Digging Deeper Into Liverpool’s 0-1 Loss to Southampton

We moan about the Reds’ drop in form, and try to figure out why
it’s happening.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Liverpool started out
sluggishly, were punished immediately, looked dead on their feet
for the better part of an hour, spurned some major opportunities,
and failed to mount a comeback, dropping points in another
frustrating outing.

Below, we try to look for interesting perspectives in what has
quickly become a gloomily predictable trend.

Winners

Super Sadio: Not many Reds can walk off the
pitch claiming they had a good performance tonight, but Sadio Mane
is the exception, and was once again the best of the bunch in
Jürgen Klopp’s side.

Despite not being awarded any of the penalties he earned, and
despite not getting the goal he deserved, the Senegalese attacker
put in yet another all-round performance, and as jumbled as the
Liverpool attack was, anything it produced in the positive column
came courtesy of Mané.

Sadio had the most shots (four), dribbles (five), and tackles
(six) of any player on the pitch, added two shot assists to his
tally, and tormented Kyle Walker-Peters all night, with the Southampton defender fortunate not to give away a pair
of spot kicks, courtesy of an abysmal Andre Marriner.

Losers

Target Practice: Getting 16 shots, 12 of which
come from inside the area, is typically not indicative of a
particularly bad night on offense, but when your attackers can only
manage a single effort on target from those shots, alarm bells must
go off.

Southampton did well to block shots and disrupt attackers in
vital moments, but the Reds’ profligacy largely came down to
snatching at chances or being forced into awkward positions by
lackluster final passes. Whether it is tired legs, lack of
confidence, or pure coincidence, the fact of the matter is that the
strike force that made it all look so easy against Crystal Palace
just two weeks ago have now produced a single goal from their last
44 shots and 4.3 expected goals, missing six consecutive clear cut
chances in the process.

If this season is to be anything resembling a success, some
stability in this department must arrive sharpish.

Andre Marriner: We really, really don’t enjoy
talking about referees here, but tonight’s officiating group had an
absolute nightmare, the sort of which needs to come with
repercussions. Danny Ings’ opener came after a wrongfully awarded
free kick, and although Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold
conspired to make that free kick into an opportunity for their
former team-mate, they should never have had to deal with it at
all.

At the other end, Marriner routinely disregarded Southampton
offenses, with Walker-Peters’ sliding foul on Sadio Mané the most
glaring, but the fullback was also allowed to drape himself over
his opponent at the edge of the area without any consequence, and
Jack Stephens blocked a goal-bound shot with his hand well extended
from his body, in a manner that has been penalised a dozen times
this season. None of these events merited any substantial VAR
review.

The match ended with Southampton penalised five times to
Liverpool’s 12, despite the Reds having 67% of possession, a strong
indicator that the match was not officiated evenly.

Ox: It’s been close to three years since Alex
Oxlade-Chamberlain was forced off the pitch against Roma with a
serious knee injury. It has been at least a year since he put on a
performance even resembling the dynamic player he looked like at
that time.

Yes, Ox is working his way back from injury, which could
theoretically go a long way to explaining why his touch is so off,
his decision making is so poor, and his energy seems so low, but
that has been a constant process for going on 75% of his career at
Anfield, and there is a chance fans will have to reckon with the
idea that the player whose work we enjoyed so much back in those
nascent days of 2017/18 simply isn’t in there anymore.

What Happens Next

It’s Time for Yutes on Friday, as the Reds travel to Aston Villa in an absolutely meaningless FA
Cup match, and hopefully Jürgen Klopp will make sure his senior
players are allowed ample recuperation in the coming two weeks, as
Liverpool will host second placed Manchester
United on Sunday 13 days from now.

This is a rare opportunity in a preposterously busy season to
get legitimate recovery done, and the manager needs to grasp the
chances with both hands.