Liverpool vs Southampton | Things We Learned

Article by Lauren Black – @Lauren_Black9We’re a force to be reckoned withLiverpool have today set a new club record of seven straight victories at the start of a new season by beating Southampton 3-0 at Anfied today. Liverpool went ahead 10 minutes in after Xherdan Shaqiri strike hit Shane Long and then Hoedt to go into the back of the net, Joel Matip then headed in a corner to mark his return to the starting eleven and then Mo Salah got his goal after slotting in from close range in the second half after Shaqiri’s brilliant free-kick hit the bar.The reds have made a fantastic start to the season and we couldn’t have hoped for anything better as fans. The team seemed to have reached a new level this season and it shows in the way we play, it’s attacking football that we all love and the players seem to be enjoying themselves too which is a positive.Xherdan Shaqiri was bossNow we know why his calves are that big…so he can hit free kicks like that.Many of us knew that Shaqiri was probably going to feature today but I thought he may have took Salah or Mane place but he took Milner place instead and played in the number 10 role which seemed to suit him really well. He was involved in every play, got himself into some good positions where he can run at defenders or pick the ball up and look for a pass and he gave us a bit more energy up front too which is always helpful.I think Ross summed it up perfectly in his player ratings, he said it’s like letting your dog off the lead in a park, he just runs at people whenever he wants and I think he really enjoyed having that freedom in midfield and his left peg is something different which is a bonus.Mo’s back in the goalsCould have had a few goals today which would have done him the world of good but I think that one goal made the difference to him. You could see in the second half that his gal made a difference because he looked like a new man, he was running at defenders, creating space and got himself into a few positions that could have bagged him a couple of goals.We can’t expect him to have a season like he did last year and we shouldn’t be putting pressure on him. We’re seven games in and he has grabbed himself a couple of goals, same as Mane and same as Firmino, you’ve got to give him some time to get himself back into the swing of it and I’m sure by Christmas he’ll about four hat-tricks and 25 goals to show.But saying he has had a bad few games is harsh, if you look back at the other games you can see him making runs and trying to set others up. He wants the team to win, he doesn’t want it to be the Mo Salah show and I’m sure he wants nothing more than to score in every game but I’m almost certain he would rather the team win than get a goal.Nightmare for Mark Hughes26 games against Liverpool in his managerial career and that was his 16^th defeat.He’s got work to do with that Southampton side, not having Danny Ings available was a huge blow for them and only having Shane Long up front wasn’t going to do anything for them. The Saints have got to be careful this season as they just about survived their last campaign, this season is going to be even harder and you can see the cracks in the team that need to be patched up quickly otherwise they won’t survive for much longer.Gini Wijnaldum is key to our midfieldI thought with Keita and Fabinho coming in that he would be the one to miss out on a place in the team but he’s showed Klopp and all of us just how good he is and why he should be in that team every week.He’s constantly running and wanting to have the ball at his feet to create something and he’s been my man of the match for the last three or four games on the run. He looked gutted to be coming off before but that was probably already arranged before the match with Chelsea and Napoli coming up soon and you definitely don’t want him to be picking up a knock and missing those games.Article by Lauren Black – @Lauren_Black9