Reds held at home to Anfield by Ronald Koeman’s Southampton
Jurgen Klopp is still awaiting his first win as Liverpool boss after he saw his side draw 1-1 for the second time in a week – this time against Southampton.
Klopp has taken charge of three games as Liverpool manager since Brendan Rodgers‘ dismissal, and has picked up three draws. Tottenham Hotspur away, Rubin Kazan at home and now Southampton at home.
Going into the game, both teams were on 13 points from their opening nine matches, and both had recently drawn games, with Liverpool drawing to Spurs and Southampton drawing to Leicester City.
After a very dire and uneventful first-half, it took until the 77th minute for something to happen at Anfield, and that was when the hosts took the lead.
Christian Benteke rose highest to header home past a helpless Maarten Stekelenburg. Klopp couldn’t hide his delight with a very passionate celebration following soon after the Belgian’s goal.
However, the joy didn’t last as just nine minutes later, Saints were level when Sadio Mane bundled home when Gaston Ramirez‘s header across goal was palmed by keeper Simon Mignolet into the body of the forward.
Mane‘s joy only lasted four minutes however as he was then sent for an early shower in stoppage time after picking up two yellow cards.
The result leaves the two sides level on points and sitting in eighth and ninth place respectively.
Match Reaction
Liverpool striker Christian Benteke: “As a striker you are always happy when you score but the important thing was getting three points. And we couldn’t do that.
“We deserved to win. We showed a lot of good positive things.
“The manager brings something else, we need to play with a high intensity. We want to show him why we should play for Liverpool.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp: “Of course this moment is not the best moment in the week because we wasted a lot of energy.
“Southampton haven’t lost away from home so we had to work hard. You score the goal and you want to win, but it didn’t happen tonight.
“Football is not a fairytale. Sometimes we write stories like this but it doesn’t happen. You see these guys can play football, are technically strong and physically strong but you saw how big the disappointment after Southampton was.
“It’s only a goal, only a game of football! It’s like it’s the last thing in your life and we have to calm this down.
“We can change a lot of things if it’s necessary but not all things will work from the start. If you are on something you are not 100 per cent better the next day.
“It’s not what you can change in a short time but what we can change and take into the next game. It’s our situation so no problem. We can play Wednesday and that’s our next chance.”
Southampton striker Sadio Mane: “Liverpool are a big team. For my red card it was two yellows cards. It was unfortunate and I am footballer so I will always say I didn’t deserve it. The team works together and maybe I score the goal but it’s important to get points for my team.”
Southampton midfielder James Ward-Prowse: “We showed great character, going 1-0 down. We dug in and got a deserved point. If we keep working hard on the training ground we’ll get the results and the points. You can look at the Premier League table.”
Southampton manager Ronald Koeman on BBC Sport: “We deserved at least one point but honestly it was not our best performance but we had a good reaction after going down to a great goal from Christian Benteke.
“Our defensive organisation is good, it is difficult to create chances against us.
“Teams like Liverpool, if they have a change in management, there is always a change in expectation. I know that, I have played for big teams and I know the expectation on the manager of Liverpool is always bigger than that of Southampton.”
More from Southampton boss Ronald Koeman: “You like always more than a point, but to get more you have to get to your level and maybe we didn’t do enough to win today. Of course if you are 1-0 down with 15 minutes left and you take a point you are happy.Were Liverpool there to be beaten today? Yes. But you have to take chances against big teams and create more. It was a good mentality and spirit in the team. I think it’s a fair result.
“It was a great header by Christian Benteke and I’m not sure you can do much more. Mane was a little bit unlucky with the red card. Maybe it’s easy to give a second yellow there.
“It’s difficult to challenge the top four teams. Maybe at the moment we can be strong against them but if you talk the whole season that’s different. We didn’t lose in our away games and that’s positive.”
Southampton defender Jose Fonte: There wasn’t much in the game and it was a pretty even match with not many chances, we had two in the first half from set-pieces. It was a great header from Christian Benteke but we showed we never give up and have that fighting spirit.
“We are pleased to be unbeaten away from home and need to be hard to beat. If we can grind results away from home in tough places like this then win at home we can climb the table.
“Coming back from 1-0 down at Anfield is always tough. We showed great character.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt
