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Brendan Rodgers lines up gift for Saints by playing four Liverpool centre-backs
THE writing was on the wall for Southampton, though it pointed the way forward, rather than predicting imminent doom.
When the Liverpool team-sheet was pinned up in the away dressing room shortly before 2pm, revealing four centre-halves in Kolo Toure, Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger and Mamadou Sakho strung out in a line across the home defence, the first reaction was one of surprise. And then delight.
Southampton followed manager Mauricio Pochettino’s high-pressing master plan with even more zeal and gleaned their reward for a composed, comfortable display by forcing the hosts into surrendering possession, followed by their unbeaten record.
“It raised a couple of eyebrows,” said Adam Lallana, who was the epitome of cool in midfield as the Saints, the last team to beat Liverpool, repeated their feat.
“They are a team like us who like to play out from the back and we just played a high pressing game and felt we won the ball back in areas where we could affect things.
“If they couldn’t play it out from the back, they had to go long.”
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers argued that he had no room for manoeuvre in his team selection.
Glen Johnson and Aly Cissokho are injured, while concerns over the fitness of Jose Enrique and Martin Kelly meant they began on the bench.
Yet for a team who rely on a style of play that is fluid, versatile and open, the prospect of being stymied at source meant little of what followed was a surprise, especially with Iago Aspas still struggling. Saints’ winning goal was an exercise in incompetence as Liverpool conceded from a set-piece, despite all those centre-backs. Skrtel, unable to do right and wrong, inexplicably gifted Southampton a throw-in which led to the corner from which Dejan Lovren beat Agger in a duel to head home.
The same personnel are unlikely to be trusted any time soon, though Agger was substituted having torn stomach muscles which will rule him out of the Capital One Cup tie at Manchester United.
In one sense, the return of Luis Suarez after his 10-match suspension on Wednesday will be well-timed. “Suarez has been very difficult to defend against in training lately,” said Toure.
“His return is going to be massive for us. He is a winner. He’s always working hard and he’s a fighter. You want players like that.”
So Suarez will find himself back in the old routine in more ways than one. But first a warning – the last time he returned from a lengthy ban Liverpool won three of their next 13 league games and lost eight.