One last ride for Roberto Firmino and James Milner? This will be their final game in a red shirt, so will they be handed a starting assignment for it?
Speaking of finality, this will be the last game at the Premier League level, for Southampton FC for a year at minimum. And wow, is it really fitting who the opponent is!
Liverpool at Southampton FYIs
Championship Sunday FYIs
Kick Off:ย May 28, 2023, at 4:30 pm UK St. Mary’s Stadium
Liverpool Starting XI Prediction: go here
Transatlantic Passage: How the Premier League Redefined Soccer in America: LINK
Google Result Probability: Liverpool 69%ย Draw `17% Southampton 14%
PL Position, Form Guide: Liverpoolย 5th, 66 pts DWWWWย Southampton 20th, 24 pts LLLLL
Southampton existed primarily as a feeder club for most of the 2010s and 2020s, and Liverpool FC was the club they fed the most. Jokes about Merseyside having a farming club on the south coast persisted for years. (see screengrab above)
Last summer though, Saints took a gamble and it badly backfired. They focused on signing players more than development, and the result?
Well, as you already know, they were the very first team to be relegated this season.
That’s what they bought with their โฌ143.7m investment last summer (with a net spend of โฌ138.2m)
Team News for Both Sides
Sticking with Saints, Tino Livramento made his first appearance in more than a year last weekend, seeing his first action after recovering from an ACL injury. Perhaps he’ll more playing time in this game.
Switching over to the Reds, we already covered Bobby Firmino and James Milner, so…Darwin Nunez is back in individual training, with the striker having missed the past several weeks with a toe injury.
He could be in contention here. Naby Keita will once again miss out. He joins Thiago Alcantara and Stefan Bajcetic on the sidelines.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager ofย The Sports Bank.ย Heโs also theย author of โTransatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,โ andย โNo, I Canโt Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.โ
Heโs written for numerous publications, including theย New York Daily News,ย Sports Illustratedย and theย Chicago Tribune.ย He regularly appears onย NTD Newsย andย WGN News Now.ย Follow the websiteย onย Twitterย andย Instagram.
