Liverpool vs Southampton Player Ratings by Stephen Ward and Jason Kennedy

Phew.  It was never going to be easy facing Noah Syndrgaard, Fred Hoiberg, and Chuck Bednarek; let alone Che Guevara.  Still, it didn’t need to be this difficult.

Here’s to a nice week of low intensity training.  And some stern German punishment for a certain recent signing.

Adrian – 5

Woody – 4 – He looked all game like he had a howler in him, and what a howler it turned out to be.  That’s the kind of error that makes you fear for his family.  Would you go camping with this guy after that?  Or even let him drive?  Give Degsy the gloves. Think he looks like Alberto Moreno in a certain angle.

Jason – 6 – I mean sure he had two incredibly bad giveaways but only one of them was a goal and its was for Danny Ings – we all like Danny.

Trent – 7

W – 7 -TAA had his hands full with Bertrand and Redmond.  He could have used a little more help.  His crosses are just so dangerous all the time.  He’ll get an assist next week.

J – 7 – TAA really loves to whip those crosses. A decent day at the office. Looks good in today’s kit

Matip – 7

W – 7 – Big Joelly was amazing last year filling in for Gomez.  If Joe can stay healthy Matip will only play in these squad rotation situations and he will be back to scaring us often.

J – 7 – Solid – seems to really want to join Mo, Mane and Bobby on some attacks. Not sure that’s optimal but what do I know.

Virgil – 8.5

W- 8.5 – This was a game when it was nice to have the best defender in the world.  He did make that one mistake where he played it perfectly back to his keeper, who had acres of space and multiple safe options.  Oops.

J – 8.5 – He’s immense. Probably should have started as our keeper today.

Robbo – 7.75

W – 7.5 – He got absolutely robbed (sorry) by their keeper after a brilliant link up with Mane.  We can’t wait until he scores and it should have been today.

J – 8 – Much better today than in the Super Cuppity Cup Cup. Should have scored. William Wallace wept.

Gini – 7.25

W – 7.5 –  Our best midfielder today.  Nothing glamorous, but helped at both ends.  Solid.

J – 7 – Well our midfield was sort of steady but in a fatigued sort of way.

Milner – 7

W – 7 – Daniel Larusso.  Could he see under that thing or was he going full on Jedi training?  Jon asked why he was playing rugby.  You would not put it past Milly to have a second career in rugby.

J – 7 – looks even better with a huge, oversized bandage. Played about the same with/without it which is pretty much a guaranteed seven no matter what.

Ox – 6.75

W – 6.5 – Ok he was better than on Wednesday, but not nearly as much better as we would have hoped.  It’s a phase – he’ll come good soon enough.

J – 7 – I thought Ox was much, much better today. Midfield is where he needs to be.

Salah – 7.75

W – 8 – His beautiful backheel to Ox should have been a goal but was squandered.  The one to Trent could have let to a goal.  Mo Should have scored himself when he was in on goal but he still gets an 8.  Work rate.

J – 7.5 – Thought he was just a tad below his “excellent as always” standard

Firmino – 7.5

W – 7.5 – Sadio gave him an absolute sitter.  When he missed you had to wonder if something was off in his finishing.  But you should not doubt him.  Sure enough Sadio gave him a much tougher chance and he did plenty on his own to score.

J – 7.5 – he’s gonna be disappointed to have missed that sitter but made up for that with his overall play. He’s the engine room.

Mane – 9  MOTM

W – 9 – Easily the man of the match.  LFC could easily have trailed at half but then Sadio happened.  He created more chances in the 2nd and we should have won 3 or 4 nil.  But then Adrian happened.

J – 9 – off to a great start for the team. When he broke away on that run that ended up with Bobby missing the sitter, it was a thing of beauty.  His goal was amazing.

Subs

Fabinho, Henderson, Origi – N/A

W – None came on early or did anything good or bad.  They just took a few minutes in a game where everyone was understandably knackered.

J – I am good with the N/A – hard for them to make an impact in short service.

This was a tricky game and the win is a relief.  It should have been a little easier but we’ll excuse our weary super cup champions.  They’ll need to be sharper earlier vs Arsenal.  And they will be.