 points to stay top.

You know what else is predictable?  Every team (including us) will drop more points between now and May.  There's a long way to go in this race.  Chin up mate

It was rather predictable. That's why I said, it's disappointing we missed those 3 points to stay top.

How exactly was it predictable?

Chelsea just about beat a team by a single goal who are nowhere near the quality of the team we played yesterday.

And since you love this prediction game so much here's one from me. I predict next weekend we'll be back on top of the league again.

Not sure why you're so upset with this. The reality is, Chelsea were very likely to beat Middlesbrough. For us, Southampton was going to be a difficult game, and the 3 points was not as likely as Chelsea grabbing theirs. We really needed to keep the momentum going but it was going to be a real test for us.

Perhaps Chelsea had the added advantage of an extra day recovery post International break.

Sure, we need to get right back up there next week, but Chelsea equally are on form right now. Need Spurs to step it up, but I'm not sure we can rely much on them.

Not sure why you're so upset with this. The reality is, Chelsea were very likely to beat Middlesbrough. For us, Southampton was going to be a difficult game, and the 3 points was not as likely as Chelsea grabbing theirs. We really needed to keep the momentum going but it was going to be a real test for us.

Perhaps Chelsea had the added advantage of an extra day recovery post International break.

Sure, we need to get right back up there next week, but Chelsea equally are on form right now. Need Spurs to step it up, but I'm not sure we can rely much on them.

With Kane leading the line Spurs are a different team. He's as important to that team as Suarez was to us.

I'm predicting a draw both teams are strong defensively will be a very tight game.

I had us down finishing 6 or 7th before the season so sitting 1 point behind the leaders with a third of the season gone is a bit of a surprise to me.

If we finish in the top three, never mind the top four, that would be a huge leap forwards. 

Draw at Southampton wasn't a bad result IMO - I went for a 2-2 in the Prediction League.  Although saying that a post earlier in this thread really did make me think when it said we should only be happy with a point when we play badly.

In the context of a game where one side has 15 shots and the other has 3 - yeah that team should win, fair comment.

Chelsea look solid.  Teams that don't concede I think have the edge over teams who play cavalier football.  The greatest Liverpool sides in our history were rocks at the back.

At the minute we look more like a team that will finish top three than top six that I was expecting so I'm relatively happy and optimistic about our season.

No excuse.

12 months ago, City were destroyed in half an hour after an international break. While 2 months ago, Leicester were destroyed after an international break. So if it was no problem then, it shouldn't be any problem now.

These players are full time professional athletes, playing football games is their job, and they travel in the lap of luxury in every direction. We should be playing twice a week now, but hopefully we will be playing twice a week next year, so they have to be able to cope.

Furthermore, the "14,000 miles" was spent in first class, not left in economy like everyone else. The more successful they are, the more games they have to play. That's just the way it is in our sport. I don't accept fatigue as an excuse and I have no sympathy for any "inconvenience" it causes, as there are many professions much more tiring and stressful than kicking a ball round a pitch twice a week.

Largely down to the work of Coutinho and Firmino...who were not picked for Brazil for that match and had two weeks to work together in training in preparation for the match.

Your efforts to make a 14,000 mile journey (not to mention the travel to Peru) sound like a relaxing sauna are pathetic.

Your efforts to make a 14,000 mile journey (not to mention the travel to Peru) sound like a relaxing sauna are pathetic.

To be fair, Southampton had a hell of a lot of players away on international duty too. 

Vast majority of our starting XI were either sat on their arse or a couple of hundred miles away.

I don't think we can seriously use the international break as an excuse.  We did elect to start Coutinho/Firminho over Sturridge/Origi - rightly or wrongly.

What on earth? How does that work? How is it that after 12 games (particularly after that tough start) we are on a points per game average that has us on a trajectory to get 86 points? Unless you think that those were only going to be the 7 points we'd drop this season then that's a crazy thing to say.

Let me explain how it works, lets take the Chelsea element of the 3 games stated, we won at Chelsea - great win gives us a net of +3pts, we then drew at home v Man U 0-0 and away at Saints 0-0 2pts in total, Chelsea beat Man U 4-0 and away at Saints 2-0 which gives them 6pts - net +4pts more than us so that +3pts at Chelsea has actually been more than negated by -1pt. But don't get me wrong I'm delighted with things but we can't keep dropping points like that if we want to realise our ambitions.

OK we didnt win. But clean sheet kept, and still just one point of the top

Absolutely no need panic - and chelsea / city / arsenal will continue to drop points - as we will now and then

Season over after not winning at Saints 

We missed no one... we controlled the game and had clear cut chances. Often they go in, occasionally you have 'one of them days' (against a team intent on defending) when they don't: Saturday was just one of those.

We were plenty good enough to have won that so, (in my humble) there's no need to worry and definitely no need for an inquest.

To be fair, Southampton had a hell of a lot of players away on international duty too. 

Vast majority of our starting XI were either sat on their arse or a couple of hundred miles away.

I don't think we can seriously use the international break as an excuse.  We did elect to start Coutinho/Firminho over Sturridge/Origi - rightly or wrongly.

So why is that every top team in the league put in a sub standard performances this weekend, was there perhaps something in the air? Of course the international breaks breaks the flow and rhythm of any team, especially ones as technically as ours. Anyway F**k it, we could have won that game, we deserved to win that game but we didn't. We are only 1 point behind the leaders and we now have a very nice run of games leading up to Christmas.

https://twitter.com/AnfieldHQ/status/800638923831701504

Season over after not winning at Saints 

Ridiculous  ain't it?

A point away to Southampton is not a disaster, we had chances to win the game but didn't take them.

Yet again after an international break we don't look like we are fully at the races, similar to the Man United game we couldn't click into high gear.

I thought the subs were very late to come on. In reality I think Sturridge and Origi should have started over two of the front three. They are more than capable to cover for jet lagged Phil, Bob and Sadio. We finally have decent attacking depth and Klopp decided not to use them, and if one of the many chances we had had been buried his selection would have been justified.

Not a criticism of Klopp at all, just think they deserved the chance, given the mileage the front three put in!

Not losing my head after this result, as many others have said Southampton are no pushovers. My only slight niggle is that once they dropped off our midfield (second half) we failed to use the extra time and space efficiently.

Yet again after an international break we don't look like we are fully at the races, similar to the Man United game we couldn't click into high gear.

No more Internationals now for four months... so hopefully we'll slip back into a high gear for Sunderland's visit.
The only time the Internationals could affect us during this time is when Mane does one in January..
That's when Sturridge and Origi will be knocking on Jurgens door.