Official Match Thread: vs Southampton (A)

I have a source close to the club that tells me BR is planning on playing 4 fullbacks this time.

 

****er!

 

Match of the Day

Did you know, Southampton have won four of their five Premier League games against Liverpool at St Mary's, including the last three in a row.

 

When Chelsea beat Soton 3-0, they kept it very tight in the first and then played counterattack in the second scoring three. I recall Shaw was made to have a bad day.

I hope BR plays Sterling on the right and tasks him with tracking back and helping Flano with Shaw.

 

Worried about this one. They are a bit of a bogie team for us. They tore us apart at St Mary's last year and stopped us playing our usual game at Anfield this year, and beat us.

Of our remaining games this is the one I am most concerned about.

 

Liverpool enter a testing run of three away games in a row which could make or break their season. It's 11 years since they last won at Southampton, who are the only side to win at Anfield this season.

In a fortnight they face the tribal hostilities of Old Trafford. Then they go to Cardiff, who are fighting for their lives.

St Mary's will be tricky. Southampton may have lost their last two games and they've only won one of their last six home matches, but Liverpool tend to struggle there, losing on four of their last five Premier League visits.

LAWRO'S PREDICTION
Image of Mark Lawrenson Mark Lawrenson
Football analyst
"With Manchester City playing Sunderland in the Capital One Cup final this weekend, a Liverpool win at St Mary's would send them third.

"Would that mean Liverpool are back in the title race? Yes. They have a clear run at it too."

Read Lawro's full prediction and score

Going forward, the Premier League's top scorers look frightening. They need eight goals to break their record for a Premier League season.

Daniel Sturridge has scored in eight consecutive Premier League matches. Only Ruud van Nistelrooy has bettered that in the history of the competition. Luis Suarez is also hungry for goals after a five-game drought and with the Saints only keeping two home league clean sheets in four months, the end of that barren spell is in sight.

But at the other end the title contenders again looked suspect against Swansea. Daniel Agger looked rusty after his lay-off. Kolo Toure was a bag of nerves when he came on, while Glen Johnson at left back seemed a strange a decision when Jon Flanagan has done well there in the past.

They have been richly entertaining this season - scoring three or more on 15 occasions. But that leaky defence will cost them dearly one of these days and the Saints will certainly threaten in the air at set pieces.

This is going to be very tough for the visitors. Southampton have also just added the Canada ice hockey coach Ralph Krueger, who won gold at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, to their backroom staff. Defeat for Liverpool would leave them skating on thin ice in the title race.

MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head

•Southampton have won four of their five Premier League games against Liverpool at St Mary's, including the last three in a row. Liverpool's last victory was a 1-0 win in January 2003.
•Saints are one of only two teams in the league to keep a clean sheet against Liverpool this season - the other was Arsenal at the Emirates.
Southampton

•Southampton's 3-1 defeat by West Ham last weekend was their first loss in seven Premier League matches.
•They have lost a league-high 15 points from winning positions this season.
•Mauricio Pochettino's side have only won one of their previous seven home fixtures in the league (D3, L3). That was a 1-0 victory over West Brom on 11 January.
•Southampton have only won one of their 12 matches against opposition in the top half of the table this season.
Liverpool

•Liverpool are the top scorers in the Premier League with 70 goals from their 27 matches. Last weekend's 4-3 victory over Swansea saw them move above Manchester City, who have scored 69 goals in 26 games.
•Only four teams have kept fewer clean sheets in the league this season. In the top half of the table, only Newcastle (38) have conceded more than Liverpool's 35 goals.
•Daniel Sturridge has scored in eight consecutive league games - taking his tally to 18 for the league campaign.
•Luis Suarez has not scored in five matches in all competitions but he now has the joint highest number of goal assists in the Premier League (nine) - as well as being top scorer with 23.

 

I agree it's a tricky one, but I would never describe myself as "worried" about a game. I look forward to the exciting, difficult games.

 

About time that record was busted then
Law of averages

 

A win would take us above Manchester City (Still with 2 games in hand), and could be the spring board for something special in the penultimate 10 games. It's going to be an extremely difficult game, but we have the quality to dismantle any team on our day, let's just hope it IS our day.

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i just hope we start off the way we did against Arsenal at home or spurs away.

we manage that, we will have too much for them hopefully.

like to see saints get Europa league football if they can manage it, not sure how many points behind they are, but hope they don't get them until after today, batards

i am wary of this game, but then even though we are normally guaranteed to concede, we have enough the other end to cause problems.

 

Class goal, lets hope they don't play like that today.

[video=youtube;TxyYSoblpcI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxyYSoblpcI[/video]

 

.

 

Massive amount of time for this Liverpool side and Brendan Rodgers. He's generated a hell of a togetherness amongst a group of talented players and I hope you go on to surprise people and take the title.

BUT

Obviously I'm hoping for a win today for Southampton. The two sides aren't all that different in terms of philosophy - exciting attacking football all round. We've struggled to convert chances recently and Lambert seems to have started the decline a little earlier than we would have hoped. Should be a cracking game today though, and if there's a game Lambert should be able to pull what's left out of the tank, it's Liverpool. A great boost for the 4 England lads too - enjoy the football, but hopefully not the result too much.

Best of luck for the rest of the season though.

 

Nah, Mick Channon's retired, hasn't he?

 

same

after today though obviously

would be interesting to see how it pans out at the top though if we got the 3pts today, can city handle the pressure of cant afford to drop points, will arsenal crumble etc etc.

 

English players cant play passing football...

 

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Caption competition?

 

try lol, not very good at them.

coach "i am going to read your mind now"

Coutinho "who is this weird ****a?"

 

Coutinho yet to be convinced by arm transplant operation.