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Southampton At Liverpool The Verdict

The only way is up for Nathan Jones after his first game in charge saw another defeat much in the style of those under previous manager Ralph Hasenhuttl, however it was clear that this was not a team that was picked by the new manager.

In many respects this was a free hit for Nathan Jones, if he got a point or 3 at Anfield then he would have been hailed as the new messiah, whereas if we lost then having only been at the club a couple of days he could hardly be blamed.

It was clear from the starting line up that he was having to pick the team under the advice of Ruben Selles, watching the League cup win over Sheffield Wednesday was not going to have given him much of an overview and he would have had only Friday's training session to get a look at his squad.

So there were no real surprises in the starting line up, in the preview I hoped that with Liverpool's patchy form this season we might get them on an off day, but there was no such luck, from the start it was clear that the home side were out to finish with a bang, perhaps the news that Manchester City had lost to Brentford spurred them on a little, whatever the reason they were up and at us from the start.

They seemed to be able to carve us open at will, the truth is we are missing both Tino Livramento & Kyle Walker on the flanks, both for their ability and more importantly their pace.

Romeo Lavia back from injury seemed to cement us in the centre of the park, but it was down the wings that Liverpool were double teaming us and getting crosses with ease.

Liverpool looked to exploit that and seemed to go down the wing and cross in for their forwards who frequently lost their man and got in chances.

We could have already been a goal down when Liverpool took the lead after only 6 minutes with a header from Firmino, but we were back on level terms only 4 minutes later a great header from Che Adams giving Saints hope.

But at the other end we still struggled, Nunez scored on 21 minutes and at this point you feared a rout would be on the cards, it took a decent save or two from Gavin Bazunu to keep the score within reach.

As half time loomed it looked like Saints might get in with a fighting chance for the second half, but the defence was carved open again to send us in 3-1 down.

But in the second half we rallied a bit, we got our act together a little and it took three great stops from Alisson in the Liverpool goal, the last a superb stop from a Che Adams header that meant that there would be no revival for Saints.

So our poor run of form at Anfield continued, so what could we take out of it.

The first thing was that we struggled at the back, we lacked organisation and a lack of Premier League experience showed, too many times we were second to the ball and allowed our men to run off us too easily.

But on the hour mark, Jones made a triple substitution, switched from a back 3 to a back 4 and brought on pace in the shape of Edozie & Walcott to try and change the game.

The old issue up front was still there, but we still created chances and we only had two less chances on target than the home side.

So as stated at the beginning this was a free hit for Nathan Jones, he has had little chance so far to exert his influence, he promised that his sides would play with passion and to be truthful that showed in the second half, at 3-1 down it was going to look like a long 45 minutes ahead, but we didn't give up and with a little luck could have got something back from this game.

Jones has to be given a chance, social media has been full of those who moaned that Ralph should be sacked, now moaning that we haven't succeeded him with anyone they wanted.

But the deed is done now and we have to back the new man to get us out of trouble, now we have a six week break for him to work with the team and to get things right.

Personally, I am confident that we can pull out of trouble when we return to Premier League action on Boxing Day, hopefully then we should have Kyle Walker Peters back as well as the return of Tino Livramento imminent, add a striker to the mix in January and we should have enough to pull clear.

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