Liverpool head to Southampton on Sunday top of the Premier League’s form guide and can close the gap on Ronald Koeman’s team to a single point with victory at St Mary’s. Key to their transformation since the beleaguered days of November has been Brendan Rodgers’ switch to a 3-4-2-1 formation plus the emergence of several summer signings following an inauspicious start, Emre Can and Lazar Markovic chief among them. Criticism of Liverpool’s transfer committee has eased, understandably so, yet Southampton fans would still be forgiven for indulging in a sense of schadenfreude when the two sides meet.
No club capitalised on last summer’s exodus from Southampton more than Liverpool. £50m of Anfield’s £117m spending spree went on three influential parts of Mauricio Pochettino’s team – the club captain Adam Lallana, plus Dejan Lovren and Rickie Lambert – but credit for Liverpool’s recovery belongs elsewhere.
It says everything about the trio’s fortunes that not one is guaranteed to face their former club. “They were brought in for the longer term so it was always going to take a bit of time,” Rodgers said this week. “They were brought in for different roles but they are all contributing, some more than others, but I am sure that over time they will show the worth of why we brought them in. It is a game they will look forward to.”
There is more riding on Liverpool’s investment than the returns on three individual players, however. Koeman has turned Southampton into Champions League qualification contenders having spent £58m last summer and his club would hit Liverpool for another £50m should they continue to defy expectations and claim a top-four finish at the Anfield club’s expense.
Adam Lallana, £25m
Rodgers’ admission that “some more than others” are contributing to Liverpool’s campaign can apply only to Lallana, the most expensive recruit from Southampton who this week spoke of his regret at how the transfer played out. The 26-year-old scored his fifth goal of the season to secure an FA Cup quarter-final place at Crystal Palace’s expense last weekend and an understanding with Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho is clearly developing. Yet even the most prominent of the Southampton intake has endured a frustrating campaign so far.
Lallana started 37 Premier League games for Pochettino’s team last season but injuries and greater competition at Anfield have so far limited his Liverpool tally to 14. It was mid-December before the attacking midfielder embarked on a run of more than two consecutive starts for Rodgers’ side and that sequence was halted at six, when his influence was growing by the game, by a thigh injury suffered against Leicester City on New Year’s Day.
Speaking at a Seeing is Believing event, a global initiative run by Liverpool’s sponsors Standard Chartered to combat avoidable blindness, Lallana admitted: “It is difficult coming into a club like this and being yourself from the word go. You’re coming into a different environment, a different home and it takes time to settle in. And that’s coming from someone who knew some of the lads from playing for England. You get asked about people not settling in, you give those reasons and people say it’s just an excuse. But until you are in that position or coming from another country to a big club like this, you just won’t understand. I have felt more settled in the role I’ve been playing since I came back into the team. That’s where I have played a lot of my football, especially last season.”
Should Liverpool fall short in their pursuit of a top-four finish, Lallana hopes his former club take the ticket instead. “Deep down I am delighted to see them doing so well,” he added. “There are a lot of good people at that football club and I am thrilled to see them doing so well.”
Rickie Lambert, £4.5m
Southampton did not begrudge Lambert the chance to rejoin the club that shattered his boyhood dreams by releasing him at 15. The story-book return to Liverpool has not unfolded well, however, and the striker would have been sold to Aston Villa on deadline day in January had he agreed to the move. “It was very close, we agreed everything,” Lambert admitted this week. “But it was too short notice. It was too big a decision to make in the short amount of time I had. It’s hard sometimes when you aren’t playing but I’m at the club I love. I’m not willing to give that up easily.”
The England international was always going to have to adjust to a reduced role at Anfield but cannot have expected such a downturn. Last season he played 2,816 minutes of league football for Southampton, scoring 13 goals (the joint fourth highest total by an English player) and having 10 assists. This term it is 593 minutes, two goals and no assists. Lambert was the Plan B who became Plan C when Rodgers took his calculated risk on Mario Balotelli and, at 33, a bit-part role does not help with match sharpness.
Dejan Lovren, £20m
Lovren, in the context of his importance to Liverpool’s summer rebuilding plans, plus his mantle as the most expensive defender in the club’s history, has been a spectacular disappointment. Rodgers’ assertion that the Croatia international represented the authoritative centre-back Liverpool had lacked since Jamie Carragher retired was given credence on his Anfield debut against Borussia Dortmund. But that pre-season friendly has so far marked the high point. Lovren’s confidence and form deteriorated during Liverpool’s troubled start to the campaign and the 3-1 defeat at Crystal Palace in November was not only a watershed in terms of Rodgers’ approach.
The 25-year-old lost his place to Kolo Touré and has been unable to regain it from the in-form Mamadou Sakho.
The Liverpool manager’s assessment of his main defensive signing was not exactly glowing this week. “Dejan’s professionalism has been great,” said Rodgers. “The team has been winning and playing well and I don’t think any of the players can look at that and complain. Everyone has had ample opportunity from the start of the season right the way through the autumn. They have certainly had the opportunities to play and demonstrate they should be regulars. But when he has been asked to come in and do a job, Dejan has done it.”
