We round up the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from Southampton v Liverpool in our Scout Notes summary.
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LIVERPOOL TAKE TITLE RACE TO FINAL DAY
Liverpool fought back to beat Southampton 2-1 on Tuesday thanks to goals from Takumi Minamino (£5.1m) and Joel Matip (£5.2m).
The victory means they move within a point of Manchester City going into the final day, and although it is still a big ask for the Reds as they will need Pep Guardiola’s side to slip up against Aston Villa, it does at least make things interesting.
Despite fielding a much-changed line-up, Liverpool completely dominated on the night, comfortably leading on shots (24/4) and possession (72%), with the likes of Ibrahima Konate (£5.1m), Kostas Tsimikas (£3.7m) and Minamino stepping up when needed.
As for Matip, the best-value defender in FPL netted his third goal of the season at St Mary’s and has now produced 80 points from Gameweek 26 onwards, eight more than team-mate Andrew Robertson (£7.3m) in that time:
KLOPP ROTATES
Jurgen Klopp insisted he had to freshen up his side against Southampton after Liverpool required extra time and penalties to beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final on Saturday.
Alisson (£6.1m) and Konate were the only two players to retain their places, as Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.4m) and Sadio Mane (£11.8m) were both left out of the squad, while Robertson and Luis Diaz (£8.1m) were unused substitutes.
When asked about his decision to heavily rotate, Klopp said:
“Different things to consider. First of all, it was clear from the beginning we need here for this game, in the situation Southampton is, with the point they have to prove, with the results they had against other top-six teams, we need 100 per cent desire, fresh legs, we need to be ready for a proper fight, these kind of things.
From my point of view, you have to make a real starting line-up and then you need to have a look who can go after 120 minutes again, who is physically in the situation or mentally in the situation because obviously the season is intense for the boys. Some of them played pretty much all the time.
After the game against Chelsea, celebrations, then being really happy, then we settled, then… Southampton.
In the moment when I did the line-up I got really excited about it.” – Jurgen Klopp
With so many well-owned Liverpool assets either injured or handed a rest, here is a rundown of the autosubs coming off the bench for managers inside the top 10,000.
On the injury front, Klopp was forced into a half-time change after Joe Gomez (£4.7m) went down awkwardly on his ankle, which meant James Milner (£4.9m) was deployed at right-back after the break.
“I hope we are lucky. Joe [Gomez] himself has pain but not too much. He got, one time, a real shock to the system, but he is sitting in the dressing room and when I spoke to him he was in a good mood. I think maybe we were probably lucky but we have to figure that out.” – Jurgen Klopp on Joe Gomez
SAINTS LATE-SEASON STRUGGLES
After tonight’s defeat, Southampton have now lost eight of their 11 most recent league matches, with two draws and one win.
In that time, they have conceded a whopping 26 goals and rank 19th for expected goals conceded (xGC), which is encouraging for owners of Leicester City’s attacking assets ahead of Sunday’s King Power meeting.
“Like always a lot of ups and downs. We had the 40 points relatively early to stay in the league but couldn’t manage again to be higher. We must not forget that before this season they had us on the list to be relegated because we lost our best striker. We have a lot of things to do in the summer.” – Ralph Hasenhuttl on Southampton’s season
Romain Perraud (£4.8m), meanwhile, missed Gameweek 37 and will be out for five or six weeks with a fracture in his leg.
Southampton XI: McCarthy, Lyanco, Stephens, Salisu, Walker-Peters, Ward-Prowse, Diallo (Romeu 71), Redmond, Elyounoussi, Tella (S Armstrong 71), Broja (Adams 82)
Liverpool XI: Alisson, Gomez (Henderson 45), Matip, Konate, Tsimikas, Milner, Elliott (Origi 65), Jones, Minamino, Jota, Firmino (Keita 83)
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