Former Premier League referee Mike Dean has claimed that Southampton's first goal against Liverpool should not have stood — but not because there was a foul from Matheus Fernandes.

Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk were involved in a mix-up with the goalkeeper claiming he was fouled. But Dean says there might also have been an offside offense that was missed.

"I'm just worried about the goal," he said on Sky Sports. "They've obviously checked it with VAR, but I've looked at it three of four times, and I'm convinced it's offside.

"The Southampton player has gone to challenge the keeper, it's touched his foot and gone forward, and Smallbone's left foot seems to be in front of the defender. Unless there was another defender outside that we can't pick up on the TV... but he looks offside, in my opinion."

In the end, it didn't matter. Liverpool won comfortably and turned the game around inside 10 second half minutes. Darwin Nunez scored and then won a penalty before Mohamed Salah added a second spot kick to seal the points.

Southampton wasn't happy with the first Liverpool penalty that was awarded when Nunez was felled inside the box. It was a soft foul but there was contact, and once the referee pointed to the spot, it was not a clear and obvious enough error for VAR to intervene.

"I think the [first] penalty was not a penalty and that changed the match," he told the BBC. "I am satisfied with how we played today but this cannot be a penalty ever.

Referee Lewis Smith views the VAR monitor, resulting in a penalty kick being awarded for handball for Liverpool against Southampton (Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)

"I'm sorry it happened because it was 1-1 and it changed the match a little bit. We have lots of young players who want to grow up and improve. We can lose, but we have to fight like we fight today."

Liverpool.com says: While Southampton might have got away with one and then felt hard done by, the Saints wouldn't have expected anything other than a defeat in this game. Liverpool didn't start well but even so, never looked like losing the points. Now, with a 16-point lead at the top of the table, the Reds should be cruising to the title.

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Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has acknowledged that he might have made an error by selecting Dominik Szoboszlai for the starting line-up in the Reds' dramatic turnaround victory against Southampton.

The win propelled the Premier League frontrunners an impressive 16 points clear at the summit despite being behind at halftime. A swift goal from Darwin Nunez after the interval and a brace of penalties by Mohamed Salah secured the Anfield outfit all three points.

Slot's decisive action at the break, making a triple substitution, was instrumental in the comeback. Dissatisfied with the team's first-half performance, he introduced Harvey Elliott, Alexis Mac Allister, and Andy Robertson to replace Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, and Kostas Tsimikas.

Post-match, Slot admitted that the changes were necessary to change the course of the game and suggested that starting Szoboszlai might have been a misstep. "Today, if I could do it one more time over, I would have started it differently than I started today," he said.

"But you don't know this in advance. Every time I am sitting here and talking about Dominik, I'm talking about he is a machine. He can keep on going, running and running and running.

"It was maybe the first time this season I saw a different energy from him, which is maybe normal. Maybe I made a mistake by playing him because he gives so much every single game.

"The good news is he only played 45 and is more rested for the upcoming week now than he is if I played him for 90. And the good thing for me is I have more than only one good midfielder in terms of Dominik.

"We have quite a few and Harvey came in really strong and helped the team again after him helping the team against Paris Saint-Germain also."

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot, sitting in the stands because of his touchline ban, reacts during the win over Southampton (Image: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images))

Liverpool needed a rocket at halftime with Slot far from mincing his words in the dressing room. "I didn't give them compliments at halftime, I can tell you," he explained. "Maybe it was because I was sitting up there instead of being at the line.

"When you watch a game from there, you always feel that, 'Ah, maybe even I can play in this game'. But when you are on the line, there is always more tempo.

"I don't think I was wrong if I said at halftime that the energy levels were far, far, far too low. That is what had to change and that is why we made three substitutions.

"Apart from bringing in quality, also to create something. Because nine out of 10 times, when you take three out, the other eight are like, woah, something else should happen. That was the only thing I could come up with at halftime to create something different for the second half."

