Liverpool vs Southampton match reaction

Well… That was not what I was expecting.

Can we cross?

I remember watching games a few years ago, and in every game, I would be amazed at how well Trent and Robertson could curl these crosses into the box. Now, we continue to cut inside and struggle to find a shot. When we have Diaz up front, I can understand cutting inside because of his height, but when we have Nunez up front, a natural striker, we can play the high cross like we used to with Trent or Robertson. I saw countless times during that game where we could have crossed to Nunez or played him through. If you rewatch that game, around the 39th minute, we were on the break, and Jones passed to Diaz where we should have passed through the middle to Nunez. Diaz went on to sky the ball into the stand, and honestly, with how well Nunez shoots, I’m sure he would have missed as well. However, we need to start playing up the middle more often. We are becoming too predictable. Our first goal came from a low cross from Diaz on a move where he didn’t cut back, and Nunez scored like a natural striker should.

Overall, we played well. It was a rough first half, but I think it was due to some player fatigue and a really bad goal from a really disturbing decision from Van Dijk. That ball should have been kicked out of play. He does this regularly, but during that game, he was just sloppy. It wasn’t until we put on Elliot, Mac Allister, and Robertson that we started to play with some energy.

Before getting into my player ratings for the game, I do want to talk about the Nunez yellow card. That challenge was embarrassing. Completely unnecessary It could have been a red if we were facing a rival like Everton or Man United. I wanted to see Nunez be our number 9, I wish he would have come in and succeeded, but I don’t like seeing him in a Liverpool jersey when he lets his emotions get the better of him.

Player Ratings:

Alisson: 6.5 - I took 1 point away for that goal; he should have communicated better. His long balls are brilliant. I would love to see more down the middle toward Nunez, though.

Trent: 8 - I saw this as one of his better matches. He’s on a good run of form. I love seeing him confident enough to take these shots and these overlapping runs.

Konate: 7.5 - Just solid. It’s what we expect from him. Let’s hope we get him on a long contract soon.

Van Dijk: 6.5 - Again, I took a point away for that goal. I do blame him more than Alisson for that goal, but overall, Van Dijk played ok. I love seeing him send long balls as well.

Tsimikas: 7 - I think he played well overall. He had his bad moments on the ball, but he attacked well and defended okay.

Gravenberch: 7 - He looked tired. It was a sloppy first half, but he recovered well in the second half. He continued to join the attack and found himself in a lot of promising positions.

Jones: 7.5 - He started with good energy. He does hold onto the ball for too long. I remember seeing him and Diaz run on the left for most of our attacks.

Szoboszlai: 6 - He looked tired. I wish Slot had started Elliot over Szoboszlai. He had a 78% passing accuracy, won 40% of his ground duals, and didn’t win an aerial duel. He needed a break, and I am glad he only played for 45 minutes.

Salah: 7.5 - I know his score is lower than most people expect, but if you take away his 2 penalty goals (which were beautiful), you’ll see that he didn’t play well. Salah only had a passing accuracy of 73%, which hurt us on attack. This is now 2 games in a row where we saw our attacks break down because of a bad through ball.

Diaz: 8.5 - He had good energy. As I mentioned earlier, we had a fair amount of attacks from his side of the pitch. He assisted the first goal and applied the pressure that led to the handball for the second penalty. I sometimes feel that he overcomplicates things.

Nunez: 8 - I took half a point off for the yellow card. I think he played well in this game. Very good defending, and I loved seeing some of his runs. I wished he would have come into Liverpool and succeeded, but his attitude and shooting skills are not up to par. I loved his goal, I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve had a natural striker.

Subs

Robertson: 7 - Again, he brought good energy, and for me, I want him to stay at Liverpool.

Mac Allister: 8.5 - I think it was him and Elliot who pushed us to win this game. With him on the pitch, I feel like we are at our strongest. For me, it’s him and Diaz for Man of the Match.

Elliott: 8 - Another great performance. He should have started. I love seeing our midfielder making the runs and shooting from outside of the box.

Jota: 6 - Not much to say about Jota. He only played for 22 minutes and didn’t have a shot.

Endo: 7 - It looked like our normal Endo. I wish he could start playing more minutes, but I love having a guy to turn to when we need to hold the lead. I just found out that he is 32, which is crazy. I thought he was 22.

Quansah: N/A - only played a few minutes. I wish we could play him for longer than a couple of minutes.

Ref and manager

Lewis Smith: 8.5 - I thought this was one of the best refereed matches this season. I hope we get him as a referee more often, and I hope that is the new standard.

Arne Slot: 6.5 - I thought the team selection was wrong. Szoboszlai and Gravenberch shouldn’t have started, and Gravenberch shouldn’t have played for 81 minutes. He does deserve extra points for the halftime adjustments and team talk.