By Jordan Carreno

Matchday 33 sees the Reds head down to the south coast to take on Southampton at St. Mary’s Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m.

Southampton v Liverpool — 04/05/2019 2000 GMT

Friday night football for the Reds means an opportunity for you to kick start your weekend in the Bay Area a bit earlier than usual. This is what being a Liverpool supporter is all about, experiencing and watching possible glory unfold. As always, all three LFC Tampa Bay locations will be open, serving and showing the match, so tell the boss you’re off to watch the Mighty Reds and come and join us in a stomach turning good time. With all that being said, let’s get into the talking points.

Return of the Virg

Friday night will be the first time Van Dijk has played at the St. Mary’s since his record breaking transfer to Liverpool. In that time he has proven himself to be one of the best center backs in world football and has played a huge role in the transformation of Liverpool into a side contending for honors. It will all add to the animosity directed towards the big man for the way his transfer happened and for the club he decided to join. For Southampton fans though, it won’t just be about Virgil’s return

For the Saints, the biggest perpetrators of the evil of big money, modern football is Liverpool. For a whole generation of younger Southampton fans, Liverpool is the club that stole their heroes. We crippled their growth from League 1 to European place challengers by plucking all their talent. That some of that talent, namely Sadio Mane and Virgil Van Dijk, is now shining at an elite level whilst helping Liverpool challenge for trophies will only add to the resentment.

It will lead to creating a hostile atmosphere for Jurgen and the Reds. In the way that those of us who came up with Liverpool in the Rafa era grew to hate Chelsea, similar feelings will reside in the hearts of Southampton supporters about Liverpool. Though the ill feelings may come as a surprise, and though they are definitely not mutual feelings, they exist and they will manifest themselves in the form of a hostile atmosphere.

It will be a tricky fixture to handle for Liverpool and another test of their grit and determination. Friday night football, under the floodlights, against one of your most hated clubs, has all the necessary ingredients to stir up a cauldron. It will be on Liverpool to keep their heads, remain in control, and give little opportunity for the home crowd to hype themselves up.

Buying into Believing

When Lucas Moura scored the equalizer for Tottenham on Sunday, a short second of dread swept over me. It felt as if everything that is right with the world was instantaneously destroyed and that evil had finally triumphed in her never ending battle with good.

As the game wore on, and Tottenham began to grow into the game, the demons of past heartbreaks began to flood the consciousness. Sissoko running at goal instantly morphed into flashbacks of Demba Ba. Even I, the constant, over exaggerated optimist I am, couldn’t help but feel as if the title challenge was about to finally fall flat.

A moment that could be the start of another incredible run

Then Tottenham threw on their third center back in an attempt to take a hard earned point home with them and Liverpool began to take control of the action. As the Reds kept pushing on, they helped to fight back the darkness which had consumed my soul. I had thoughts of Alisson’s save against Brighton, Mahrez’s Penalty, Sturridge’s goal, The Hand of God-zilla, and reminded myself that anything can happen in football.

There was plenty points in the Tottenham match, before Lloris’ fateful volleyball bump, that might have led one to believe it wasn’t to be the Reds’ day. Mane sent a shot just inches wide. Trent hit the crossbar off a corner kick and had one tipped over. If the players had wanted to, they could have easily chalked it up to not having the luck and accepted the draw. Though my own belief may have faltered, the faith of the team refused to be shaken.

They created their own luck with a one touch pass from Robbo to Trent. They forced the issue with a first time back post cross from Trent to Mo. Salah then asked the footballing God’s for a favor by sending a header at Lloris. The football mystics obliged, and, out of a moment of chaos that permeated from the Kop to the millions around the planet watching, belief was restored and fortified.

The last time we experienced one of these inexplicable and magical moments, Liverpool went on a run through December that saw them claim the top spot for their own and end up seven points ahead of City and level on goal difference. When Divock Origi pounced on the Jordan Pickford error to win the derby against Everton, it began the process of Liverpool building the foundation of their title challenge. Now Liverpool must use the Spurs winner to begin a similar run towards the finish.

That goal will have fortified the belief within the squad. Regardless of the situations they find themselves in between now and the middle of May, they will have the belief that they can find a way to get the job done. Though City could well win the rest of their matches and beat us to the title, this Liverpool squad has the necessary skill to challenge to the end and, most importantly, the confidence that they will.

March of the Saints

Ralph Hasenhuttl has drastically improved this Southampton side

On the 8th of December, and after 16 matches played, Southampton found themselves bottom of the table with a total on 9 points. At that point, they had only managed to win 1 game of football and had just played their first game under new manager Ralph Hasenhuttl. Since then, things have taken a turn for the better for the Saints.

In the 15 games since, Southampton have managed to win 7 matches and pick up 24 points. Though they are still involved in a scrap to survive relegation, they do have a five point buffer between themselves and the drop zone. On top of that, they are on a run of 3 wins in their last 4 matches which includes a home victory against Tottenham. Whilst they might sit in 16th, their form since Hasenhuttl took over is good enough for 10th best in the Premier league.

In that sense, we are coming up against a top 10 side. Though we made light work of them in the home fixture earlier in the season, this is a completely different side with a much different vibe about it. Plus, as mentioned earlier, playing Liverpool and ex-colleagues will add an extra layer of incentive for this Southampton side and an extra few decibels to the support. Mix in that, historically, playing at Southampton is a fixture that has given the Reds plenty of trouble, and all temptation to default to table positioning as an indicator of how this match goes should be washed away.

This is most likely the toughest away fixture left for the Reds. You could even argue for it being the toughest left out of all 6 remaining league fixtures. Southampton are much better than their current position in the table suggests and are currently on a decent run of form. Liverpool will have to be at their very best to get all three points out of this match.

Prediction

We’re back to the league table where I managed to pick up 2 more points for predicting a Liverpool win and a Tottenham goal. David only managed the 1 point for predicting a Liverpool victory, so now I lead by a score of 43–39.

It is another one of those where it will be interesting to see how our opponents decide to come at us. Hasenhuttl has usually opted to use formations that feature five at the back, but given how Liverpool exploited this system against Tottenham, Southampton might benefit from using something similar to the 4–4–2 they used against Brighton last time out. Regardless, I think they will come flying out the gates in an attempt to feed off the hostile atmosphere and try to get the crowd on Liverpool’s backs.

I suspect we stick with the 4–3–3 in order to be set up properly to take advantage of any transitional play that might arise from the eagerness of Southampton. I think we are most likely going to see Fabinho come in for Milner with Lallana coming in for Henderson. The rest of the starting 11 remains unchanged from the match against Tottenham.

Though we have had struggles at Southampton historically, I think we make easy work of this. That Spurs goal will have fueled the belief within the team and I expect it to give us the boost to go forward. Plus, we were sloppy and below our best against Spurs so the team will be wanting to put on a proper show and kick into form for the run in. The Reds send a message this match. 5–0.

David’s Prediction: Well, I’m running out of games to close the gap between us so I can’t pick a clean sheet. I’m thinking Southampton nicks one early and the atmosphere ratchets up a bit, but that just pisses the Reds off and they take control of the rest of the game, relentlessly running Southampton into the ground. Virgil and Mane both nick one against their former side en route to a 3–1 Reds victory.