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Saints V Liverpool The Preview

A few days ago this looked like it would be a game where Saints could drop a point or two or three, but with the league so close its a game we need to get something out of.

A few days ago after the great win against Newcastle Saints fans were cock a hoop about the Saints resurgence, I urged that we needed to guard against complacency and pointed out that just as much as the certain win against Norwich could propel us right out of the relegation zone, anything less would leave us in the bottom three, the nature of the draw has brought us all back to earth and reminded us that the error strewn nature of our team has been bubbling under the surface.

Nigel Adkins therefore has some tough thinking to do before he picks his team for the trip to Anfield, its also a crucial game for him and a heavy defeat would once again send the vultures circling over his head and rumours of a replacement ready to takeover hitting the tabloids.

I am getting a little bored of pointing it out now, but our main problem is still our left flank and Liverpool have plenty of speed down that side with the likes of Raheem Sterling for one, we have to counter that or we could be in for a hiding, Liverpool have been written off by some, but they still remain a team who on their day can live with the best and their season can be likened to our own with a few failures in the transfer market leaving them exposed, especially up front and costly errors seeing a lot more points dropped than they would have liked, but as their crushing of Norwich showed they can still turn it on.

My fear is that if we play both Lallana and Ramirez and dont counter that threat on the left, then we could be in for a torrid time, we are vunerable on the counter attack as was showed on Tuesday when we gave away a needless foul, OK it wasnt a fould, but we found ourselves in that position because we were caught short on the break, hence a right back conceding a foul on the left side of the penalty area, my concern is that we too often lose our shape when attacking, its fine to make cross runs when you have the ball, but we arent mobile and versatile enough to deal with it when sides break quickly at us.

It will be a tough trip to Anfield but I feel if Nigel Adkins shows us what he is made of and shows us he can be proactive rather than sitting on his hands as he did on Tuesday and not leading from the bench with good substitutions then we might just shock Liverpool, like us they can attack and score goals, but also like us they can be caught out as well.

     

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