GettyImagesSouthampton's Adam Lallana gets a challenge in on Liverpool's Glen Johnson

Liverpool are a Premier League team. Southampton are a Premier League team. Equals.

On Saturday they looked anything but equal. The build-up to this game was a sickening array of "dream come true to play at Anfield" comments from Saints players and management staff and it didn't sit well with me at all. It is the wrong attitude to go into the game with, and it showed on the pitch.

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I have a vested interest in sports psychology, I think it plays such a big part in the game now, and the use of it has come on leaps and bounds, it's one of many reasons that I like Nigel Adkins so much. Usually Adkins is the master at this, but the allowance of the fawning over going to Anfield was a bad move in my opinion. Saints talked themselves out of this game before it even kicked off.

Don't get me wrong. Anfield is a special place in English football, it is and will always be an icon on the footballing map, and the history that goes with it shines like a beacon of halcyon days. But. This was a Premier League football match between two Premier League teams, both of which are in the bottom half of the table. So why the fear?

It looked a little like the Saints players were so delighted to get their chance to grace the Anfield pitch that they were happy to just be spectators to the occasion. For me this was our worst performance of the season, worse even than the 6-1 defeat at Arsenal. The 1-0 scoreline is hideously flattering to Saints. Had it been 10-0 we could have had no complaints. Liverpool knock the ball around nicely, as you might expect now Brendan Rodgers has made his mark, and in Suarez and Sterling they looked dangerous every time they poured forward (which was a lot), but they didn't need to play well to beat Saints.

You would expect a home side to be in the ascendancy, and pose more of an attacking threat, but the way Saints dealt with the ball on the rare occasions they had it was extremely disappointing. Saints completely lacked composure on the ball, barely stringing three passes together in the first half, the second was slightly better (the team had a pass accuracy of 71% during the whole game). They really did look like they were completely over awed by their surroundings, and afforded their opponents far more respect than their season has deserved. When you base your whole game on a keep ball, passing philosophy 71% is terrible, and you get what is coming.

I never have a problem with losing, as long as the players can walk off the pitch knowing that they did all they could. That was not the case on Saturday. It was sloppy all over the pitch. In fact it looked a little like Ramirez, Lallana and Lambert were the only ones who believed they belonged on the same pitch as Suarez and Gerrard. The rest looked as white as their shirts.

The next two games couldn't be any bigger, Reading and Sunderland both at home. Six points. No excuses.

Keep the faith.

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