Despite being in an excellent run of form, Liverpool are still playing catch-up in the race for Champions League football — now, at the risk of sounding like one of the dozen broken records out there, this makes the match against Southampton on Sunday crucial to our chances of finishing in the top four.
While we may be able to sneak in to Europe’s most prestigious club competition through the back-door if we win the Europa League, that remains an option that we don’t want to rely upon. Securing a trophy and another season under the bright lights was always the aim, but you’d do well to find a Kopite that doesn’t want to see us gate-crash our way up the table, leaving a trail of battered bodies and busted nets in our wake.
That is, of course, if we can keep this run going; the Saints haven’t exactly been slouching as of late. Not that they’ve been slouching at all this season; holding steady in fourth place, Ronald Koeman’s side have been the surprise package of the campaign and they won’t be interested in conceding any ground to anyone this weekend — especially the team that cherry-picked three of their best performers from last season over the summer.
The ironic thing is that there’s a very good possibility that none of those players will even line up against their former side on Sunday. With Raheem Sterling ready to rejoin the starting eleven, Adam Lallana is almost surely to miss out in place of the youngster. Barring some sort of strange miracle, Dejan Lovren and Rickie Lambert won’t have done enough this week to force themselves into boss Brendan Rodgers plans, though the Croatian defender could continue his habit of being introduced in the second half if the manager feels the need to push Emre Can into the midfield — that’s where the battle usually is and that won’t change on Sunday.
In his pre-match press conference, Koeman said that Morgan Schneiderlin could be fit enough to re-join the squad for Sunday, but it’s unlikely that he’ll be thrown right into the fray following his injury lay-off. The Saint’s boss will be able to rely on Victor Wanyama to do what he does though and that’s trouble for the visitors with the Kenyan one of the stand-out performers of the year. On the other hand, after a strong start to the campaign, the Dutchman will be keeping an eye on Graziano Pelle with the striker going through a bit of a dry spell.
Liverpool, despite their impressive run, haven’t exactly been prolific in front of net either and if Southampton can bag an early goal, the Reds may struggle to respond. Daniel Sturridge, who is almost nailed on to start, has been showing a bit of rust in his touch and link-up play, but the 25-year old is always a threat to be wary of. He’s been talking recently of forming a strike partnership with Mario Balotelli, and given the Italian’s reinvigorated interest in putting in a shift, we could see the two of them running at the Saint’s back-line at some point.
The reverse fixture at Anfield was a bit of thriller and we’ll be expecting more of the same at St. Mary’s, but the visitors could start to feel the strain by the end having run out 1-0 winners in a hard fought meeting with Besiktas in Europe on Thursday night. Rest could certainly play a part with Southampton having the week off, but tired legs can be fixed by determined minds — it doesn’t always work, but if Liverpool are going to keep rolling on, they’re going to have to find a way to shake it off.
–Steven
