Liverpool were made to work for their first three points of the season, but a win is a win and when all the points are tallied up in May, this one will be just as good as any other.
Despite losing a number of players — and a manager — over the summer, Southampton put up a serious fight and will feel a bit aggrieved to be leaving Merseyside with nothing. “We had to grind out a result and today was a brilliant win for us,” said Reds boss Brendan Rodgers in his post-match interview. “It was a tough game, the first game back into the new season. I’m really happy with that determination and character to win a football match. As the season rolls on, we’ll get better and more fluent. It was very hard-fought.”
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With three ex-Saint’s swelling Liverpool’s ranks alone, you’d never know that there has been such upheaval on the South Coast during the transfer window as the visitors played largely on the front foot after the uncertainty of the opening exchanges. Raheem Sterling latched onto a marvellous defence splitting through ball from Jordan Henderson to put the hosts ahead, but Nathaniel Clyne levelled the proceedings just after the break when he smashed home Dusan Tadic’s clever back-heel flick.
“They are a good side, they have got some very good players and an experienced manager that has come in and got them organised” continued the Northern Irishman. “It was always going to be a difficult game.” In retrospect, it wasn’t all that surprising. Despite pushing eventual champions Manchester City to the last day in the race for the title, Liverpool endured something of a slow start to the season — even if they won their opening three fixtures. Daniel Sturridge was on hand to provide the winner in each as they downed Stoke City, Aston Villa and Manchester United all by 1-0 score lines and he’d do the same today.
After bringing on Rickie Lambert — who received a warm reception from the Southampton fans — the Reds took an uncharacteristically more direct approach and in the end it paid dividends when, after failing to clear a cross, Sterling’s headed pass was eased into the net by Sturridge. This may have set up a frantic finale where Morgan Schneiderlin’s rasping drive was tipped onto the bar by Simon Mignolet and Shane Long headed the inviting rebound wide, but at the end of the day, it was full points in the bag.
“To get the three points was vital. The supporters were brilliant for us today, as they have been in my time here. We showed guts and determination. Thankfully, we could change the game” he said. “We got to 1-1 and I could look to the bench and change the way we worked. We flipped to a diamond and put Rickie on and I think he unsettled them a bit. They know his qualities; we started to cross the ball into the box and that led to our second goal. Raheem won a great header and Daniel put a lovely touch on the ball to get the winner. I thought it was a great win.”
–Steven
