It Was Only in Our Dreams: Liverpool 1 - Southampton 3

Fourth place, clearly it was only in our dreams. It is now safe to say that the race is for 5th. Liverpool clearly couldn't afford any slip up and slip they did, both figuratively and literally on that slick pitch. Fourth was a fun dream while it lasted, but let's be realistic; Liverpool lack the depth to really compete in Europe anyways. Things are getting better, but they aren't there yet. The only hope is that Suarez will endure another year of Europa, or even worse, nothing at all.

It really appears as if they thought they could just turn up and the three points would be handed to them on a silver platter, but you can never count on that when a team is in a relegation fight. The subs picked for the game also had an air or arrogance to them as well. Why not at least name Sterling? Clearly he has lost faith in Shelvey and and Suso and wouldn't have used them anyways. These were just puzzling to me.

However, beyond that it seemed to be nearly every player's worst game of the season which is telling in the 74% pass accuracy. Far lower than the norm this year. After a bit of frustration Liverpool resorted to the long ball far too often which just didn't come off on that slick pitch. Full credit to Southampton, they were well deserving of the points.

Some thoughts:

-If someone finds Glen Johnson's touch and confidence, could you kindly mail it to:

Liverpool Football Club

Anfield Road, Liverpool, L4 OTH

-Allen clearly should not play the rest of the season. If his shoulder causes him to play like that, he needs the surgery and be done with it.

-Brendan Rodgers took a huge gamble with the bench he brought and it didn't pay off. There wasn't really anyone you could being on that one would expect to change the game if needed.

-The team lost it's mojo and was basically out Liverpooled. Southampton looked far more calm and collected at nearly every point in the game and dominated the midfield. Liverpool's passing accuracy was 74% which is well below the season's average of 85%.

-I'm not sure what exactly the formation was for the second half, but it left Liverpool with absolutely no width out left. It appeared as if Coutinho had tucked in behind the strikers in sort of a 4-1-2-1-2. However, Gerrard never shifted out wide and it showed. It left Enrique isolated and unable to make any impact on the game.

-Seriously, that linesman should be lucky to do a Blue Square North game next week. I do wonder how things might have been different if Suarez hadn't been called for that phantom foul and Sturridge hadn't been incorrectly ruled offside.

-Suarez's stupid yellow now means he is getting close to a suspension at a time Liverpool can not afford to lose him.

In the end, they really only have themselves to blame. Time to move on and keep pressing for 5th at least.