Liverpool’s crushing of Southampton is a warning to rivals
Liverpool’s 6-1 win over Southampton on Wednesday night was quite remarkable, and if nobody has took notice of new manager Jurgen Klopp’s influence on improving results and performances at Anfield, then they do now.
The Reds have now won 7 out of their last eight matches and are now one of the form teams in the Premier League. Liverpool’s Capital One Cup win over Southampton has taken them to the semi-final where they will play Stoke City over two legs and they are handily placed in the league, only trailing leaders Manchester City by 6 points.
Away wins against Chelsea, Manchester City and now Southampton have all been impressive performances but not without critics who have made excuses for the teams they defeated.
Excuses like, Chelsea have been struggling anyway, and City had so many injuries. Now people will be saying Southampton were poor, but without getting carried away by Liverpool’s performances, they have been really good.
Klopp has his players playing with a higher tempo and it doesn’t matter who he selects to play, they are all contributing to the team.
Players like Dejan Lovren and Joe Allen have come in to the team and played well and Klopp put his trust in Connor Randall against Southampton the other night and the youngster didn’t let him down and Brad Smith came on late and put over a superb cross for Origi’s third goal of the night.
Jordon Ibe has become a different player under Klopp and is now looking more confident and willing to take defenders on and is now a real attacking threat for Liverpool.
Divock Origi was rightly named man of the match on Wednesday night for his three goal heroics and what a transformation we saw from the Belgian international who looked lightweight and ineffective earlier in the season until Klopp left him out of the team to work on improving his game on the training field.
Origi’s movement was superb and he linked up well with Sturridge and Lallana and was stronger at holding the ball up and to score three goals against a team like Southampton can only give the striker more confidence.
Daniel Sturridge showed what he gives to the team when fit and if he can feature in the majority of games this season then he could be the difference of Liverpool having a successful season.
The most important thing about Liverpool at the moment is that the team isn’t reliant on an player. Liverpool have endured a long list of injuries to key players this season but Klopp has dealt with it and used the players he has available to great effect to achieve positive results.
Jordan Henderson, Firmino, Benteke, Sakho, Sturridge and season ending injuries to Gomez and Ings haven’t really mattered to Klopp as he’s transformed Liverpool into the league’s in-form team.
It will be interesting to see what eleven players Klopp selects on Sunday against Newcastle because everyone is fighting for their place.
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