Match Reports: Southampton 0-0 Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp was satisfied by the performance of his much-travelled Liverpool side as they were held to a goalless stalemate at Southampton.

Liverpool forward Sadio Mane twice went close to opening the scoring on his return to St Mary’s before the break, only to be denied by a superb Fraser Forster save and Virgil van Dijk’s last-ditch block.

It seems the injury is worse than first thought as speaking last night after the game, Klopp confirmed that Lallana could now miss Liverpool’s next three matches.

Southampton boast of a great defence, and have only conceded 6 goals in all 5 Premier League games played at the Saint Mary’s. We played against a very good team with good players. The German said the onus was on Liverpool to find ways to break down obdurate opponents while retaining their concentration at the other end of the pitch – something he took encouragement from at Southampton, where Liverpool enjoyed 65% possession and were rarely troubled at the back. When we play our best then we are much more hard to play against than Southampton can imagine. And even then, to stay in the game is the best news we can get. “I like the player, it was more of a feeling”, he said.

Klopp is exhausted of the questions over his side’s defending, insisting they are better than people give them credit for.

“Southampton play differently from a year ago”, Klopp added.

“You can’t ask them, ‘come on, give us a little more space or something?'”

However, while the Reds had much of the ball, they could not force a genuine chance on goal until Mane’s rasping effort from the edge of the box drew an excellent flying save from Forster after 28 minutes. “In the second half, we did better and when you play out a draw it’s better that you should have won than should have lost because of the performance, so I am fine”.

“[Coutinho and Firmino were back on] Thursday at Melwood, that was the earliest moment we could [get them back]”, the Reds boss added.

“We can not only play counter-attack, we can not only play high press, we have to be prepared for everything”.

Defender Joel Matip insists Liverpool can “live with” their 0-0 draw at Southampton, despite coming away from the game disappointed not to have taken advantage of their control. “We had a few chances but we can’t always score three or four goals”. Everyone has respect for each other and I think that is what makes us so good.