BBC Sport pundit Mark Lawrenson has delivered his prediction for Liverpool’s trip to Southampton on Friday night.
The Reds travel to St Mary’s Stadium looking to – temporarily, at least – return to the top of the Premier League. Lawrenson believes they will get the job done with a 2-0 win on the South Coast.
“I wonder what kind of reception Liverpool’s former Southampton players – Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana will get at St Mary’s? I don’t think they will get a very warm welcome, let’s put it that way,” he wrote on the BBC Sport website.
“It is a tough game for the Reds for lots of reasons, though. Saints got a thoroughly deserved win over Brighton last weekend. But this is a Liverpool side that, whatever way they play at the moment, just get the job done. What might help the Reds is that I cannot see Southampton sitting back and playing for a draw. I think [Ralph] Hasenhuttl will want to have a bit of a go and that will open things up a bit.
“Playing on Friday night has worked out absolutely perfectly for the Reds, and the Premier League should be doing the same for all of our teams in the competition.”
OPINION
This is certainly going to be a tougher game for Liverpool than it appears on paper. Southampton have improved mightily since Hasenhuttl took over and got a very well deserved win over Brighton last time out. They’ve been playing some decent stuff of late and so it could be difficult for the Reds if they’re not at the top of their game. However, with an ultra-competitive title race to focus their minds there should be no chance of Jurgen Klopp’s team slipping up here. Hasenhuttl likely will be positive at home and that, as Lawrenson says, would play into Liverpool’s hands big time. Lawrenson is spot on about the former Southampton players getting a bad reception. With the exception of Mane, the aforementioned players all left St Mary’s under a bit of a cloud and so it’s unlikely that they will be given a warm welcome on Friday night.
