Yesterday (Saturday 16th
March), Liverpool faced Southampton at St
Mary’s. They were brutally outplayed in the first half and couldn’t recover in
the second half, eventually losing 3-1.
Southampton dominated the early exchanges. Liverpool’s
defence looked shaky, and the fist goal was inevitable. In the end it came
through Morgan Schneiderlin, who slotted coolly past Brad Jones (in for the
injured Reina). This only spurred the Saints on, and Liverpool conceded another
soon afterwards, a Lambert free-kick going in off Daniel Sturridge, who was one
of the players in a frankly awful Liverpool
wall. Daniel Sturridge redeemed himself slightly on the stroke of half time,
when his shot could only be parried into the path of Coutinho, who grabbed a
goal back for Liverpool. This meant LFC went
in at the break with the score at 2-1, which all things considered was not too
bad. They could have been 3 or 4 goals down.
Liverpool came out slightly stronger in the second half, but
still seemed to lack any real penetration. They had a few half chances, but in
all honesty never really looked like equalising. As it turned out they did not
just fail to level the game, they also conceded again late on, crushing all
hope of a revival. This marked the end of a brilliant streak of three wins on
the trot for Liverpool, but there cannot be
complaints. They underperformed, and in almost every aspect were outplayed by Southampton.
I’m normally optimistic to
the point of desperation when it comes to Liverpool,
but now even I am forced to admit that our chances of a place in the Top 4 are
now realistically almost certainly over. We could still have done it going in
to this game, but to slip up against a smaller club is something you cannot do
when chasing down the likes of Chelsea
and Arsenal. Still, there is still a Europa League spot to aim for, and I for
one hope we can get the old Liverpool back for the tail end of the season, the Liverpool that can terrorize defences and most importantly,
get the wins.
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