I have to say, having watched our first half performance we were very disorganised and lacked energy in the middle of the park. We were far too open too.
You have to give Southampton credit though, they pressed and pressed, our skillful ball players didnt have time on the ball, they blocked options for the pass.
Where we lost this though is two-fold:
If we're going to play 4-2-4/4-4-2, the wingers, in this game neeeded to be more compact, needed to help gerrard and allen more to be an option for a pass. Also, Suarez was marked very well, and sturridge was in limbo, he could have been the one coming deep to join up play. he's capable. This is where we needed that extra man in midfield, our wingers and strikers didnt come deep enough and compress play ourselves. We were too slow and sloppy in possession.
Moving Coutinho into the middle helped somewhat, but we then let clyne in down the left. I think Pochettino did a good job on us and Lallana and Lambert had very good games.
Everytime I've watched Lallana, I though he's shown some glimpses of genius. I really like him, I wouldnt mind us buying someone like him, he has good close control, good movement and is relatively strong.
Defensively, you can see Skrtel playing weirdly, he was going for balls he shouldnt have gone for, it was like he was trying to impress and was lacking confidence. He is seen as a weak link, but I dont know, he played very well at the start of the season and then has faultered badly.
Same goes with Johnson, he's on the wane now at this stage of the season, just like Enrique did last season (after a brilliant start to the season). You cant help but think, are they doing something wrong in training? Is the lack of midweek games costing some of our players playing time?
Ultimately, i do think Brendan got this one wrong. If allen was going to play, I think henderson should have supplemented him maybe instead of Sturridge or Downing who had quite annoymous games, even thogh Sturridge was wrongly ruled off side, he looked a little off key, his touch wasnt good and he didnt look his sharpest.
We deserved to lose the match, we weren't sharp enough, we werent tactically good enough for this game, they wanted it more and we lacked some leadership in defense or goal.
I dont agree with others who are gunning for Rodgers head and think "he doesnt learn!" or "he cant see whats wrong" or "he loves allen". There is evidence throughout the season where he has tried different players and systems.
A bad day for the team and the manager, but we support our club and hope to put this right in the next game at villa park.