Another great win at a very tricky ground against a very good, well organised young team, this fixture has caused us problems the last few seasons and for the players and management to put in a performance like that shows nothing else than that they themselves believe they can win this thing. And if they believe, I believe.
You have got to give it to the gaffer, we are now travelling to grounds where we have struggled in previous seasons and scoring freely and putting in fearless performances to boot. Stoke at the Brit, Spurs at The Lane, and now Southampton. All clinically vanquished by a compact, hard-working and very intelligent young side still learning, still progressing. I thought the diamond worked well, although I am of the opinion that any formation that allows Suarez and Sturridge to play predominately centrally or isolated against defenders in and around the box consistently will work well, they are that good together. Especially as they are now both starting to share the mutually beneficial philosophy of valuing the assist as much as the goal. If they continue to make excellent decision-making, knowing when to lay and when to shoot, I think we will continue to be as clinical and dominant as we have been in the games mentioned before on our travels this season in the rest of the games away from Anfield.
The formation allowed us to be tight and compact, drop slightly deeper as a unit especially after the first 20 minutes, where I thought we attacked intelligently without ever over-committing; Henderson making a few of his only real direct runs in key areas during his more conservative positioning for the majority of the match. I thought he did well again today, he shows a commitment and drive in any of the roles he is assigned to play, starting to appreciate the honesty the boy brings with his performances. I thought he covered and pressed well most notably towards the end, showing that he can be decent cleaning up in fullback positions as well as pressing from the front.
Next to him I thought Stevie was fantastic again. He dropped in at the right time, I can see why some may have said he could play centre half, he drops back to make the three at dangerous moments and deals with it cleanly, started to lose track of how many headers he has won in the box the last few months. And reduced attacking time seems to make him more determined to truly be decisive in the moments that he can directly influence the offensive side of the team. Free kicks, corners, penalties, quick early passes in and behind, the man is in epic form, he seems resurgent after being dropped back, even hungrier than before. His experience as a player will be reassuring to Skrtel/Kolo and Agger/Sakho at the back, I am sure vocally he spurs them on, and has shown a willingness to take responsibility in dangerous situations, this is a firm foundation to build on.
And building on firm foundations is what they used to make me sing about in church when I was but a wee boy.. Not only good footballing principles but also excellent flooding advice if you live in the South of England.
In all seriousness, having the pace we have up top, it does allow us to drop and sit deep when we feel we have to, some of the positioning of the attacking players when we were defending helped relieve the pressure on the backline when we were hemmed in but also directly led to good final third entries. The spaces (usually inside channel from the left or right around the half way line) that all of Sterling, Sturridge and Suarez find regularly allows us to counter so well (the run up to the throw for the first goal is a key example). Coupled with Coutinho, Gerrard, Allen and increasingly the centre backs finding these long passes into the correct areas is helping us to become as dangerous in defence as in attack. We attack with three as well as we do with five at times, and at St Mary's I thought we found an excellent balance of when to make the extra runs and when to sit.
I think Southampton are an excellent side too. They played through our 'press' on a few occasions, and I am sure that their management will be disappointed with some of the play in the good positions that they got into. I rate the boy Lallana, with an extra yard of pace (I'm a bad speed head) he would look lovely at us, one who I would love to see Rodgers 'get his hands on' so to speak. I thought Southampton used spaces left by marauding full backs and centre backs well, Lallana creating the space and arriving in it equally well, similarly with the Jay Rodriquez who I think is another good young player (also lacking a yard or two of that magic ingredient).
Quick word on the fullbacks. Both sets. All English, and all had decent games. Glad to see Johnson looking strong in the tackle and pretty solid on the left, he is one we need on song for the next 10, he could be a point or 2 extra on his own if he can really find a decent stretch of form, always scores against West Ham, be nice if he could add another to that list. I thought Flanagan was decent, went when he should have stayed once or twice but he is another that brings an honesty to his trade and kept it as tidy as he could. It was similar for the two young lads playing for The Saints, a lot of attention is being given to Luke Shaw but I was equally impressed with the RB Chambers. Both seem strong, quick lads, direct and tidy in possession, both with decent reading of the game (Chambers on the line when the keeper goes to meet Sturridges blast across goal), he dropped in to help his CB's at times too. Both still full of running at 90 minutes also. As a neutral I would be disappointed not to have seen more of both in the final third, as a Liverpool fan I am relieved we never really had to.
A performance I am sure I will remember well when sitting down in 2020 watching Premiership Years 2013/14, be lovely if its the episode where Liverpool finally win the title. If not I at least suspect it will be another early example of how good we went on to be at playing on the road against a good team and leaving with a dominating result.
10 games. A near fully fit squad, players in top form and confidence everywhere in sight. Time to prepare in between games, forward-thinking from the gaffer (in both senses), the ability to defend with 7 and still look utterly dangerous..
Can we win all 10?.. probably not, but I wouldn't be surprised if we went unbeaten or only lost one. We seem too confident, too hungry, too fearless and yet gritty and protective when we need to be to lose many.
The longer we can keep up the title talk, the further we are in succeeding in our primary aim of securing Champions League football. After the Soton game, after the 6th or 7th beer/amaretto sour/mojito I started to think of the Champions League nights past and the ones to come. The ones to come. As they surely now will. And great nights they will be. Maybe some of the greatest.