When I wrote my brief analysis yesterday on Man U's loss to Swansea at Old Trafford... that'll never get old... I mentioned that they dominated possession, had outstanding passing percentages, took three times as many shots, and won two-thirds of their aerial duels, which is somewhat similar to Liverpool's performance today save shots. The Reds were less dominate on possession though at only 56% compared to Mangoloid U's 60%. Liverpool completed 86% of their passes, which goes without saying is excellent, and won 62% of aerial battles. The big difference was shots.
Both Southampton and LFC took 12 shots, but the south coast side had 6 on target while Liverpool had one less. If we allow 6 shots on target every match, we will be very fortunate to make the top 7, never mind top four or competing for the league. Mignolet put in an outstanding performance today making some terrific saves. With Reina gone, I just hope there aren't any repercussions from him slamming into the post on that save of Ward-Prowse's forever lobbing attempt on goal. Brad Jones is capable, but I doubt he would have put in an equal performance.
Let's get the negative out of the way first so we can look into the magic mirror, hold hands, and color unicorns. Johnson was a waste of space and honestly we would have done better with ten men. He turned over the ball nearly half the times he touched it, his two shots had a better chance of hitting the hot dog man than finding the back of the net, and he passed the ball backward like he was challenging time travel. Maybe he was trying to go back to three years ago when he wasn't as dreadful. Moreno should be ready to go next match, but if not, where's Enrique?
Speaking of fecal matter, Lucas and Allen were particularly foul, especially as the match wore on. It was as if Lucas had just put on Allen's kit and continued his downward spiral. The Brazilian hasn't played that poorly in a couple of seasons, maybe it was just part of his 'sell me to Napoli so I can be with me Uncle Benitez' plan. I guess Rodgers felt Can wasn't ready to make his EPL debut, I don't see how he could do any worse than those two though. Turnovers, indecisiveness on the ball, passing to Southampton players on crucial possessions... those aren't positive attributes for players who are supposed to be 'holding midfielders'.
Also, what happened to our defence? What happened to our field general and drill sergeant, Lovren? It's not as if he hasn't played in the Premier League before. Maybe he just felt sentimental towards his old club, hopefully that was the case, hopefully it's not a disease that defenders get now when they put on the LFC kit, and hopefully it has nothing to do with Rodgers' tactics. If it's the latter, we are screwed, let'em rage, BR. The bottom line is, our defence has to communicate better, at times they looked like a bunch of mud-wrestling Helen Kellers out there.
Finally, Coutinho had a poor match. Every time he gained possession, he was corralled by the Saints defence and for the most part, failed to dribble or pass his way out of it. He'd better get used to it though, he's got a target as big as Hiroshima on his back and if pressuring him takes him out of the equation, it's going to be awfully easy for opposing defences to make him a non-factor. If there's one thing that he needs to understand is that it's okay for him to pass backward once in a while, especially when he has two or three defenders around him. His passing today clearly suffered from trying to force things, his 76% completion rate was worst among Liverpool outfield players.
Our best players were Sterling and Gerrard with Henderson coming in third, though the latter's passing requires improvement. Sterling should probably get man of the match just on being responsible for both goals, but Gerrard, as always, played his heart out with reckless abandon. Our captain was all over the place defensively, and thankfully so since Lovren and Skrtel had a few momentary lapses of concentration, but the most impressive part of Gerrard's performance was his passing. He completed 89% overall and was 10 of 13 on long passes, even though most were wasted. Sturridge looked a little bit shaky there in the beginning and never really found his form, which is scary, but he'll come around.
Speaking of Sturridge, he once again came through with the match-winning goal. The first match of the season and he already has a 'crucial' goal, something he did seven times last season. And since we are on the subject, I really wish pundits and commentators would get a clue, Suarez was not as valuable as he seemed. Yes, he scored goals, but most were meaningless, he scored exactly ZERO goals that broke a scoring draw, won, or drew a match for Liverpool last season. Shut your ignorant pie holes, please.
Southampton deserves some credit as they were quite impressive. They looked far from a relegation contending side, but will be a mid-table club, possibly finishing as high as seventh. Tadić and Ward-Prowse were brilliant and I wrote prior to the match, if Clyne gets involved on attack, we could be in trouble. Well, guess what? He did and he equalized a vivid passing display by the Saints. In the end, Liverpool were lucky to get all three points, pulling this one off by the skin of their teeth. We've got to improve defensively though because a master passer like Fabregas, Silva, or Ozil will tear us to pieces if we don't.
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