Southampton hurting after sale of key players – Koeman

Jurgen Klopp’s side were 1-0 down inside 41 seconds thanks to Sadio Mane’s header, but Liverpool bounced back thanks to a Daniel Sturridge brace, a Divock Origi hat-trick and substitute Jordan Ibe’s late goal.

His second goal, four minutes later, was even more impressive.

Fielding a half-rotated side for his side’s trip to the south coast to take on Southampton, Klopp saw his bold approach rewarded with a 6-1 win at St. Mary’s.

Sturridge doubled his and the visitors tally with a clinical first-time shot from Emre Can’s superb side-foot centre.

Origi ensured Sturridge’s absence was not felt too harshly, giving Liverpool a fourth goal following some great lateral movement to thwart a sluggish Southampton defence. He needs to decide when it’s time to fight and when to rest then he’ll be okay. It was just the passion of his words that got to us.

Dejan Lovren, Nathaniel Clyne, Lallana and former Reds striker Rickie Lambert all joined Liverpool from Saints and Klopp, who lost numerous players to Bayern Munich during his time with Borussia Dortmund, is braced for a hostile encounter.

He told Sky Sports 1: “It’s not a miracle what he’s done”. The manager sets his team out the way Pochettino does – that is where I can see a similarity.

He did however claim that the squad understand that tactic-heavy sessions are a necessity, and reckons that they’re actually working wonders when it comes to matches.

“We must try to recover the players for Tuesday”, said Pellegrini. We fight very hard, we press high and we have quality everywhere.

Origi clattered in an emphatic second via the underside of the crossbar midway though the second half and his header followed up a fifth from Jordon Ibe to complete the rout.

“We spoke before the game about making a good start and we were delighted with the way we did, but we’ll have to assess the game obviously now. And that’s not a problem for Steven because he is physically a strong defender and has the confidence to start”.

Despite watching his team improve significantly in the striker’s absence before Wednesday, Klopp revealed Sturridge’s performance made him understand why he was the subject of such regular attention and debate. I took the risk to play three at the back and that’s my responsibility but if you go one up and then at half-time it’s 1-3 then it’s not good.