Liverpool vs Southampton | 1st December 1500 GMT | Saturday | Premier League |

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Liverpool are back in action on Saturday against Southampton at Anfield.

The two teams have not met since January 2005 when the Reds went down 2-0 at St Mary's.

The Saints' last visit to Anfield was December 28, 2004 when Florent Sinama Pongolle put them to the sword in a 1-0 win.

Team news-
Liverpool-
Lucas will feature.
Borini and Kelly are still months away from making their comebacks.

Southampton -
No idea.

I have a feeling we will win this game comfortably.
YNWA

Nish slight error on the day mate. . . its on Saturday

This game will be very fun to watch. Soton are a very entertaining team, coupling that with the Red Men and Lucas' return this game will be remembered for ages

hoping we dont get disppointed today....av been unwell since yesterday,i could use a win today

Anything else than a win is not an option, imo.

LUCAS IS STARTING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH

AGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRR I LOVE YOU

God we dominated the shite out of that half. Really unlucky not to be leading by 5/6 goals. Everyone is playing exceptionally only Sterling needs to pass more, his selfishness is too much at times.

And hit the post twice, now this is the Liverpool I remember

Suarez got a yellow will miss the West Ham game. We are f*cked. I'm pretty sure we wont win that one.

FT 1-0 Agger MOTM by far. Lucas great to have him back.

I'm fed with Sterling. Was piss poor all game.

didn't get to see first half but anyways 3 points , Lucas return awesome to see , defensively we looked solid but why can't finish those simple chances

Nice to get a win and with a Clean sheet too.

Dont we have the EL game vs Udinese midweek? So Suarez yellow might be blessing in disguise.Now Rodgers will play him from the start against Udinese without any concern.

Desperately need a finisher.Sterling needs a rest.Playing too many games for his age imo.

Great to have Lucas back.We look to have so much calmness and control in midfield when he is playing.

Also Gerrard had a great game.Unsurprisingly looked his usual self when played further upfield today. He definitely shouldnt be played in CM anymore.

Messiah "Aggerswagger" wrote:Suarez got a yellow will miss the West Ham game. We are f*cked. I'm pretty sure we wont win that one.
.

This will be a real test for BR and Liverpool, as I realize today we still are not able to convert even simple chances, 22 shots, 7 on target and 1 goal pathetic really!!!

Agreed BG.

Lucas was amazing, Our defense has settled and looks unbreakable, Agger Skrtel are fecking warriors. So glad to have them in my team.

Carra
Gerrard had a good game. Sterling was frustrating as usual. Time to bench him and start Assaidi.
Enrique was amazing, Suarez was decent but frustrating at times.

Im just glad we got the 3 points.

I'll take the 1-0 given the amount of clubs above us dropping points today. We're only 4 points behind Everton in 6th. It's a tight, tight table so far this season.

didnt get a chance to watch,slept right off after the chelsea game....westham did chelsea bad today,now it's our turn and without a striker.scares me shitless.....yesil or morgan? morgan maybe.......wont be surprised if thats his gateway to the team

Shelvey or Gerrard will probably start in the false 9 role. Perhaps even Suso.

We should have scored more, but that's been the case more often than not in the last couple of seasons. Happy with the three points.

Would anyone else start Sahin or Henderson over Allen now that Lucas is back? Because I would.

Art Morte wrote:
Would anyone else start Sahin or Henderson over Allen now that Lucas is back? Because I would.

I definitely would. I don't fancy Allen as a starter. He's good for right now but if we want to challenge for CL spots in the future, we'll definitely need a better more agile box-to-box CM in that spot. We've got the defensive general in Lucas and the dynamic midfielder in Gerrard/Shelvey, for the third sport we really need someone who can beat his man from time to time. Allen is a good squad player though for a top team nothing more really.

Messiah "Aggerswagger" wrote:

Art Morte wrote:
Would anyone else start Sahin or Henderson over Allen now that Lucas is back? Because I would.

I definitely would. I don't fancy Allen as a starter. He's good for right now but if we want to challenge for CL spots in the future, we'll definitely need a better more agile box-to-box CM in that spot. We've got the defensive general in Lucas and the dynamic midfielder in Gerrard/Shelvey, for the third sport we really need someone who can beat his man from time to time. Allen is a good squad player though for a top team nothing more really.

Messiah I cannot agree with you here sadly.

Allen for me has been our best midfielder this season. Fact is since Lucas decided to be injured again Allen has had to be forced into a CDM role which is simply not one he is trained to do so. It causes him to shirk his distributing and attacking role and focus quite a bit on defensive duties while staying deep, and screening the defence. Its literally the same thing if you did that to Luca Modric. Therefore we should commend the youngster for taking this role and working his ass of within it. Now that Lucas IS back, we can see the Allen we saw become the player of the month with Liverpool. I mean see him with Swansea he made regular attacking runs and displayed ridiculously good dribbling and shot technique. Try to remember the Allen we saw with Lucas earlier as its no coincidence how good Allen was today when partnered with the Brazilians.


OT: It was a scrappy win yet it was no coincidence we dominated an attacking team with Lucas Leiva back on our squad. Finally we had a player who was actually a natural fit to be our holding CDM which gave Gerrard and Allen far more freedom to exploit their own attacking prowess, rather than worry about leaving holes in the defence. Lucas is certainly not going to win us games by magic but he will tactically improve our possession game by reducing the burden on the rest of our players while distributing a sense of balance to the midfield.

Suarez is out for a suspension now which means we need to either play Morgan or Yesil. Yes they are young and raw but I certainly wouldn't play Shelvey he lacks to movement for our false 9 and cannot finish to save his life. His ideas of finishes are shots further outside the box. If anything Gerrard is needed in that role as he can finish and has a tactical sense on where to move. Sadly we know Rodger's won't do that.

Sterling I agree needs to be benched as he isn't the player he was in the beginning of the season either from fatigue or players now knowing what to expect from him. He takes far to many touches on the ball, is too direct, doesn't run into spaces but runs directly onto the opposition and doesn't do much aside from running and dribbling at the moment. Suso needs to be given a chance as he fits the team better.

I really don't think that BR will prefer someone for Allen's current role in the team because the simple reason is at this moment there is no one who can beat him for that position (in future may be like Sahin). Given the fact that he has just started playing in his natural position recently, he surely deserves 1-2 matches more to get to his best.
What I am still not sure is whether Liverpool should still have more patience in the final third. What I mean is as far as I understand our current playing system, the aim of the system is to create more clear cut chances (simple tap in types). But I don't see that happening currently. Everyone tries to shoot at the goal when there are legs and legs to block the shot. But "clear cut chances" is what I think should be the result of the investment of BR's philosophy. Can someone shed more light on this !!!