Takumi Minamino and Roberto Firmino received special praise from Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl following Liverpool 's 2-1 victory over his side on Tuesday.
A much-changed Reds team got the job done on the south coast to take the Premier League title race to the final day and make Manchester City sweat. Former Southampton loanee Minamino was joined by Joel Matip on the scoresheet, as Jurgen Klopp 's men had to come from behind after Nathan Redmond opened the scoring in the 13th minute.
Post-match, Hasenhuttl waxed lyrical about Liverpool's star-studded squad, despite Klopp making nine changes from their thrilling FA Cup final win against Chelsea last Saturday. "I think we have played against a good team that made a lot of changes but still has a lot of quality upfront," the Saints boss told reporters. "You could see it. I would have done the same (made a lot of changes) to be honest.
"Jurgen is convinced about these players. They have real quality. It is still a team with a lot of quality. They have come with this team to an FA Cup final. They play this team very often so we know that they are good. We took a lot of risks with the ball today, it sometimes looked a little bit scary to be honest."
While Hasenhuttl was complimentary about the Reds' performance, the Austrian coach was critical of his own team's display which leaves them in 15th place, having employed a different style of defending to try and frustrate Klopp's quadruple-chasing side. "Against the ball, we tried a different way to defend," Hasenhuttl added.
"Deeper because we were struggling in the last weeks with conceding goals. Easy goals and were too open. It worked okay but not perfect otherwise we wouldn't concede a goal. We concede the first goal when we are all behind the ball, in the box and cannot stop Taki scoring.
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"They played it quite well, I must say. You can see in these moments that especially Firmino is very strong in these areas and Taki made a good deep run.
"Second half, sometimes we tried to surprise them with the 4-2-2-2. Sometimes we were pressing higher but you could immediately see it wasn't perfect and they played through the lines. Then you go deeper again and try to keep the game open for as long as possible but you concede a very easy second goal."
Klopp, meanwhile, echoed Hasenhuttl's thoughts on his stars, admitting that it was a "crime" for some of his players not to get more minutes. "Actually, I'm so happy about the performance, it was a bit touching to be honest," the German explained. "It was like 'Wow, these boys!' It's like having Ferraris in the garage and then you let them out and they play like this.
"Harvey [Elliott], not sure when he last played. Curtis [Jones], no rhythm. Takumi Minamino, it's a crime he's not playing more often. Oxlade-Chamberlain didn't even play and he's in outstanding shape. It's really tough for the boys but whatever happens this year, happened because of this group. It's exceptional, and tonight they showed that again."
