In comments reported by Sky Sports, Southampton defender Ryan Bertrand has vowed to find gaps in the Reds’ armour as his side look to upset the potential champions on Friday night.
Ahead of the clash on the south coast, the Englishman singled out Mo Salah as he admitted, “It’s always good to play against the best players. That is why you play and it’s the ultimate aim.”
“I won’t change my preparations. I’m just looking forward to seeing his strengths and seeing his weaknesses and trying to nullify some and exploiting the others.”
These could be some fairly transparent mind games from the left-back but Salah won’t care. The Egyptian is still having a fine season and will be fired up for this one after inspiring that last-gasp calamity at Anfield on Sunday.
Klopp on Salah: “People talk about how many games he hasn’t scored in but he doesn’t seem bothered. It’s about work rate, doing it again and again, and one day the ball will bounce in your direction. We have 79pts – you can’t have that if you have major problems in a season.”
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceEcho) April 3, 2019
Our game on Friday night is yet another opportunity to amass points and keep up the chase with City; for Southampton, its the chance to claim a massive, if improbable, scalp and climb out of the drop zone.
“It’s important for both teams,” Bertrand added. “They are fighting for the Premier League with a chance to create history for their first title in so long.
“Equally we need the points and are fighting for different reasons. It should be a nice competitive game and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Bertrand’s confidence is somewhat understandable – Saints have won back-to-back matches coming into this one but it hasn’t been enough to lift them out of the relegation battle. There are only five points between them and Cardiff who play Manchester City on Wednesday night.
With Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mané in our ranks some invectives from the Southampton crowd will be expected. Saints will be hugely up for it under the floodlights at St Mary’s but we won’t need any further encouragement.
City will likely triumph over Neil Warnock’s Cardiff and reclaim top spot from us after our manic win against Tottenham Hotspur.
It makes the away win all the more necessary for us as we’ll probably be making up ground, leaving us a point behind the Citizens if we both win our games.
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