Liverpool.com says: Things didn't go well in the first half, but that can all be forgotten now. The Reds were always likely to come back and score at least twice at some point. In the end, they did that within 10 minutes of the second half kicking off.

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Arne Slot admitted his Liverpool team was well below its best during the first half of Saturday's Premier League comeback victory over Southampton at Anfield.

Slot made three changes to the team that lined up against Paris Saint-Germain three days earlier, with Kostas Tsimikas, Curtis Jones, and Darwin Nunez coming into the side for Andy Robertson, Alexis Mac Allister and Diogo Jota.

While Tsimikas and Jones shouldered no individual blame for a meek first-half display by the team, Slot felt the need to take both of them off, as well as Dominik Szoboszlai, as he made a triple substitution at halftime.

The drastic move worked as Liverpool moved in front within 10 minutes of the restart, with Nunez equalizing before also winning a penalty, which Mohamed Salah dispatched. The Reds were awarded a second penalty in the closing stages, which Salah once more dispatched to make sure of the points.

Slot, who watched the game from the stands as he served a touchline ban, told Sky Sports after the game that he was not impressed with what he had seen from his players in the first half.

"We had to be patient for a goal," Slot said. "It was a very poor performance first half. We were not in the game at all. It didn't come as a surprise to me that we conceded. We found a way to win the game in the second half.

"In the end, I had to make some hard decisions at halftime to create some anger. The three that came in did really well, but I could see from the other eight they were different.

"I am fully aware you cannot play high intensity for 38 games. Sometimes you have to find another way to win. Hopefully the first half was a warning sign. The good thing is we probably didn't run that much [before facing Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday]."

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Arne Slot has warned Giorgi Mamardashvili that he will not be immediately handed the no.1 jersey at Liverpool next season, despite Liverpool’s £29million ($37) outlay on the player.

A deal to sign the goalkeeper from Valencia was secured last year but his arrival was deferred for 12 months, meaning he will join Liverpool ahead of the 2025/26 campaign. Seen as one of the world’s most promising young goalkeepers, few would expect Mamardashvili’s next step in his career to be a back-up role.

But it’s also hard to imagine Slot dislodging Alisson from his starting role at present, especially on the back of his incredible display against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday. The Brazilian made nine saves to deny PSG - a record for a Liverpool goalkeeper in the Champions League - and was hailed as the world’s best by Slot and Virgil van Dijk.

It does pose a question of where Mamardashvili fits into Liverpool’s plans, something the manager is reluctant to discuss.

“I think he is at Valencia and they are in just as important a phase of the season as we are in, so it wouldn’t be smart for me to talk about a player that maybe belongs to us but is in such an important part of the season at Valencia,” Slot said on Friday when asked about Mamardashvili’s imminent arrival.

“But in general I can say if you want to play for Liverpool, you have to accept that there is competition. That is not only Liverpool but that is in every Premier League club at the moment because of all the money that is in this league but in Liverpool if you don’t want to face competition then it is not the best place to go to.”

The reference to competition for places could be a hint that Mamardashvili will not immediately command the no.1 jersey when he arrives, even if Alisson will turn 33 next season.

Alisson described his performance against PSG as the best of his career. (Image: Icon Sport via Getty Images)

“To become the world's best you make saves others don't and he had one or two of them on Wednesday,” Slot said separately on Friday when asked about Alisson’s display in Paris.

“I don’t think he needs that [competition], he is just a top professional like all the boys here. They know what it means to wear this shirt, you have to bring top performances otherwise you can't play for this club.”

While the incumbent Liverpool stopper has enjoyed another stellar season, his potential long-term replacement has not. Valencia currently sits 18th in La Liga and is in the grips of a relegation fight. Only bottom-place Real Valladolid has conceded more goals this term, with Mamardashvili allowing 4.6 more shots in than his expected save ratio.

