Liverpool finally began to pull away from their title rivals, only for draws against West Brom and Newcastle to drag them back down.
None of the midfield that started the game with Newcastle continued. After Nathaniel Phillips struggled, Jordan Henderson was moved back to centre-back, ensuring that with Fabinho Liverpool were playing two midfielders at the heart of the defence – three if you count Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back. Fit enough to start, Thiago Alcântara took his spot at the base of the midfield, with Georginio Wijnaldum and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain coming in for James Milner and Curtis Jones ahead of him. Jurgen Klopp continued with his usual 4-3-3 formation.
Ralph Hasenhüttl, the Alpine Klopp, set up Southampton in their usual 4-2-2-2 shape. A positive Covid-19 test, a concussion and a calf injury ruled out Alex McCarthy, Ché Adams and Oriol Romeu respectively, meaning Fraser Forster, Stuart Armstrong and Ibrahima Diallo all started after missing out on the draw against West Ham, with Theo Walcott pushed forward into a striking role.
Southampton scored with the first attack of the game. James Ward-Prowse dinked a free-kick in behind, which Alexander-Arnold was not only in a position to cut out but got a touch on. It only glanced off his chest though, barely altering the course of the ball, bouncing through to former Red Danny Ings to loop towards the far post, over Alisson Becker. It was the worst possible start for a Liverpool team already struggling to get results recently.
They didn’t wait around in their hunt for an equaliser, playing at a higher pace than usual. They would look to counter quickly upon retrieving the ball, while the forwards exchanged one touch passes as they sought to break through. The compactness of Southampton’s defence and the determlination their midfielders show to get back and support them meant they struggled to find the space to actually gets shots away though.
This change was most evident in the behaviour of Wijnaldum. Typically his game is about maintaining control of the midfield, keeping things ticking over with simple horizontal and backwards passes rather than risking a forward one. Here, he was willing to pick out passes forward, use his incredible ball control to dribble forward or just making runs to support the attack.
The makeup of Liverpool’s midfield meant at times they resembled a 4-2-3-1: Wijnaldum would mainly drop in alongside Thiago, while Oxlade-Chamberlain pushed forward, often making runs out to the right flank.
Southampton are a completely different beast to the likes of West Brom or Newcastle. They would seek to press Liverpool’s backline, often managing to corner them if they could trap them against the touchline.
Southampton’s press does have problems dealing with a back three though, so Liverpool would frequently form one to play around the Southampton strike partnership. Either Alexander-Arnold would hold back when Andy Robertson pushed forward down the left, allowing Fabinho to push out towards the left, or Thiago would drop in between the centre-backs. Either way, Liverpool’s backline would stretch too far across the pitch for Southampton’s forwards to be able to cover them all, enabling them to play forward.
Southampton also made use of this trick themselves. Ryan Bertrand would stay back, allowing Kyle Walker-Peters the freedom to push forward into attack on the right – forcing Robertson out or risk leaving the right-back free – while Ward-Prowse and Diallo positioned themselves ahead of them. Needing the ball, Liverpool’s front three would press Southampton’s backline while Wijnaldum and Oxlade-Chamberlain would push up to get tight to the midfielders. This left Liverpool five-against-five at the back, so Southampton would hit it long, often getting two players positioned around Thiago to outnumber him, recover the ball and run at Liverpool’s defence.
If Liverpool’s midfield failed to step up, then Southampton’s midfielders could turn and play forward.
The comfort of Southampton’s players under pressure meant they were often able to avoid the Liverpool counter-press, springing forward on the counter.
While Southampton were using Walker-Peters to try and draw out Robertson, Liverpool were doing the inverse too. Robertson would push forward down the left and Liverpool would switch play towards him, dragging Walker-Peters out and leaving Southampton three-against-three at the back.
In the second half, Southampton sat back to protect their lead in a 4-4-2 shape. This allowed them to conserve their energy and limit the amount of space Liverpool had in dangerous positions.
As a result, Liverpool once again struggled to break down a packed defence. Klopp turned to Xherdan Shaqiri to replace Oxlade-Chamberlain, gradually shifting into more of a proper 4-2-3-1 as Mohamed Salah joined Roberto Firmino in the middle, while Milner came on at right-back to whip in crosses, with Alexander-Arnold never seeming to have recovered from his early mistake. Liverpool couldn’t make a breakthrough though.
Unlike the lost points against West Brom and Newcastle, this result was less about a poor Liverpool performance and more about an excellent Southampton one, but dropped points are dropped points. The loss allows their title rivals to potentially overtake them at the top of the Premier League.
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