Protests by Manchester United supporters allowed Liverpool a rare rest heading into this meeting between Jürgen Klopp and the Alpine Klopp, Ralph Hasenhüttl.
Klopp reverted back to the Liverpool’s usual 4-3-3 after switching to a 4-4-2 against Newcastle. Nathaniel Phillips and Rhys Williams came into the defence as Roberto Firmino dropped to the bench and Ozan Kabak missed out through injury – Fabinho moving back into midfield.
Hasenhüttl made two changes to the team that drew with Leicester City. Takumi Minamino missed out against his parent club, Theo Walcott coming in on the right wing, while Alex McCarthy was replaced by Fraser Forster in goal. They set up in their usual 4-4-2 formation.
Southampton built up in a 3-4-3 shape though. While Kyle Walker-Peters would push forward down the wing, Jack Stephens would remain back in line with the centre-backs forming a back three. Nathan Redmond was wide left in a position about the same as Walker-Peters on the opposite flank, whereas Walcott would push forward into attack next to Ché Adams and Nathan Tella. This meant that when Liverpool’s full-backs moved out to close down Redmond or Walker-Peters, the other three members of the back four where left three-versus-three against Southampton’s forwards.
This back three also caused issues for Liverpool’s press. To help bolster the midfield this season, the central player in Liverpool’s front three has started to stay back to cut off the pass into the midfielders – in this match Diogo Jota and Thiago Alcântara would often stick to James Ward-Prowse and Stuart Armstrong – however this means that the wingers have to narrow further to pressure the central areas, leaving the flanks more open than before. With the makeshift back three, this was even more evident against Southampton, where Mohamed Salah was having troubles pressuring Jannik Vestergaard without leaving an easy pass wide to Stephens.
Southampton rarely took advantage of these spaces in the deeper wide areas though. They could have played around Liverpool’s press and got someone pushing forward on the ball out wide, forcing Liverpool’s full-backs into decisions of whether or not they push forward to cover the press and risk leaving the rest of the defence without cover or stay back and allow the man on the ball to advance. Instead, Southampton would look to hit the attacking wide areas directly, trying to bait the Liverpool full-backs out immediately to get their attackers running three-on-three, but turning it into a matter of winning duels out wide rather than really testing Liverpool’s full-backs. If Trent Alexander-Arnold or Andy Robertson could win a header or get close enough so that the widemen couldn’t easily control the ball when the centre-backs hit it out to Redmond and Walker-Peters then a lot of the threat was gone.
Liverpool also used a back three when playing out, either having one of the full-backs stay back next to the centre-backs or one of the midfielders drop in alongside or between them.
Like Southampton, they also generally weren’t looking to patiently play up through the thirds, mainly hitting long balls in behind Southampton’s defensive line for their forwards to run onto. They couldn’t quite get their range right and when they did Southampton’s defenders were able to cover – building up in a back three ensuring they weren’t left outnumbered by Liverpool’s attackers – but they were looking dangerous. With space in behind Southampton, all they needed was one good pass or one little mistake to get one-on-one with Forster.
Half an hour in, Liverpool took the lead. It didn’t come from any real pattern of play other than Liverpool winning a lot of the second balls whenever Southampton cleared an attack. Southampton had got back to defend and cleared a first attack away, but Liverpool claimed the clearance and fed the ball to Salah on the corner of the area, who picked out a cross for Sadio Mané at the back post to finish. Walker-Peters failed to get goalside of Mané and Salah’s superb cross let Liverpool take advantage of it.
The goal seemed to really invigorate Liverpool, mixing high-pace bursts of energy with periods of possession play to force Southampton into chasing them.
Southampton never really seemed to know how to respond, continuing with the same strategy but trying to get the ball to Redmond more frequently. Alisson Becker was called into action several times, but these were usually due to Liverpool mistakes or their centre-backs’ lack of pace rather than anything Southampton were doing.
Just before the game entered injury time, Thiago secured Liverpool’s victory with his first Liverpool goal after Liverpool’s pressure won them back the ball in Southampton’s half. This capped off what was arguably a man of the match performance from the Brazilian, with Alisson and Alexander-Arnold also particularly deserving of plaudits.
It wasn’t Liverpool’s best performance, but it was three points, and they looked secure getting them.
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