Venue- St Mary's Stadium, Southampton. 32,505 Capacity
The COC is back! This time we face the saints in what should be an exciting quarter final game. We're three games away from a trip to Wembley and a chance to end our four year trophy drought.
Since our massive raid on their team since the summer of 2014, Ronald Koeman has really strengthened his squad and made them a model development club for, up coming players, and journeymen. Southampton achieved their highest ever top flight position since 1984-85 where they finished 7th and qualified for the Europa League, as well as beating top sides including Arsenal, and United, and putting 8 past Sunderland.
Their goal scoring is somewhat erratic. Southampton scored 58 premier league goals last year, and this year they are currently on 20, two more ahead of us. What is worrying is their ability to go on a goal scoring frenzy. In the past two seasons they have had three games where they have scored 6 or more goals. Graziano Pelle, Sadio Mane, and Shane Long have been their biggest threats.
Southampton currently have no players on suspension but are at risk of missing the presence of Jose Fonte who suffered a mild knee injury against City at the weekend. He came off at the 36th minute. Along with Fonte is the possibility of resting the out of form Victor Wanyama. Many feel that he is focusing on a potential move to Tottenham Hotspurs and has been heavily slated on Southampton's version of RAWK for his recent performances. It should be noted that Fonte and Wanyama are effectively the core of their defense.
Southampton are a very tidy and compact team. They like to press high, and are no dummies with the ball. It could be a different story from our encounter earlier in November where they looked content to set up shop. They can score and they can defend, they have flashy players, pace, and all around are a good team. Depending on how they feel about this competition, ill predict their starting 11.
Liverpool have recently resurged under Jurgen Klopp. The german gaffer has started to develop a winning habit to this squad which is vital. Currently 6 points off 1st, and alive in every competition "The Normal One" has a tough decision to make when choosing his squad. Most of the squad bar Clyne, and Moreno have been in and out of team selections for one reason or another, and this could be an area where Jurgen tries to improve with the Transfer Market. Nathaniel Clyne has played every minute of Liverpool's season thus far. Theres no signs of fatigue but certainly the manager would have taken note of this. An option off the bench could be Connor Randall who already featured in the 1-0 win against Bournemouth in the last stage of this cup. Randall had a good outing, making a lot of positive runs and getting some good crosses in. With the run of fixtures in december, and our current league position I could see a couple changes to the side.
Saints Premier League Results up to date
Saints League Cup Results
Liverpool v Southampton last 5
If you need a reason to want to take this competition serious here you go
One more for the nostalgia in all of us
