Saints 0-3 Liverpool
As expected, Lovren returned at the earliest opportunity his fitness would allow, and that was to face Liverpool. Saints still managed to go behind to a soft goal, converted by Suarez after the ball fell at his feet via Fonte, who I felt had slipped at an unfortunate time in an already dangerous situation.
That early setback could have been a blessing as Saints raised their game and dominated play for the remainder of the opening period – but without finding the net. Lallana came closest with a shot against the post, but he’ll know that he should have impressed the visiting England boss with a goal.
So too should Lambert, and although Rodriguez did what is normally the right thing by shooting first time and on target at the end of a fine move, his sidefoot effort allowed Mignolet to save. And just in case the French coach ever takes an interest in Schneiderlin, he too should have scored. Sr. Pochettino may have been reflecting that he had once acquired Osvaldo to take advantage of some of the situations his team had created, but he did have Ramirez to bring on to help Saints continue on top after the restart.
They soon went off the boil, though (must have been while waiting for Mignolet to eventually get round to taking one of his goal kicks) and when Sterling came on in the 58th minute, he was able to score with his first meaningful touch after good work by Suarez and ordinary defending by Lovren.
The visitors were now in the ascendancy and had several opportunities to make the scoreline embarrassing. They eventually did add a third in added time: as Suarez found space, sensible money was on the Uruguayan finding some part of Fonte’s body to trip over, and the defender seemed to be of the same opinion as he accepted the inevitable… Gerrard completed the proceedings from the spot.
LSSC Man of the Match: Calum Chambers. Much has been made of Shaw’s selection for the full England squad but to my mind he isn’t even the best young full back at the club.
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