Rodgers has praised Liverpool’s display against Southampton
In the days prior to the visit to Southampton, many Liverpool fans expressed their concerns about having to play so many high profile, and important, games in such a short space of time. A particular concern was Brendan Rodgers’ unwillingness to rotate his squad too much, with the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Martkin Skrtel and Jordan Henderson having all played pretty much every game this season with few breaks.
So, it was hardly a surprise that the overreaction to seeing the likes of Alberto Moreno, Mamadou Sakho and Daniel Sturridge out of the team, with Rodgers reverting to playing Sterling up front as a lone striker/false 9. But the team selection was comfortably vindicated by the final whistle, as the Reds sauntered to a 2-nil victory.
Speaking to the clubs’ official website, Rodgers said: “It was an outstanding win for us, very controlled. Of course, you have got to defend at times, in particular away from home against a very good side.
“But it was a wonderful win for us and I thought as the game wore on, if we had picked our passes a bit better we might have got in a bit more.
“But we got two wonderful goals, different types of goals, and were defensively very, very strong so it was an excellent win.
“It’s just going to be small steps for us. The first period of this season was nothing like what we’ve been in my time at the club. We had to find a solution to that.
“We have restructured the team and organised the team in a different way, to get that solidity back and get the balance back both offensively and defensively.
“And the players’ response has been absolutely magnificent; we have been playing two or three times a week now for the last four months.
“Today was a huge win. To come here and win at any time, it is always a good victory if you can get a win here. But to come here on the back of a tough European game in the week, not concede and score two goals really shows the level that the players are working at.
“This is arguably as good, if not better, than the result we had here last year, when we played very well.”
With Southampton beaten, Liverpool have now taken maximum points from two of the three tough league games that were due in quick succession, with wins against Tottenham and now the Saints. The third of those three matches comes against Manchester City next Sunday – a games that could truly announce Liverpool’s return to the top four.
On that note, Rodgers continued: “We have got Manchester City and Manchester United to play at home, and Arsenal away. It was a big step for us today to go three points behind, considering the start we had to the season.
“It really shows the consistency of the players. Hopefully, we’ll use the experiences of last year, where we had a lot of young players gaining experience of the run-in – they coped with that very well and just missed out last year.
“Hopefully now we can keep the mentality and focus, and keep the performance level.”
Before champions Manchester City arrive at Anfield next Sunday morning, Liverpool have the long trip to Istanbul to hopefully see through the second leg of their Europa League tie against Besiktas and, another ‘smash and grab’ against the Turkish league leaders on Thursday certainly wouldn’t go amiss.
With the Reds now looking strong on three fronts, with two of those promising a place in the Champions League, should Brendan focus on one or two of the competitions the club are still in, or attempt to find a balance that allows the team to make a good run at all three? Let us know your thoughts below.
