Southampton 1-0 Liverpool: In game and Post Match discussion

Quick assessment  :-

1. Karius  - Kept us in the game. Motm
2.  Klavan  - No urgency,
3.  Dejan - Playing at half pace.
4.  Clynne -  At sixes and sevens when lost possession. No quick follow up to close down space that resulted in the goal.
5.  Milner -- Not creating anything useful down the flank as what he used to do, unlike him. Was he asked to slow down?
6.  Can - Too slow for the EPL and Klopp has to realise that and put sentiments aside and move on.
7.  Lucas - Lost his legs long time ago. Him defending the back four is causing us already. Any coincidence that our results suffered in the last few games when Lucas featured? Again, time for Klopp to put aside sentiments eventhough Lucas has been a loyal servant to us.
8.  Gini -  Why we bought him in the first place, I simply can't figure out. Looks as if he doesn't want the ball everytime when he is in possession, too quick to get rid of it and passed to the nearest player. He is less than average, a proper league 1 midfielder would outperform him.  Is he an AM or DM? I can't figure out. He's neither to me at the moment. he just made up the number of players. 
9.  Lallana -- too many hollywood dribbling and passes that ended up nowhere. He's useless outside and far away from the box, I keep saying.
10.  Firminho - Not sure what's in his mind. Something seems to be bothering him in the last 6 or 7 games. Looks as though he is playing football all by himself and lost the appetite for the game.
11. Studge - Tried to create something but again, he' not much of a use outside the box.
12.  Cou - saw the difference when he came on the pitch. But I hate to rely too much on Cou. Others must earn their pay.
13.  Origi - At least some hope when he got onto the pitch. But he has to create something from the corner that shows we have a midfield that totally collapsed in this game.

Too many sluggish side and back passes and we simply gave their defence too much respect and we have a malfunction midfield. Hopefully, this is just a smokescreen against MU and the return leg.

Trying to find a positive....

We did not concede a goal after Coutinho came on, and looked a much better team.

Vs Utd on Sunday, we will start with Coutinho, and you never know, things may click and we may have a good game. One thing's for sure, Firmino will bother to turn up. He loves to pick and choose who he will play against. 

So, not all lost. This result may have little impact on the next game.

Thanks god there is another leg to play as Saints were robbed blind with us getting away with a 0-1.

That ranks up there with one of the worst displays witnessed under Klopp.

Full credit to Saints as there was only team out there pressing, harrying and aggressive in their play. There again when you have a player as dozy as Can on the ball it's easy to create counter attacks. Which might not be such an issue but if you have Grandad Lucas in the same side your asking for trouble.

Seriously it's cringing watching Lucas play like he's a pub player he really should retire or move to a much slower league.

After that 90min performance it's clear to see why Sturridge won't start on Sunday.

Hopefully Gomez kicks on much quicker as Klavan seems pretty error prone.

On the plus side great to see Karius building a bit of confidence and the little magician get some game time.

Finally Jürgen we know you are a great Coach but just spend some f**king money when it's available!

Well Karius was good.

Karius 7 (8 but he came for that cross and flapped)

Clyne 6.5 (no impact)
Klavan 6.5 (one mistake lead to a goal, otherwise, pretty good)
Lovren 7 (one of the more solid performers for the most part)
Milner 6.5 (feel sorry for the midfielder, works tirelessly, was busy but little to no end product)

Lucas 6 (no pace, gets turned too easily, no creativity)
Wijnaldum 6 (no impact)
Can 7 (didn't go hiding, tried to make inroads but went missing a bit too much)

Lallana 6 (no impact)
Sturridge 5.5 (no impact)
Firmino 6 (not much more impact)

Origi 5.5 (no impact, not much time for anything)
Coutinho 6.5 (rusty)

Klopp 6 (little to work with off the bench)

Are we starting to look leggy? Is our high tempo pressing game catching up with us? I'm not saying it is, I'm just wondering. Because as someone (can't remember who; might have been Anfield Wrap) asked the question, when was the last time we played well? It's not just this game, I've been wondering about it last game too. Might be due to Mane's absence, but we are looking a pale reflection of the side we were earlier on.

As for Utd away, right now I think I'd take a draw.

Can 7

Seriously it's cringing watching Lucas play like he's a pub player he really should retire or move to a much slower league.

Watching him try and beat Long to the ball... and then fall over... 

I'm a little surprised that no one is actually mentioning how great Southampton really were. Sometimes you just gotta praise the opponent. I don't really buy that they "parked the bus". It wasn't our day, but that doesn't take away their nearly flawless performance.

Tedious game. Passing was slow and laboured. Working its way from side to side with no real penetration. Looked very much like United under LVG to be honest. In a game against opponents like Southampton, is it really necessary to have Lucas, Can and Wijnaldum in the team? Should have sacrificed one for a bit of pace on the wings - an Ejaria, Ojo or even Origi.

We brought on Coutinho and waited another 20mins before introducing Origi, giving him less than ten minutes to make an impact. Why wait so long? Did Klopp see enough from everyone else to justify waiting so long?

Two games without a goal and today we created absolutely F**k all! No better place next to get back to winning ways I suppose!

