Southampton

We asked you for your thoughts on Wednesday's FA Cup tie between Liverpool and Southampton.

Here are some of your comments:

Ian: Once again, we failed to take good chances. None of our strikers are Premier League quality and that needs to be put right. Perhaps we're not yet ready for promotion, neither the players nor management. It's been a good season up to now but the recent defeats, and this game, have shown they need to invest in better players. There ought to be enough money.

Paul: We should have won the game by half-time. We had a lot of chances wasted in front of goal. Was it down to the big occasion or is it the same problem we were facing in our last few games that could jeopardize our automatic promotion chances?

Ben: Same old Southampton. They were the better team with the better chances, but it's a familiar story against Premier League opposition. We failed to put away the chances. At least the owners know what we're missing. We need the next Rickie Lambert.

Daz: Saints are not a Premier League side if they can't beat Liverpool youth! Our defence is shocking, we need stronger defenders and a stronger goalkeeper if we are to stand any chance of getting out of the Championship or progressing in any future competitions. They need to stop playing out from the back, it's dangerous and can be costly. Saints are crumbling with the pressure!

Teenager Lewis Koumas scored on his debut and fellow 18-year-old Jayden Danns netted twice off the bench as Liverpool beat Southampton to set up an FA Cup quarter-final tie with Manchester United.

With injuries to a host of first-team players, Jurgen Klopp named six players aged 21 or younger in his starting XI and, just as in Sunday's Carabao Cup final, the youngsters did not let him down.

Southampton had a host of chances in the first half but having failed to make them count, they were punished when Koumas collected Bobby Clark's pass and found the bottom corner as his low shot deflected off Saints captain Jack Stephens a minute before the break.

The visitors had further opportunities to level in the second period but remained profligate in front of goal.

Again they were made to pay as Danns, on for Koumas to make just his third Liverpool appearance, ran on to Harvey Elliott's pass to score with a lovely dinked finish at the Kop End.

Danns struck again two minutes from time, thumping the ball home after Southampton goalkeeper Joe Lumley had parried Conor Bradley's shot into his path.

While Liverpool remain in contention for a quadruple, and can look forward to a mouth-watering meeting at Old Trafford in the last eight, Russell Martin's Saints can now give their full attention to trying to earn promotion back to the Premier League.

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Follow all of the reaction here

The draw for the FA Cup quarter-finals has been made, with the ties set to be played on the weekend of Saturday, 16 March.

There are four games being played in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Wednesday and we will bring you every moment.

Follow all of the action and reaction here

All times are GMT

BBC Sport's football expert Chris Sutton has made his predictions for this week's FA Cup fifth-round ties.

For all eight games he is up against Kaiser Chiefs bassist and Leeds fan Simon Rix.

Sutton's prediction: 3-1

Southampton have hit a bit of a sticky patch but they are still going to play the same way and be open and expansive.

They will give Liverpool room to play and the fact the game is at Anfield should help Jurgen Klopp's side too, whether he goes with the kids again like he did at Wembley, or not.

We do not know if any of the big guns will be back for Liverpool after missing the Carabao Cup final, but we know that, as a team, they are hungry for trophies.

In fact, Klopp will be gluttonous, and want to win everything in his final season in charge of the Reds.

Saints will be brave but Liverpool just love to press teams and are so good at it. That will probably be the difference.

Simon's prediction: 2-1

I would love Southampton to have a long and fruitful FA Cup run so they are not thinking about promotion, but I really cannot see it happening for them. You have got the 'Jurgen Klopp farewell' factor because I definitely think everyone is doing it for him at Liverpool at the moment, but also Saints have now lost three of their past four games in the Championship after being on that long unbeaten run, so they are not in particularly good form.

See the full list of predictions here

• Find out where to watch all of the fifth-round ties here

Image source, Getty Images

The draw for the quarter finals of the FA Cup will take place on Wednesday at 19:00 GMT, before Chelsea's tie with Leeds United, which kicks off at 19:30.

It will be live on ITV4 and you can also follow the draw on the BBC Sport website and app.

Former England goalkeeper David Seaman, a four-time FA Cup winner with Arsenal, will conduct the draw.

