Saints V Liverpool The Preview
Sunday, 22nd Feb 2015 09:56

The biggest game of the season so far as Saints take on Liverpool knowing that a win will send them back up to third place.

Perhaps yesterdays results mean that Saints have a little more leeway than Liverpool going into this game, if Saints triumph then not only will Liverpool sit 7 points behind us, that in itself is a big gap with only 12 games remaining, but they will still be 5 points from the top four.

The enormity of the game cannot be stressed, if Saints truly want to get into the Champions League then we have to win key games against our rivals, not only to keep our points tally increasing, but to knock back the challenge and this game offers us a great chance to do so.

The first question is what shape Liverpool are in after a tough game in the Champions League on Thursday, not just physically but mentally, there was the penalty incident with Balotelli that showed that they are not a united squad plus they have the return leg in Turkey on Thursday followed by the visit of Manchester City to Anfield next Sunday, if we thought we had a crunch week theirs is doubly so and a real case of do or die, anything less than at east a draw in Turkey and four points from the two league games and they are in trouble.

So will Brendon Rodgers be more interested in defending a slender lead in the Europa League tie, if they do then Liverpool will have a great chance of inning the tournament and with that Champions League qualification, that is what they need so I would guess that the Liverpool manager might consider that a more important game.

Team wise both are missing players and it is going to be the case of Saints shutting out their pact attacking option whilst at the other end exposing their rather dodgy defence and keeper.

Liverpool's problems this season have stemmed from the fact that they have no real guile at the back, they have too many lumps of defenders who can't deal with pace and who can't play the ball.

This is going to be the key, if we can hassle their defence then we can panic them, in this respect I'm glad to see Shane Long return, whilst I don't expect I'm to start, I do think he will come on late in the game, hopefully to seal it, but perhaps to win it, either way his pace over 20 yards has caused panic in better defences then Liverpool's.

At the other end we have to do two things, firstly cut out the supply line to the forwards and secondly if they get the ball to Sturbridge/Ives/Sterling make sure that they can't get in behind us and expose us for pace.

It will be interesting to see what formation Ronald Koeman employs at the back, will he go for a flats back four in which case he will need to bring in Matt Targett or will he stick to the three central defenders he employed last time out.

Off the field the crowd needs to concentrate on supporting the players still at the club rather than abusing those who have left, we don't want to turn that abuse into something that stirs up the Liverpool players and creates a siege mentality, we want to not give them a chance to fire on all cylinders.

Saints can win this game, we just need to keep doing what we have done well this season both on and off the pitch.

Photo: Action Images

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