Digging Deeper into Liverpool's 2-1 Win over Southampton

Yesterday at 05:37 PM

After a makeshift Reds side battle their way into the EFL Cup semi-finals, we dig into some of the winners and losers on the night.

It may not have been the prettiest win you've ever seen, but in the sideways rain of St. Mary's, with youth players abound and midfielders played out of position in a jury-rigged set-up, Liverpool did enough to advance to the penultimate stage of the League Cup, courtesy of first-half goals from Darwin Núñez and Harvey Elliott.

Don't tell the announcers this, but Southampton never generated all that much pressure, and despite a surge of confidence following their goal — scored while a player was down with a head injury, by the way — and an injury time shout for a red card were second best throughout.

With all that said, then, we provide a quick word on the winners and losers on the night.

Winners

Persevering: Banana peel fixtures don't come much more blatant than this: interim manager in the opposing dugout, extremely volatile wind and pitch conditions, missing their two biggest stars, and a ramshackle starting XI featuring youngsters and second stringers playing out of position. A blowout was never truly on the cards here, and the chances of slipping up were much larger than the points discrepancy between the two sides would indicate.

Nevertheless, with Wataru Endo starting at centre-back and stepping up into midfield in a John Stones facsimile, Joe Gomez tucking inside from left-back, 17-year old Trey Nyoni swapping from left-sided eight to right wing after 20 minutes, and Tyler Morton anchoring midfield — before playing right-back for the first time in his career after the break — the Reds dominated the first half completely, holding their hosts to a single shot and scoring twice, as Núñez pounced on a deflected through ball and tucked home while shushing the crowd, and Harvey Elliott stroked a right-footed finish into the bottom corner following a quick transition.

There were bumps along the way in the second half, and James McConnell, Jayden Danns, and a far from match fit Federico Chiesa were introduced, but despite the flurry — two shots — that followed Southampton's goal, the young and mismatched Reds did more than enough to win on the night, which is about all one could reasonably expect given the circumstances.

Losers

Question Mark: Eh, nobody in Red stood out as particularly poor on the night; Chiesa needs a lot more minutes before he's going to be a difference maker, and you might've hoped Diogo Jota could have contributed more tellingly in his 30-minutes cameo, but all things considered, Liverpool's players were all at least okay on the night.

Simon Hooper was less than great, as per, allowing a goal to be scored while a player was down with a head injury the most obvious example of incompetence, but generally did not seem to favour either side.

What Happens Next

The Reds travel to London to take on Ange Postecoglu's mercurial Tottenham on Sunday, and with Chelsea playing earlier that day, could potentially find themselves in second spot by kickoff, before hosting relegation battlers Leicester on Boxing Day for the fourth time in ten years.