Liverpool 3-0 Southampton: 3 things we learned

Liverpool have opened the season with seven victories, and their trouncing of Southampton was the easiest yet. Here’s what we learned from the match.

Liverpool have opened their season with seven consecutive victories for the first time in the history of the club. No such plaudits are available for Mark Hughes’ Southampton. It was a continuation of the themes we have seen so far this season for both squads, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to learn from this match. Here are the important takeaways from an easy Reds victory.

Liverpool have depth (and room to grow)

The Merseysiders are in the midst of an intense fixture period with seven matches in 23 days, so this was the first fans saw of rotation in the squad. In years past, a common complaint by Liverpool fans was a lack of quality on the bench.

Not anymore. Xherdan Shaqiri, former Basel and Stoke talisman, got his first start for the Reds and made an immediate impact in a free attacking role just behind Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.

He showed his crossing prowess with a dangerous in-swinger from the right that was barely headed away not five minutes into the game. Not 10 into the game, he showed his on-ball ability with a rip that caromed off a few Southampton players for an own goal to open the scoring. And, just to prove his all-around prowess, he ended the first half with an absolute rocket of a free-kick that smacked the woodwork, allowing Salah an easy tap-in to end the first half.

It was a surprise to see him subbed off at the start of the second half — either he picked up a nick or Klopp has plans for him against Chelsea midweek. Shaqiri would also be characterized as the most part-time player of Klopp’s summer signings, further highlighting the vaunted squad depth.

Naby Keita and Fabinho both started on the bench, and both have immense talent yet to be showcased for Liverpool. Keita has yet to showcase the prodigious ability he put on display in the Bundesliga, but has had flashes of brilliance. Fabinho, meanwhile, has still only played about one minute for the entirety of the season, despite being the lynchpin for a quality Monaco side the last few years.

As a reminder, Liverpool went into the Champions league final last year with bench attacking options of Emre Can, Adam Lallana and Dominic Solanke. Fenway Sports Group’s outlay of funds for Klopp has remedied this issue. Now it can be considered a Liverpool strength.

Few bright spots for Southampton

Center-back Jannick Vestergaard was one of few bright spots in the first half for the Saints. He cut out a dangerous chip in from Mane to Salah while the game was young, then had Southampton’s best chance with a power header going just wide from a corner in the 13th minute.

The Dane’s name popped up for less-than-stellar reasons as the game wore on, however. Firmino took the ball right off him with acres of space to start the second half and he did little to stop any further attacks.

That’s about it for Southampton on the positive side — one of the their center-backs had a decent start to the game. At least it was better than his partner Wesley Hoedt, who had Southampton’s only shot on target in the entire game until the 91st minute. Unfortunately, that shot on target just so happened to be an own goal.

Hughes has a penchant of complaining about bad luck for losing a match, but there was no such excuse to cling to this match. The less said about this woeful performance the better. He’ll need his squad to perform better than this if they want to avoid the relegation dogfight this year.

Gomez is Liverpool’s best partner for van Dijk

Joe Gomez replaced Virgil van Dijk when the latter picked up a minor rib injury in the second half, but both easily snuffed out every Southampton attack. Every time Southampton got forward, it was either van Dijk or Gomez on the commentators’ lips.

In recaps of demolitions such as this, the defense for the winning side is hardly mentioned. Some of that is because they rarely have to defend, but that was not the case for van Dijk at the start of the game. Shane Long had a dangerous ball in that Van Dijk had to knick wide for a corner.

With Joel Matip in instead of Gomez, who had played every minute alongside van Dijk so far, the Liverpool defense looked slightly more fragile than in previous matches. Although Matip had a lovely cushioned header to put Liverpool ahead 2-0, he lacks the speed of Gomez. Furthermore, it seems van Dijk and Gomez have an intuitive understanding of each other that van Dijk lacked with Matip.

The speed of Gomez was made readily apparent after being subbed on, as he picked up right where van Dijk had left off. Gomez has actually been clocked with the top speed by a Liverpool player.

Matip and Dejan Lovren are capable center-backs in their own right, but Liverpool may have added another defensive anchor internally this season in Gomez. Best of all, he’s just 21 years old.