Topic: FT Liverpool (3) - Southampton (0) - Mo 30' 41' Phil 68'

[roma77]

The midfield three of Henderson, Wijnaldum and Coutinho looked pretty good.

[newterp]

how do we reintegrate lallana? is it a midfield of lallana, coutinho, and Henderson/Can? I feel like Gini is key.

Horses for courses I suppose.....because we could of course have Lallana on the bench as well.

[Number 7]

Another thing to note was Southampton tried to press us high in the first 10-15 minutes and they had a fair few numbers in our half when they did that. It’s clear they came with that plan to force us in to mistakes while playing it from the back. However, it didn’t last long after that because having Mané, Salah, Coutinho and Firmino on the same pitch together meant they couldn’t continue to play like that beyond 15 minutes. The entire team played well but those 4 just gave the Southampton defence a torrid time.

[Red_Rich]

Very pleasing performance and the best thing is we weren't even at full throttle.
Hopefully that will come against Chelsea next week.

I did find we didn't run at Southampton enough from midfield. That might change when we have lallana back and will definitely change when Keith comes in!

[Dim Glas]

how do we reintegrate lallana? is it a midfield of lallana, coutinho, and Henderson/Can? I feel like Gini is key.

Horses for courses I suppose.....because we could of course have Lallana on the bench as well.

Yeah, its a nice problem I guess! I think Gini is key too, the midfied seems to tick with him in there, but then Lallana can be sublime. Lots of games coming up for both of them to get their chances I suspect.

I also liked that midfield with Can, Ox and Gini too, from the West Ham game. All of a sudden, there are many possibilities.

[MNAA]

Woke up this morning with a big smile on my face. 3-0 against Matt Le Tissier’s team. Forster, Cedric, Bertrand, Romeu, Redmond, Tadic and Long - that was payback for last season

We’re coming together nicely, Clyne aside injuries are ebbing and hitting good form at the right. Looking forward to finish the year on a high ...

[evie]

'43 - In memory of our very own Carl Vanriel aka Sir Harvest Fields who, tragically, passed away yesterday morning. 43 is way, way, way too young. You will be sorely missed here, Carl.

Thanks for giving us those two goals so far - gizza few more, you cross-dressing, cat-hating, fire-bathing tart!

Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

Capon Debaser's artwork has it just right.....

Woah! 

Rest in Peace, Carl.

[Lycan]

Great performance yesterday from the lads. What a signing Salah is turning out to be.

[24/7]

Way to go...'Mo'... 
Somebody posted a pic of 'Chrissy' from 'Boys from the blackstuff'... saying his dad be proud. 
Tickled me.. 


google it if your too young to know.. 

Something like this?

[planet-terror]

Fantastic result.

[Syntexity]

A very good and solid game from us. I feel like we still have another gear or two to go on, like we haven't shown our best yet, especially when it comes to pressing. Feel like we are in a good rhythm right now were we are beating teams without showing everything or exhausting ourselves. Gives great confidence for the upcoming period. Sort of like Klopp and the gang has made the team more ready for a marathon. Or maybe its just what he has been saying all along, when we learn to press smart we dont have to do it all the time. Anyway, looking good. Just, next game, win, continue.

Salah has been really good. That movement for the second, brilliant. Genius pass by Coutinho as well. Most of the team starting to get injury free, hope it stays that way now. Its sort of always us that has 1-2 key players out at any given time, would be nice to get a bit of luck in that area really.

Another great game by Moreno. He has been really good for us this season, really thrilled for him. He deserves it, stuck it out for a season without playing much, worked his socks off and now he is reaping the rewards. He needs to get a new contract soon... no?

[vagabond]

Lovely first goal. And it should scare all the teams coming to park the bus over the foreseeable future too. Salah can curl one in from 20 yards over the heads of your bus and past your frankenstein keeper (credit to the wrap).

[LovelyCushionedHeader]

These comments get very boring when there’s not more posts after a win.

It’s natural there’s  more to discuss after a loss, Who was at fault for the goals, tactics, team selection, substitutions etc etc

There’s much less to discuss after a win, especially a comfortable win with a clean sheet.

My main gripe is that the brigade who will comment about 50 times each in a post match topic after a defeat don’t even bother to post once after a victory. Not even a “well played boys” or “get in”. 

I get why there are more comments after a defeat but the absence of certain posters after a win is very telling.

[24/7]

My main gripe is that the brigade who will comment about 50 times each in a post match topic after a defeat don’t even bother to post once after a victory. Not even a “well played boys” or “get in”. 

I get why there are more comments after a defeat but the absence of certain posters after a win is very telling.

