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High flying Merseyside club, Liverpool play Southampton in the Premier League today evening. Southampton has always been reckoned to be Liverpool's academy sarcastically by fans of rival clubs all these years, as a majority of Liverpool's signings come from Southampton.
Today the two sides go head to head, as Liverpool continue to retain their 100% record this season, while Southampton try to gain a midtable position as they currently struggle in the 13th position in the league with 5 points in their tally.
With just a few hours to go before the teams' kick-off at Anfield, let's look at the Top 5 players to look out for, in the fixture.
#5 Ryan Bertrand (Southampton)
The Southampton left-back has started his Premier League campaign on a good note, with 2 clean sheets and 1 goal in 5 matches. The key point why Bertrand is so important against Liverpool is that he switches very easily from the traditional left fullback position to a wing-back role for the side.
This gives him good opportunities to cut back some good crosses to the Southampton strikers, and if he's having a great day, he might link up great with some striker and could get a goal for himself, as he did against Leicester some weeks ago.
Another fact is that he is a match winner as he has experience of winning the Champions League and Europa League with Chelsea, so there is never a low in confidence even if facing a strong side like Liverpool.
#4 Virgil Van Dijk (Liverpool)
Van Dijk was Liverpool's biggest transfer last season, and the tall defender will be key not only to defend against the Southampton side but also probably score from corners, thanks to his height giving him an advantage.
The Dutch defender showed his prowess against French giants PSG in the midweek on Tuesday where he comfortably contained Edinson Cavani who was man-marked by him throughout the game. Cavani was seemingly frustrated at not being given space by the defender when he was substituted off late in the game.
Van Dijk gets the 4th spot on our list today.
#3 Pierre Emile Hojbjerg (Southampton)
The 23-year-old young midfielder from Denmark has been continuing his excellent World Cup 2018 form in the Premier League this season. The Danish player has 2 goals in his 3 appearances for the club, the latest coming last week against Brighton.
It was a magnificent strike from out of the box by the young midfielder, and he has recently caught the eye of Top English clubs with his performance for Southampton this season.
If Southampton are to go and try to get an unexpected win against Liverpool today at Anfield, Hojbjerg is going to be the key to their attack.
#2 Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
The Egyptian has taken the Premier League by storm since the start of the last season but has had a slow start to the Premier League not replicating his last year's form. He had his goal against PSG on Tuesday ruled out after Daniel Sturridge happened to foul PSG keeper Areola in the follow up to the goal.
After a disappointing match against PSG in midweek, which also featured Mohamed Salah giving away the ball just for Kylian Mbappe to score for the Paris side, Salah would be dying to get back his form today evening by goals against Southampton.
The Liverpool striker is also hot favourite in the Fantasy Premier League this weekend having been chosen as captain by a lot of players.
#1 James Milner (Liverpool)
James Milner has been sort of a nomad when it comes to the Premier League, having played for many clubs including top four clubs Manchester City and currently Liverpool. The 32 year old is on fire for the Merseyside club perfectly playing the role of a traditional box to box midfielder.
The English midfielder was seen covering every part of the field against PSG in the midweek, and also was on the score-sheet having scored a penalty when Georgio Wijnaldum was fouled in the penalty box.
Milner is not expected to be on the score-sheet today, but will surely be the most technical part of the game, as he decides the midfield battle against Southampton's Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
Do let us know what you feel about the Liverpool Southampton game in the comments section below..!
