Sorcerer Suarez back scoring again Southampton 0 Liverpool 3

Written by dedlfc

This was the game which was the litmus test on our title and top four credentials, a win away to Southampton lets everyone around us know we are not going anywhere and are fighting for our place, but a loss shows that we are more of a side scraping for fourth place instead without the fight to get more.

In an extremely high paced start both sides looked to impose their wills with pretty one touch triangles early on.

The first major chance falls to us when Sturridge races clear of Lovren down the right, and makes it into the box. He’s within his rights to shoot, but opts to square it for Suarez instead. Suarez would have an empty net to sidefoot into had the ball reached him, keeper Boruc having raced out to meet Sturridge, but the low pass is poked out of play by Saints defender Fonte, sliding in brilliantly for an early corner.

Several minutes later a very hefty shoulder charge challenge by Flanagan on Lalana in our own area which on another day could have resulted in a penalty being given away but luckily for us we got away with it.

We seemed to struggle to handle the roaming role of Lalana who seemed to have a serious impact on the game especially in the first half.

Totally against the run of play we took an unexpected lead, It’s Suarez’s 100th appearance in the league for us and he’s celebrated it by ending his goal drought with his 24th league goal this season and his 62nd league goal for us. A pair of heavy touches by Lallana and Lovren on the edge of the Saints area, with Sturridge causing bother. The ball breaks to the lurking Suarez, who passes the ball first time into the bottom right from 12 yards out for 1-0.

It was the first costly mistake by Lalana of the day as he had been the best player on the pitch until then.

We then looked to double our lead with Suarez just hitting over a free kick after winning the set piece opportunity himself.

For the remainder of the first half we rarely strung any passes together with the Saints totally dominating us with our team desperately hanging onto our lead, with very good chances falling to Lambert, Lalana hitting the post and Rodriguez respectively.

With a sigh of relief we got to halftime versus our bogey team still 1-0 up even though we had only had 30% of the possession. Things had to improve in the second half as the way it was heading it was only a matter of time before we would concede a goal.

Coutinho had been anonymous throughout the first half and needs to help the team get better possession in his role as a central threat from midfield.

With Southampton continuing to control the game in the second half Rodgers makes an inspirational substitution with Sterling (unluckily left out of the team) coming on for the ineffective Coutinho.

And with his first touch, Sterling puts a bit of daylight between the two teams. A ball rolled down the inside-right channel for Suarez, who spins and leaves a flat-footed Lovren behind. He zips into the box and whips a low pass into the centre, where Sterling - who has been on the field for 80 seconds - sidefoots into the bottom right for 2-0.

This was a massive moment in the game and was celebrated by Sterling like a player who knew what a brilliant impact he had made on the game.

Our confidence now resumed we preceded to dominate the majority of the second half with us missing several chances (through Sturridge - rounding  the keeper and hitting wide with his right foot,  Suarez direct from a corner , Henderson hitting over from ten yards and Gerrard, with a daisy cutter from long range respectively) to finally put the game to bed.

The game was finally put to bed in stoppage time when Suarez totally bamboozled the last Saints defender Fonte to be tripped up. Our captain marvel Steven Gerrard slams home his 6th league penalty goal and 8th league goal of the season.

Fantastic result for us and with Arsenal losing away at Stoke pushes us up to 2nd place in the league with a superior 14+ goal difference.

Man of the match - Luis Suarez

The return to the goal scoring charts of El Pistelero was a welcome boost with Sturridge not scoring for the first time in 8 league games, his all round play was again fantastic and he continues to cause havoc against every team he faces

Positives

Despite being under the cosh for the vast majority of the match our defence held firm with Mignolet and co claiming our first clean sheet since beating Everton 4-0 six league games ago.

We are slowly and surely starting to get close to something massive for the whole club, only four points off Chelsea, in second place and with Chelsea still to come to our ground, we just need to continue winning our league games and hoping for the Chelsea slip up.

Critical eye

Glen Johnson continues to look out of sorts and gave the ball away a lot of times when not under immense pressure.

Coutinho needs to perform away from home or he will only be picked for home games as his level of performance was very much under par.

Teams

Southampton: Boruc,  Chambers, Fonte,  Lovren, Shaw, Steven Davis, (Ramirez 46) Cork, (Wanyama 77), Schneiderlin, Rodriguez, Lambert, (Gallagher 76), Lallana.

Subs not used: Clyne, Yoshida, Ward-Prowse, Gazzaniga.

Booked: Wanyama.

Liverpool: Mignolet, Flanagan, Skrtel, Agger, Johnson, Gerrard, Henderson, Allen, Coutinho, (Sterling 57), Sturridge, (Aspas 85), Suarez.

Subs not used: Brad Jones, Toure, Moses, Cissokho, Teixeira.

Goals: Suarez 16, Sterling 58, Gerrard (pen) 90.

Booked: Henderson, Gerrard.

Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire).

Attendance: 31,659.