Well said. It's almost like some people relish a loss or a bad performance so they can display their worldly (and in many cases overly-word) 'wisdom' and share it for the masses........

[Medellin]

^^
Same can be said about certain individuals who cant bring themselves to give a player praise when those players have played well.

[Hazell]

Salah has been really good. That movement for the second, brilliant. Genius pass by Coutinho as well.

Yep, deliciously weighted into Salah's path. Pass of the season, if there is such a thing. And you're right, Salah's movement for that goal was so good, one of the strongest parts of his game and why he gets into such good goal scoring positions.

[Medellin]

Yep, deliciously weighted into Salah's path. Pass of the season, if there is such a thing. And you're right, Salah's movement for that goal was so good, one of the strongest parts of his game and why he gets into such good goal scoring positions.

Very reminiscent of a Rush/Dalglish combo with that diagonalish keeping onside run,his 1st was like a Barnsey classic!

[Groundskeeper Willie]

Well said. It's almost like some people relish a loss or a bad performance so they can display their worldly (and in many cases overly-word) 'wisdom' and share it for the masses........

Halftime thread must have been barren.

[Yiannis]

It's not that Salah was again boss nor we won our 3rd consecutive game in the league or the controlling performance throughout the game. It's beating the Tory loving, delusional bastards. Enjoy your disgruntled CB now you daft twats.

[DPB RED]

A really good performance and a great result. Nice to see Salah as the top premiership goal scorer as well. As a Liverpool supporter living in Portsmouth this result will help when I go back to work on Monday as i always get stick from the pompey supporters when we fail to beat Southampton.

[24/7]

Halftime thread must have been barren.

Well, it was reasonably quiet - ShankyGates did her usual attempt at providing some quality assessment yes but otherwise a couple of pages of appreciation for the decent half - then there was a fab pic of Salah which I thought warranted mention - it's on page 2 or 3 I think of this thread.......

[keeby]

Lovin the performance yesterday, honestly after this week with Carl passing (we had some laughs and i found the lad interesting and amusing) and a hard time at work.  Just what the doctor ordered.

This crazy place has bought so many people together, from such a cross section of society, a love of liverpool football club, football in general, some great laughs, some odd views, but some great people, cheers all, make em laugh upstairs Carl x.

[PoetryInMotion]

how do we reintegrate lallana? is it a midfield of lallana, coutinho, and Henderson/Can? I feel like Gini is key.

Horses for courses I suppose.....because we could of course have Lallana on the bench as well.

The sensible thing is not to rush Lallana at this point especially when we have options. We can afford for Lallana to build his fitness and get few minutes here and there and play himself to form. This was so not the case last season. When we lost Mane or Lallana, we were expecting them to immediately come in and start where they left off and that was not too ideal.

I think this is what Klopp meant as well in his interview when he said he was being the 'bad guy' even if the player felt he was ready.

For me, it would make sense to start with a similar side against Sevilla but resting a few players, maybe rest Henderson and play Can, start Sturridge and rest Firmino/Salah and give Lallana a few minutes off the bench, while we return to the same side against Chelsea as that against Southampton. That does quite a few things. First, it does not need us to throw Lallana in straight away in a big game against Chelsea. Second it lets us keep Wijnaldum in the side who has time and again played brilliantly against the big sides in terms of making us tick.

In the long term, I do agree with the tone of your post, but it's good that we have options and rotating will help avoid fatigue at a later stage. I think we're better prepared to handle the tough and tight schedule in December and second half of the season than last time around.

[Caffeine]

Loving this new functional Liverpool. No nonsense, no fuss. Such a great response to the Spurs game...we’re only a point behind the supposed second best team in the country.

[Bend It Like Aurelio]

Loved watching that. I was mentioning to the lad beside me at the bar, it felt like this was the fastest we’ve been playing this year. The one touch passing was just sublime, even before we scored, you just felt, for the first time in a long time, that it was inevitable that we will score eventually.

Irresistible, that was the word I used. You can see that Southampton had trouble matching our speed, especially when we switched play from side to side. They’re not a slow team either, but as the game wore on, they couldn’t even touch us as we moved the ball at speed. The best midfield performance this year, excellent performance all around.

[Keita Success]

Strange start to the game, really. We didn’t dominate the ball like usual, but we seem happier with that.

Firmino will go relatively unnoticed, but for two of the goals, it was he who won the ball back. Fantastic player.

[Alf]

Running out of superlatives for Salah.

