Premier League Match 28 - Liverpool v Southampton

 

Ivan's Looking Forward To This One

I don’t often watch much football if Saints are not involved, but earlier on this week I made an exception and watched PSG versus Liverpool in the Champions League. Research, I thought, into what we would be facing at the weekend and of course, comparing PSG to Saints is totally valid.  What I saw was PSG having about thirty shots and Liverpool‘s goalkeeper Alisson Becker, saving everything. Truth be told, Liverpool got absolutely battered in this game but they still managed to win which is a bit of a contrast to us this season, where we get absolutely battered everywhere we go (as the song says) and it is completely reflected on the scoreboard at the end of the game.

It was thought going into this season, that Liverpool might struggle to maintain the levels achieved under Jurgen Klopp, but Arne Slot has come in and basically made the team better and they will win the league by a long way.  A settled sent back pairing of van Dijk and Konate has definitely helped and the likes of Joe Gomez and Jarrell Quansah are now bench fillers whereas last year they were playing quite a lot. The midfield is usually three out of Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis McAllister, Ryan Gravenberch and Curtis Jones  and you also have Harvey Elliott, who got the winning goal against PSG, kicking around as well. Up front, there’s a ridiculous selection to be had from Mo Salah, Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Federico Chiesa and shit Andy Carroll himself, Darwin Nunez.  Even if they go with some of their fringe first team players like Elliott, Chiesa and Nunez, you know they are going to be just a little bit too good for us to deal with. 

You could argue that with regards to winning the league, they’ve been helped in that by the likes of Manchester City having a relatively poor season but Liverpool have been relentless and totally deserve to be where they are.  They are a perfectly balanced team with the right players in every position and even though there is a chance that big hitters like Trent Alexander Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah, may not be there next season - none of that is going to help us this afternoon, nor is the fact that they have the second leg against PSG in a few days time.  Even if they rest players today, the thought of the Juric defensive man marking system up against these guys at Anfield is fucking terrifying.

If Ivan has a mind to, Saints should be able to put a better team out on the pitch than they have done in the last few weeks. In addition to Aaron Ramsdale, there is an opportunity for Ivan, should he wish to take it, to pick three actual central defenders, namely THB, Bednarek and ABK, as all three are fit and available. There should be no need for Joe Aribo in defence, nor for James Bree to be anywhere near the pitch.  Ivan could, if he wanted to think straight, have KWP and Welington as the wingbacks on the correct sides, for some natural width and balance. Ivan also could, if he actually thought about it, have a midfield which actually has some steel in it, as long as Flynn Downes and Lesley Ugochukwu are both starting.  Three out of Mateus Fernandes, Tyler Dibling, Kamaldeen Sulemana and Tall Paul could make up the front line if Ivan deems that to be the best option available. I’m not saying for a second that this lineup would be capable of getting a result, but it would have a better chance.

There has been a lot of noise this week about Ivan Juric not being here next season. The man has been linked with the job is Danny Röhl from Sheffield Wednesday.  On the one hand, these links make a lot of sense because Juric has been shite and Röhl has a connection with us from the past and also has a connection with Johannes Spors, our new technical director who will be choosing the next manager you would’ve thought.  It is also well known that we approached Sheffield Wednesday when Russell Martin got sacked so there is obviously an interest there, even though that happened before Spors was appointed.  For me, none of this is exactly shocking news and it is all pretty likely to happen but on the other hand, it was reported in The Sun.  If you’re going down the road of thinking this is made up though, then ask yourself why would anyone bother to make it up. No one outside of Southampton, cares about Southampton so a story like this is hardly going to be written to drive clicks or newspaper purchases.  It does mean that Juric is going to spend every press conference talking about the possibility of him losing his job but that’s part of the territory when you’ve only won one game in nine and your team is likely to be relegated pretty soon, and also when you’ve lost your last three games, by a combined score of 11-1.