Jamie Carragher was highly critical of Liverpool and how they set-up before conceding to a neat Danny Ings finish, as he told Monday Night Football on Sky Sports.
During Carragher’s analysis of the goal, he noticed Jordan Henderson panicking ‘a little bit’ and shouting at Gini Wijnaldum to ‘get back’ just before James Ward-Prowse whipped in his free-kick.
Before Boris Johnson could start his speech, Liverpool were behind because that set-piece led to Ings pouncing on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s failure to deal with the ball, with the Saints man dinking the ball over Alisson Becker.
But Carragher shared that even though Liverpool were outnumbering their opponents, Alexander-Arnold still somehow found himself in a 2 v 1 situation, which led to the goal.
“That is a seven v five in Liverpool’s favour, just before Ward-Prowse is setting up,” said Carragher. “And there are players in between.
“Just as Ward-Prowse puts his hands up and before you know it, Trent finds himself in a 2 v 1. Even though Liverpool have got the advantage numerically. Trent how he deals with that sums up his first-half.
“But I just want to look at Jordan Henderson, whether this is because he’s centre-back and he’s seen as the guy who has to win the ball or the leader at the back.
“I don’t know if he panics a little bit because he has got someone and he’s desperate for Gini Wijnaldum to drop deeper. ‘Come back, come back’. He keeps talking to him. Wijnaldum gets back and there’s no need. Look how many players Liverpool have there, it’s six v three. Wijnaldum doesn’t need to come in.”
Whilst Liverpool’s defence failed to deal with Southampton’s aggressive press, the forward players struggled to hit the target.
Even though Jurgen Klopp’s men had 16 efforts on goal, only one was on target, as Liverpool slumped to yet another defeat on the road.
Whilst the Premier League title race rips wide open, the attention will now turn to the FA Cup, with the Reds returning to the place where they conceded seven at the start of the campaign.
It will be interesting to see if Henderson starts at centre-back because the £20 million Liverpool man [BBC Sport] is clearly better suited to shouting his orders from the middle of the pitch.
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