[OOS]

Thought that was one of Hendersons strongest performances so far this season. One moment in the game, he was about to pass sidewards but last moment unleashed a 40-50 yard diagonal pass to Mane which set us of on a counter. That's the Henderson we want, not the shithouse who plays safe. Just needs to confidence to pull of these passes because we have the movement and players in front of him. There times when he can release the ball quickly into dangerous areas but hesitates and plays safe, hopefully confidence now will bring another level out of him. We need it if we are to challenge this season.

Salah, I think he's been covered enough. Lads a special talent and match winner, him and Mane are game winners. Can never have enough of them. Thought Wijnaldum is just about keeping his ahead afloat to be honest, he's not a midfielder in the conventional terms. Slow to release the ball, too many touches, can't thread a pass, poor in tight areas. Not bashing, he didn't have a bad game but the limitations are there. Looking forward to Lallana coming back, hopefully the competition for spaces will force him to go up a level.

And another clean sheet, however there are fuck all goals in that Southampton side.

[norecat]

Well played redmen. On the BBC interview it states we have only conceded one goal at home. That's impressive! Our strongest lineup is impressive. I like how Jurgen is being targeted in the signings he makes. Onwards and upwards hopefully.

[disgraced cake]

Mane was fantastic yesterday and Bobby looked great as he came into the came when we took the lead. Good shift from Henderson as well I thought.

Shame Solanke couldn't get half an hour, would have been a perfect opportunity, bringing 3 midfielders on was very strange.

Still just the one goal conceded at home in the league so far, which is nice to see. To be fair though, teams are afraid to come out at Anfield, getting that first goal is always the key for us, once we went 2-0 up we played some nice football in the 2nd half yesterday. Chelsea will be the biggest test at Anfield so far.

[Flaccido Dongingo]

Bertrand wasn’t exactly unknown when at Chelsea 😉

Wasn't really getting much of a look in though.

[thelinnen]

how do we reintegrate lallana? is it a midfield of lallana, coutinho, and Henderson/Can? I feel like Gini is key.

Horses for courses I suppose.....because we could of course have Lallana on the bench as well.

                 Henderson
Lallana                          Coutinho/Wijnaldum

I don't think it's even a debate once he's got full match fitness, Lallana is one of the first names on the team sheet.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

Wasn't really getting much of a look in though.

He was their fullback in the Champions League final.

[Darren G]

Zero shots on target for Southampton.  I realise that they aren't exactly the pinnacle of attacking prowess, but still, bloody good effort from our lads for that.  The team looked really well balanced and there was never really a moment when we didn't seem totally in control, despite a slow opening fifteen minutes or so.  The midfield always looks 'calmer' with Gini in there I feel.  Oh, and Mo Salah...bit good isn't he?  Momentum is starting to build now.  Bring on the Sevilla and the rentboys!

[simplyred84]

Good win. Klopp’s subs will continue to baffle me though. Sturridge or Solanke shoud’ve been given minutes ahead of Milner. It was a ridiculous decision considering Southampton were dead on their feet and had given up. What a missed opportunity to boost our goal difference.

[So… Howard Philips]

Good win. Klopp’s subs will continue to baffle me though. Sturridge or Solanke shoud’ve been given minutes ahead of Milner. It was a ridiculous decision considering Southampton were dead on their feet and had given up. What a missed opportunity to boost our goal difference.

Maybe it's about bringing a measure of game control into the match. After all I don't think any of us would like another Crystanbul - to quote our Blue friends, back when they had a sense of humour.

[simplyred84]

It’s a fair point. However I think giving Sturridge an opportunity to build on the two goals he go a few weeks back or an even more motivated Solanke, after his England debut, would’ve have been far more beneficial

[Flaccido Dongingo]

He was their fullback in the Champions League final.

Yeah, bur that wasn't by choice really

[deFacto please, you bastards]

It’s a fair point. However I think giving Sturridge an opportunity to build on the two goals he go a few weeks back or an even more motivated Solanke, after his England debut, would’ve have been far more beneficial

He may plan on Sturridge starting against Sevilla or giving him minutes then. We have games left and right coming up.

[FlashingBlade]

cracking win!..and another clean sheet..be still my beating heart!

Read some Soton fans comments on the Guardian and they are really down ( ha!) and slagged their preformace, which actually I saw differently. Their game plan to park the bus was busted open with our first two goals so they came out and had a go in the second and for first 15 mins of second half clearly target TAA with all their efforts down our right and they  improved their play in the middle, though after first half that wasnt hard...however we where never in danager and to be honest could and should have scored more. Defence played well especially Loveren ( who I am no fan of) albeit against mediocre quality in their attack.

Great win and two 'routine' wins on the bounce at home...rare thing...lets make it three!!