Next Sunday, 17th August 2014, Liverpool will measure forces with Southampton at the emblematic Anfield Road Stadium for the opening round of the English Premier League.

After an impressive campaign last term, Liverpool will certainly want to start the new season off on the right foot, particularly if they intend to, at least, replicate their last year’s achievements. The Reds put up some quality performances during their pre-season matches, especially on the clash against Borussia Dortmund at Anfield Road last weekend. Brendan Rodgers’ men have completely tamed a somehow fragile German side as they pushed them against the ropes from the very beginning. The Northern Irish manager mounted a fairly elastic 4-2-3-1 formation, with Gerrard and Henderson dictating the team’s tempo in the centre of pitch, and Liverpool’s game ran smoothly. Back in defence, the newcomer Dejan Lovren bossed the team’s defence line, acting as a ball playing centre back, and helped Liverpool to build their game from behind, something that the Reds have missed dearly last season.

For Liverpool’s opening match against Southampton, Brendan Rodgers will certainly not perform many changes in the team, although there might a possibility for Lazar Markovic to get a place in the starting line-up, replacing Emre Can.

As for Southampton, the next Sunday’s match will surely be a very tough one, especially if we consider that the Saints “lost” a great deal of players this Summer and that they were also forced to change their manager after Pochettino’s departure to White Hart Lane. Their new boss, Ronald Koeman (who, by the way, could be found at Anfield stands last weekend) will probably have a lot on his mind right now, after witnessing Liverpool hammer Borussia Dortmund. Southampton saw plenty of their players leave to Liverpool last month and one of them, the Croatian defender Dejan Lovren, was particularly inspired against the German side.

The Dutch head coach managed, nevertheless, to compensate for some of the departures from the team’s top players by bringing in quality footballers such as the Serbian playmaker Dusan Tadic, the Algerian youth talent Saphir Taider and the former Celtic goalkeeper Fraser Forster.

The last time both sides met at Anfield Road was almost a year ago and the Saints snatched a fantastic 1-0 win thanks to a goal scored by Dejan Lovren, who is interestingly enough on the opposite side of barricade this time. Liverpool are firm favourites for next Sunday’s clash, as they look fairly more consistent than Southampton at this stage of the season.

Liverpool

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

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Southampton

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

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Possible Line-ups

Liverpool (4-2-3-1) – Mignolet - Manquillo - Skrtel - Lovren - Johnson - Gerrard - Henderson - Coutinho - Markovic - Sterling - Sturridge

Southampton (4-5-1) – Boruc - Clyne - Fonte - Yoshida - Bertrand - Wanyama - S Davis - Ward-Prowse - Tadic - Taider - Pelle.

Prediction

Liverpool 2 Southampton 0