It wasn’t pretty in the first half. The only Liverpool positive against Southampton, Arne Slot joked, was that his Reds stars conserved some energy before the upcoming second leg in the Champions League against PSG.
Within 10 minutes of the second half starting, however, the game had completely been turned on its head. Southampton felt the first penalty was soft, but the tide had turned. Liverpool would have won the game even if that one hadn’t been given.
To say that it was a game of two halves would be an understatement. In part, that was down to Liverpool being given a healthy rocket by Slot in the dressing room; partly, it was also because of the impact of those who were thrown into the action.
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For the second game in a row, Harvey Elliott made a telling difference when he entered the field. Fresh from his winner in Paris, he impressed again and was clearly desperate to leave his mark.
Straight away, Elliott tested Aaron Ramsdale with a shot from the edge of the box that forced a good save. Then he challenged for a header that livened up the crowd.
Slot admitted that Dominik Szoboszlai was jaded — no shock after the distance he has covered of late — but Elliott was able to perform at a higher pace, moving the ball more quickly and sharply moving into gaps.
Elliott was decisive and Darwin Nunez was even more so in terms of the moments that won the game. Nunez scored with a good finish to level the scores and then almost immediately won a penalty.
Southampton was unhappy with its awarding, but the reality is that the defender shouldn't have taken the risk. Nunez knew what he was doing and it was soft, but the penalty was never going to be overturned.
In Elliott, Slot has someone who has previous when it comes to being a super sub — that is what he spent most of last season doing. Scoring the winner against PSG and proving to have a positive influence here too, this was another real step in the right direction for the number 19 after a difficult campaign.
Having been criticized for a lack of impact in the last few games, Nunez was also able to put in the kind of performance that he has always been capable of. It was not scintillating by any means, but it didn't need to be — and it was more than enough to satisfy exactly the challenge laid down to him by Slot a few weeks back.
Nunez was heavily involved in the 10 minutes that changed the game and put the result in Liverpool's favor. It wasn't the dramatic brace he netted at Brentford, but it was certainly a lot closer to that than the tepid appearances he made against Aston Villa and Wolves that drew Slot's ire.
With Nunez, you never quite know what you are going to get. In Elliott, though, there is a greater feeling that he might have turned a corner. If he is now back to being a super sub again, it couldn't have come at a better time as the final run-in nears.