His goalkeeper selection is a problem that Slot can temporarily put on hold, but the Dutchman knows a big and unpopular decision awaits this summer, no matter who starts the campaign between the sticks.

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Around the mid-2010s there was a running joke in the Premier League that Southampton had become Liverpool’s feeder club.

It may have felt disrespectful for a side that shone under Mauricio Pochettino, Ronald Koeman and Claude Puel between 2013 and 2017, finishing eighth or higher for four consecutive seasons. But there was, at least from a Liverpool perspective, some truth to this narrative.

Because over a period of less than four years, Rickie Lambert, Dejan Lovren, Adam Lallana, Nathaniel Clyne, Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk all swapped St Mary’s for Anfield. Chuck in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who joined Liverpool from Southampton via Arsenal, the brief loan stint of Stephen Caulker at both clubs, and the Reds’ reported interest in Ryan Bertrand and almost an entire XI of ex-Southampton men could have started for Liverpool at one stage.

In many ways, it’s a period that provided the platform for where both teams stand now. Liverpool’s purchases of Mane and Van Dijk were instrumental to the great Jurgen Klopp side that won the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League a year later, when the duo were among the best in Europe.

The likes of Lovren, Clyne, Lallana and Oxlade-Chamberlain also played important roles in that period, even if they provided more of a squad option for Klopp. But the influx of arrivals from Hampshire undeniably helped Liverpool reestablish itself as a prominent force in European football once again, even if the transfer policy feels like its from a bygone era.

The Reds’ recruitment is more efficient these days. There are fewer misses in the market; the low-hanging fruit approach of raiding the up-and-coming Premier League club would never be replicated. Liverpool now casts its net far and wide in pursuit of additions to the squad - in fact, Alexis Mac Allister’s arrival from Brighton & Hove Albion is the only first-team-ready signing from a Premier League club in the last four years.

In contrast, major questions must be asked of Southampton’s recent transfer strategy, which have resulted in the amalgamation of a squad lacking talent, identity or leaders. With just nine points on the board so far this season it could go down as one of the worst Premier League sides ever, and Arne Slot’s talk of Saturday’s game at Anfield being the most important in the upcoming eight days is likely to fall on deaf ears.

Southampton's one-time center-back partnership ended up at Liverpool. (Image: 2016 AMA Sports Photo Agency)

Ironically, it was Southampton’s penchant for finding progressive talents in the market that made it so successful a decade ago and resulted in so much interest from the league’s top sides. Plucking Pochettino from Espanyol was inspired, unearthing Mane and Dusan Tadic was excellent, while taking risks on Van Dijk and Victor Wanyama proved a sensible gamble.

Eventually, the cost of allowing its star names to leave caught up with Southampton, who unlike Liverpool, hasn’t been able to effectively update its transfer policy in modern times. It’s one of the biggest reasons why one team has been on a slowly upward trajectory, while the other has flatlined.

It provides an interesting background for Saturday’s clash at Anfield, a game that could be among one of the most unbalanced in the league’s history.

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Liverpool returns to Premier League action today, three days on from that incredible Champions League night in Paris.

The Reds may not need the same level of defensive discipline - and luck - to come away with a win at Anfield this afternoon, but Arne Slot was keen to stress that Southampton should not be underestimated.

That said, he hinted there could be changes to his XI for the game against the side that sits bottom of the Premier League and is in on course for one of the lowest-ever points tallies. With Arsenal not in action until Sunday, it also provides Liverpool with the chance to move 16 points clear of Mikel Arteta’s side at the top of the table.

Meanwhile, there has been plenty of transfer news in the last couple of days, with suggestions that Jurgen Klopp could help the Reds sign RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko, while the Reds have reportedly ‘inquired’ about the availability of Bayern Munich winger Kingsley Coman.

Stay tuned to our live blog for all the latest transfer news, pre-match Southampton build-up and all the latest news when the game does kick off.

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