Watching him try and beat Long to the ball... and then fall over... 

Second only to Milner controlling the ball on the floor with his head   

Thinking about it, I don't think Southampton did park the bus.

They just defended really well.

Need a striker and a Centre Back.
We played against the Centre Back tonight.

Can 7

Yes. I gave Wijnaldum and Lucas 6 and I cannot honestly say Can was as poor as them. He wasn't great but he was our best midfielder of the 90 minutes. I wouldn't argue though if you insisted he was at most a 6.5.

We had no players running beyond the defence, onto through balls. It was all down the flanks coming mainly from Milner.

Our press has gone missing. Alarmingly so. Perhaps the City game took more out of us than we care to admit.

Woefull performance from the whole team with the exception of the keeper and maybe Lallana, play anything like that on Sunday and were in for a thrashing, how on this earth did Can stay on baffling utterly baffling

I generally think Can gives us something and stand up for him, but not so much tonight - if not his worst performance, it was up there, slow, overplaying, looked like he'd just rolled out of bed onto the pitch. Lucas and Studge were really poor too, the rest were ordinary, Karius improved (from a very low base) and Cou looked our most dangerous player in first game back after ages out! Even Lallana, Milner, generally reliable, not playing to level we know they can.

Few games now where we've really not been at it. Hendo is missed, captain is more incisive with some of his passing and is more of a presence in the middle. Mane's pace too. But we still have enough to be a LOT better than we've been. It happens, sides have ropey spells. We just need to be better at grinding out results at those times.  With Manure coming up we'll need to be better. Great to see Cou get the guts of a half. And though Karius did fine, would expect Mignolet to come back in.

Not so bothered about tonight, we have a 2nd leg. More of a concern is that there's nobody really knocking on the first XI door to come in, so we need the main men to get serious amounts of wheetabix down them before the weekend...

Thanks to our keeper we still got a shot at title with the 2nd leg still to come  , bad one tonight, rather tonight than Sunday eh.

 

Just got back from the game and my overriding thought is that we're lucky to still be in the tie because they should have scored a couple more. Really laboured performance from us, we looked good for the first ten minutes and then awful for the rest. There was simply no tempo in our play and a lot of that was down to having both Lucas and Can in our midfield and a very statement Studge up front. You can't play those two lads in the same midfield and I felt that Lallana should have played in the middle with Origi coming in for either of Can or Lucas. The only player who di himself anything credit from a credit point of view was Lallana but that is scraping the barrel. Karius was the obvious MOTM although he looked ropey on high crosses once again. What was absolutely clear is that we will miss Mane this month and for me, we need another player like him during this transfer window if we're to have a realistic shot at the title.

I hope we play a lot better at the weekend. I don't think he will but I would be tempted to play Coutinho from the start and get Firmino back in the false 9 spot. I wouldn't play Studge away at toilet.

Hats off to Saints though, they were excellent, Romeu was head and shoulders the best player on the pitch and Van Dyke is an absolute beast of a player, I can see why he is so highly rated.

Poor show tonight ,to many players did not perform tonight,i feel for the fans who travelled down tonight and supported them ,i hope Klopp pointed that fact out to them after the game.

Yes. I gave Wijnaldum and Lucas 6 and I cannot honestly say Can was as poor as them. He wasn't great but he was our best midfielder of the 90 minutes. I wouldn't argue though if you insisted he was at most a 6.5.

I would argue he was at most a 3 mate.

Very much us trying to break through a brick wall tonight. Thought lucas was excellent tonight and karius looked assured aswel. Didn't know that Sturridge was on the field most of the time. Theres still the 2nd leg so let's be positive.

Second only to Milner controlling the ball on the floor with his head   

Ah yes.. but that was because he was fouled, and got so frustrated that the ref never blew. Pretty sure he used his hand as well but thought better of actually grabbing hold of the ball !

So frustrating with Sturridge,i think Klopp seen through his constant unavailability due to injuries ,he even commented about players need to know what is real pain etc.I think Klopp phased him out of his plans to let him know no player is bigger than club,he has gradually phased him back in to the team. He then gets a starting slot tonight you thought he would have burst a gut to claim his claim for a first team spot on a regular basis , but was a passenger .On his game he is class but he needs to do that on a regular basis,if he cant demand a regular starting place by end of season its time to move on.

Really really poor performance from the team, I have no idea what went wrong but there was no pressing, no clever interplay, no energy. Is this just a blip or is there something more serious going on? I certainly hope we can bounce back against Manure at the weekend because if we play like that we'll be humiliated.

Extremely poor performance, possibly our worst under Klopp.

I think losing Coutinho was always going to hurt us but i don't think that tells us the full story. I think one of the main reasons we have struggled so much without him (performance wise) is the fact we have moved Bobby to cover his position on the left, costing us when it comes to pressing high and quickly re-obtaining the ball or forcing the GK to go long.

Tonight Sturridge infuriated me. He was by no means alone in doing so but his lack of strength on the ball and the fact we didn't press their keeper once is for me one of the bigger reasons we had so much trouble containing Southampton. We gave them all the time in the world and like many have said we're lucky we are still in the tie.