Liverpool full of respect for Saints, insists Coutinho

Liverpool have made a habit of pilfering Southampton’s players in recent seasons, and playmaker Philippe Coutinho admits he can’t help but be impressed by their current crop.

The Reds welcome Claude Puel’s men to Anfield on Sunday, with three points essential in their bid to finish inside the top four and qualify for the Champions League next term.

The road from St Mary’s Stadium to Anfield has been a well trodden one in recent times; Liverpool have shelled out over £100million to Southampton since 2014 with Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Sadio Mane and Nathaniel Clyne all regulars in Jurgen Klopp’s current team.

And 24-year-old Brazilian Coutinho is not letting the Saints’ league position – they currently sit tenth in the table – lull his teammates into a false sense of security.

“Southampton are a great team with great players,” he said. “When you watch them playing, you can see they are a very good team.

“But it is not only them, the Premier League is all like that – whether it’s the team that leads the league or the team at the bottom, they’re all good teams. They all give tough games and this is why the Premier League is the top league.

“The world stops to watch the Premier League and this is the reason why. As I said, it will be a very hard game for us, very difficult, but we need to go after the three points from the start.

“We have to attack them and show how much we want to win the game. For this reason, we have to be on top of them from the very first minute to get the three points.

“Our target is something we wanted from the beginning of the season, we always believed we could be in the top four to play in the Champions League next season.

“It is a great opportunity for us, but the last three games will be like three finals for our team where we need to win all of them to confirm our position in the league. The whole squad is confident.”