Match Report

IBO Reporter : channonite

When I saw the starting line-up with both Vestergaard and Hoedt starting I knew it was going to be a long afternoon. When I looked further and saw the only forward was Long, my heart sank. No ambition 'other than to avoid a heavy defeat' I hear you say, but if that was so, why play our most fragile defence? The intended tactics just eluded me. Maybe Hughes was going to try and confuse Klopp? He sure as hell confused me. For Liverpool's part, there were only two ex-Saints in the squad, vanDyke and Mané, who both started.

The rout started after just ten minutes, with an own goal by Hoedt, who frankly just does not get any better with time, although I do admit he was a bit unlucky this time, as Shaqiri's shot seemed to bounce off Long first, connected with Hoedt and went past a wrong footed McCarthy.

This was followed a short while later by a Saints trademark soft goal from an undefended header, with Matip outjumping Vestergaard! Zonal marking strikes again. It is a concept that just seems so alien to the players at the moment and is consistently leading to the side conceding silly goals like this.

Finally, right at the end of the first half in time added on, came the one goal I can't really blame anyone for. Just great play from Liverpool. A well taken Shaqiri free kick bounced back off the crossbar, but Salah followed up and that was 3-0. At half time the was game clearly over as far as we were concerned.

Saints hadn't played too badly for the most part, but just kept making mistakes. A classic sign of a team lacking confidence. Liverpool on the other hand, were playing well within themselves and you always sensed that they could step up at least a couple of gears if they needed to.

For the first ten minutes of the second half it was just more of the same. It was then that Hughes showed the full extent of his lack of ambition, by taking off Romeu and Targett and replacing them with Bednarek and Armstrong. That meant shifting to three central defenders at the back and a clear case of damage limitation.

For some inexplicable reason Long was left on the pitch. Much as I like the guy and he has been good for us over the years, if not exactly prolific, I just don't see the point any more. He seems unable to hit a barn door with a banjo, which hardly qualifies him to be the sole striker. After all, the point of football is to score more goals than the other side and then you win the game. It wasn't until almost the 80th minutes that Austin replaced Long, but the team seemed to have given up long before then.

Anyway, Saints were completely anodyne (bland, useless) for the rest of the game and Liverpool frankly stopped trying. It was embarrassing.

So, what was I really expecting? I predicted 3-0 yesterday, so from that point of view it went much as I was expecting, except I was hoping for a bit more fight and even some enterprise. Both things were missing. The team just meekly surrendered.