Southampton is a bit of a tough cookie..
They're a balanced mixture of Swansea/Arsenal when in posession, but akin to Chelsea, Hull and West Brom(under Mel), and ourselves(in the big games) when not in possession. Like we've seen against Hull and West Brom in particular- we will look jaded and play as if we're tired, a lot of passes would be intercepetd or go astray, our pass-completion stats would be very low, our possession would be less than theirs, they will score from stupid errors(forced through their pressing) and we're going to have to work our arse off for the ball- same as them when we're in possession.
Another aspect they seem to differ from a lot of quality sides is that they don't really take the initiative in attacking when against top sides(it's a myth- their more reactionary)- so we can't use counter-attacking as a tactic throughout the match. They hound you for possession- in 3s- and wait for a mistake. They will not attack you constantly, carving you open through incisive passing from an attack that was started from out the back. If we decide to counter throughout the match, we'll have to walk away with a draw or they'll hope for a mistake- like our past meetings and will make sure they'll win by a goal. Tough team this. Too hot to handle. They're as tough to play against as we were under Rafa and what we're becoming under Rodgers. Their more like us Rafa's Liverpool, but with quality passing and more movement. We might have to alternate our approach- attack for 15 minutes, sit back, attack for 15, sit back- rinse and repeat..
Against Swansea and Arsenal, we had it easy- we could press, but not expect much pressing when we're in possession, since these 2 sides do not really appear to press, but only selectively(like we did the first season under Rodgers), but the problem with Southampton is that they do to us what we have done to Arsenal, Everton and Swansea and the issue we have is that our one-touch passing didn't seem up to scratch since we met them under Rodgers.
As PoP said the other time- the way to resist/beat their press is to quickly pass the ball in triangles all over the pitch in order to avoid losing it. This would mean- one-touch passing like Arsenal does it and we're struggling there. Yes- our one-touch passing is good, but a little less quicker and effective than City and of a much less quality and pace than that of Arsenal(which is the reason why they could sort of "handle" Southampton). The reason Swansea were such a tough team to press, was their quick precision in passing and their use of triangles whenever we pressed them. We need to do simialr against Southampton and then we'll win.
Anyway- I'm sure Brendan has been wrestling with the question of how to beat this lot for a while now and the last time we met, we were much better than before, so I'm sure we'll have a plan for these.
Tis the season to slaughter the bogeys and Southampton are next. I'll go for a battling, brutal football, piss-ugly, ground-out 1-2 or even a 0-1. Quality will see us through.
