A SECOND-half turnaround saw Liverpool breeze past Southampton on Saturday afternoon when goals from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jordan Henderson and a Mohamed Salah brace took the Reds another step closer to the Premier League title.

Jurgen Klopp’s side struggled in the first half and Southampton could well have taken the lead in the opening 45 minutes, but the home team fired on all cylinders in the second period.

The Liverpool manager had been full of praise for his opposite number Ralph Hasenhuttl and complimented his team, who looked at one point like they might get something from the game.

“First and foremost I really have to say, wow, Southampton, what a team that is,” said Klopp. 

“The set-up they have is constantly causing you problems if you do the wrong things, which we did in the first half in some moments. 

“That’s why we had those problems in the first half because we lost the balls at the wrong moment.”

The second half saw one of Liverpool’s best performances of the season, with the front three of Oxlade-Chamberlain, Salah and Roberto Firmino all causing problems for the opposition defence.

Henderson led the way from midfield, but Klopp singled out the use of Fabinho, who returned to the side following a spell out through injury, as the key aspect of his half-time changes.

“We had to change two or three things, most importantly we had to change the involvement of Fabinho,” he added.

“Then we started rolling, we had that counter-attack and Oxlade-Chamberlain scored a sensational goal. 

“But I already liked the second half much more until that goal, what we did then was just really good. 

“We played much calmer and used Fabinho better, and with this positioning we used all the midfielders better, used our full-backs better, and had better direction. It was just a better game and in the end, we won it.”

Liverpool’s first-team players and Klopp will now take their mid-season break, despite having an FA Cup replay with Shrewsbury tomorrow. The club’s U23s manager Neil Critchley will take charge of the game in the German’s absence.