The Details
Venue – St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton
Referee – Martin Atkinson
Date & Time – Sunday, February 11th @ 16:30 GMT
Current Odds – Southampton 16/5, Draw 14/5, Liverpool 4/5
Form
Southampton Form
Southampton seem to have turned the corner, of late. Pellegrino has seen his men go undefeated in their last six games with an impressive win on the road at West Brom just last weekend. They haven’t been conceding many goals this season the main reason they are languishing in 15th is due to their inability to create many chances at the other end.
Liverpool Form
Liverpool’s form in January was up and down. One weekend they were beating the best team in the league, the next they lost to the bottom team. That was followed by a very disappointing home defeat to West Brom in the FA Cup. They finished the month on a high with a good 3-0 win at Huddersfield. Last Sunday, the Reds were held to a 2-2 draw at Anfield by Spurs in a cracking match that was not short on incident.
With Chelsea dropping points on Monday night, Liverpool now know that a top three finish has to be their aim now. Liverpool have the ability to go on another unbeaten run between now and the end of the league season but now they also have the welcome distraction of Champions League duties to attend to.
Team News
Southampton Team News
Charlie Austin is out with a hamstring injury. Shane Long will probably be preferred in the lone-striker role with his pace and ability to hassle and harry defenders coming in extremely valuable in games such as this. McCarthy is likely to remain in goals instead of Fraser Forster while Stephens and Hoedt should be the central defensive partnership. Romeu and Lemina have struck up a good understanding at the base of the Saints’ midfield, allowing the creative trio of Ward-Prowse, Boufal, and Tadic to concentrate on providing support to the lone striker.
Southampton have no suspensions for this game.
Southampton’s Top 3 Rated Players this season – (WhoScored.com – at least 10 appearances)
- M. Lemina ———— 7.02
- M. Yoshida ——– 6.96
- O. Romeu ———- 6.91
Liverpool Team News
Clyne is still out for Liverpool. Ragnar Klavan is doubtful, as is Lallana who cut his U23s come-back short with an out-of-character red card. Gomez is touch-and-go for this game but I think he will make the starting eleven.
Liverpool have no suspensions for this game.
Liverpool’s Top 3 Rated Players this season – (WhoScored.com – at least 10 appearances)
- M. Salah ——– 7.68
- R. Firmino ——- 7.38
- E. Can ———– 7.27
Predicted XIs
Southampton XI (4-2-3-1) – McCarthy; Soares, Stephens, Hoedt, Bertrand(c); Romeu, Lemina; Ward-Prowse, Boufal, Tadic; Long
Liverpool XI (4-3-3) – Karius; Gomez, Lovren, van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson(c), Can, Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Mané
When they last met
Liverpool won the meeting at Anfield earlier this season, 3-0. Salah got two and Coutinho 🙁 scored one that day. Southampton hosted Liverpool twice last season. It finished 0-0 in the league game while the Saints won the League Cup semi-final first leg, 1-0.
Prediction
Southampton 1 – 1 Liverpool
Another tough game for the Reds. Southampton are achieving the desirable hard-to-beat status at this stage of the season and Liverpool are in for a tough time on Sunday. I feel a draw may well be on the cards.
** Please note – “xGA” in the Form Stats tables symbolises “expected goals against” **
