Liverpool vs Southampton - preview and possible line-ups
TEAM NEWS
Southampton: Southampton have no fresh injury concerns following their Burnley defeat. Defender Alexander McQueen remains out for the foreseeable with a serious knee injury. It seems likely that Hasenhuttl will make changes from the loss against the Clarets, with an extra midfielder potentially being brought into the side at the expense of a forward. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg could replace Adams in the startin 11, with Ward moving slightly forward to helo out Redmond and Ings in the final third. Suffering an opening-day defeat against Burnley was far from ideal, and a home game against the European champions is not quite what would be wanted right now.
Liverpool: Alisson will once again be absent for Liverpool, meaning that Adrian will take to goal again after his European Championship glory. Nathaniel Clyne is also absent from the team and Keita will be back after sitting out the game against Chelsea due to muscle problems. Alexander-Arnold, Firmino and Wijnaldum are all expected to return to the starting XI after being named on the bench against Chelsea. The Reds will go into this game extremely confident after their glorious win over Chelsea mid-week to become European champions and after beating Norwich 4-1 in the first game of the season, their morale will be extremely high.
MANAGER'S THOUGHTS
Ralph Hasenhuttl: Was pleased that Liverpool's mid-week game against Chelsea went all the way to penalties as it meant that he had more recordings to watch and analyse. Although he does not expect fatigue to be a problem for Liverpool, "Last year Liverpool played 13 times in the week, and in the 13 times they played, at the weekend they won 11." He also admitted that the Red's have so much quality and that his team is preparing to go against the "best possible Liverpool team" and says that he’ll be looking for his players to show a reaction after a poor showing last weekend.
Jurgen Klopp said that Southampton probably celebrated more than Liverpool after the UEFA Super Cup triumph last Wednesday, "nobody wanted extra time tonight". "My present to the players is to help them recover so that they are ready for the game". He says that both this game and the one against Arsenal will be incredibly difficult "for different reasons" but he is determined that his team will find a way to win this Saturday.
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