990 Minutes, just over 14 hours, or, if you like, 11 match days remaining in a wonderful Barclays Premier League season. After disappointing results all round for the English clubs in the UEFA Champions League in midweek, most will be returning to domestic duties to continue their battles for the title and top 4. However, Manchester City play Sunderland in a Capital One Cup final showdown on Sunday, which means that Liverpool can, realistically, go above the sky blues and into third. It also remains a possibility for the Reds to move into the runners up spot should they beat Southampton and Arsenal lose to Stoke City. "Take every game as it comes" are the repeated words of Brendan Rodgers as we get ever closer to the climax of the campaign, but now six points clear of Spurs, with the North Londoners yet to go to Anfield, the place among Europe's elite is almost confirmed.
It all relies on victories at the moment for Liverpool, and they had to rely on the goalscoring abilities of Daniel Sturridge and Jordan Henderson to beat Swansea on Sunday. We now look to Saint Mary's Stadium on the South coast, and to a place that has not been a happy hunting ground for the Merseysiders. Before being dismantled by the Saints last season in a 3-1 defeat, Liverpool also fell short of victory when they let in two goals in a bad afternoon back in January 2005. Its not even as if the away side have a home result to fall back on, meaning that Southampton could do the double. This is after an injury-struck Reds side were beaten 1-0 back in September after a good spell of results at the start of the season. We can however believe that we have a chance as we are perhaps not so injury-struck this time round, as well has having bags more full of confidence in ability and goalscoring. Liverpool still remain unbeaten in 2014 in the league, with the last loss coming against Chelsea at the end of last year. Now, I have consistently remained critical of our defence's performance on my blog, but I don't want these feelings towards any of our players, and nor does Brendan Rodgers. He kept mentioning that he instead feels that the team has collective responsibility of making sure goals don't find the back of the opposition's net, and not just the individuals of Reds' back line. It is definitely understandable that the boss has said this mainly because he is big on his team being a unit rather than a group of individuals. When Brendan is delivering his responses to questions from the media, I have to say that I have never disagreed with him once. Something that is true and important that he said in Thursday's press conference was that, "At this stage of the season, its all about winning". I think that even if we let in another three goals away from home on Saturday evening, as long as we score four, we win the game. A lot of the emphasis has been put on the way Liverpool have played and the way they've won games so far this season, but I now I think we all have to focus on simply winning games.
It is also clear that there is a lot more respect for the Saints looking towards this fixture, having complemented Mauricio Pochettino by commenting on how he has "evolved a very good team". The Northern Irishman also had plenty of praise for one of the goalscorers against Liverpool last season in Jay Rodriguez.
“Southampton have some great young players. Jay Rodriguez has got even better since leaving Burnley. It’s great to see.“It still pretty much remains the same as far as injuries go, with Lucas Leiva and Mamadou Sakho still recovering on the training field, while it seems Jose Enrique's time in America with a specialist has been successful.
Can Liverpool break what has been a bit of a hoodoo against our opponents this weekend with a victory that could spring them into the title challenge. Find out the answer to that question with their match that is a 5.30pm kick off on Saturday. The game is also live on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 1 HD.
No comments:
Post a Comment