The ball numbers will be:

1. Blackburn Rovers or Newcastle United

2. Chelsea or Leeds United

3. Bournemouth or Leicester City

4. Liverpool or Southampton

5. Nottingham Forest or Manchester United

6. Wolverhampton Wanderers or Brighton & Hove Albion

7. Coventry City

8. Luton Town or Manchester City

Harry Tizard
Fan writer

When Southampton came from 2-0 down to thump Huddersfield Town 5-3 and extend their unbeaten run in the Championship to 22 games, it looked like nothing was stopping Russell Martin's men in their pursuit of automatic promotion.

Fans were ready to buy red and white bunting to celebrate the Saints' immediate return to the Premier League. However, three losses in their past four outings have seen Southampton relinquish control of their own destiny and hand it to Leeds United, who have won all nine league fixtures in 2024.

Despite Southampton only being five points behind the Whites with 12 games left, many have already turned their back on the chance of finishing in the top two and are settling for the play-offs.

Frustrations and reactionary comments are understandable. Despite this, a few bad results are not a good enough reason to question the tactics and style of a manager who has re-energised the club in a way that was lauded by everyone just a few weeks ago.

The prospect of facing Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Leeds United away during the run-in is dawning, but it gives Southampton an opportunity to right their wrongs and disrupt those above them.

Harry Tizard can be found at The Saints Score, external

Image source, Getty Images

Russel Martin says he and his team are "excited" to play Liverpool and it's "a brilliant opportunity to see how far we've come" this season.

Southampton, who travel to Anfield on Wednesday for a place in the FA Cup quarter-final, face a Jurgen Klopp side that only days before lifted the Carabao Cup.

"There's always pressure but I think no one will expect us to get anything outside of this building," said Martin.

"The challenge for us is to be the team we want to be. I say that every week but now we're going to Anfield, an amazing place to play and they have just won a cup. If you don't get excited for that or embrace that challenge then you're probably in the wrong game!

"It's one we're all looking forward to. The challenge is to go there and be brave and aggressive and see how far that can take us.

"It will be a brilliant atmosphere I'm sure. I'm going to stand in the dugout next to one of the greatest managers we've seen in the Premier League. I think it's amazing what Klopp has done, not only on the pitch but to bring a city together and connect with the community like he has.

"This is a brilliant opportunity for us to go there, go toe-to-toe and see how far we've come and how far we have to go."

Here are the key facts and figures before Wednesday's FA Cup fifth-round tie between Liverpool and Southampton:

• Liverpool have won each of their past four FA Cup meetings with Southampton, most recently a 3-0 fifth-round victory at Anfield in 1989-90.

• Southampton have lost their past six away games against Liverpool in all competitions, and are winless in seven (D1) since a 1-0 victory in the 2016-17 League Cup semi-final.

• Liverpool have alternated between progression (five) and elimination (four) in their past nine FA Cup fifth-round ties. They beat Norwich 2-1 in their last such match in 2021-22.

• Southampton have progressed from three of their past four FA Cup fifth-round ties, including twice in the previous three seasons. However, they did lose against Grimsby Town at this stage of the competition last term.

• Southampton's Che Adams has been directly involved in four goals in his past three FA Cup appearances (two goals, two assists), twice as many as he was in his first 18 games in the competition (one goal, one assist).

Image source, Getty Images

Former Southampton striker Jo Tessem believes Russell Martin got his tactics wrong in Saturday's 2-1 home defeat to relegation-threatened Millwall.

It was a third defeat in four for Saints as they lost ground on the automatic promotion places.

"The one thing that was a little bit annoying was the role of Jack Stephens, it's not directly his fault it's the way we produced the tactic on the day and it relates back to Russell Martin," Tessem told the Goin' Home With Adam and Jo podcast.

"Walker-Peters played on the left-hand side and he played like a centre-half and Harwood-Bellis was kind of like a right-back but when he went Jack Stephens went into like the midfield role and Harwood-Bellis tucked in and we had no right-back.

"We had more people in midfield and it didn't make any sense because it kind of blocked (Will) Smallbone from his job, Joe Aribo's job and Stuart Armstrong's job.

"Armstrong got done on his side because he had Walker-Peters and Ryan Fraser there but on the other side David Brooks was kind of on his own on the whole right side of the pitch.

"It looked odd, we kind of got through the first half, but second half when the tempo went down you could see how stupid it looked. The tactical choices of that game absolutely was wrong."

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

Image source, Getty Images

Southampton boss Russell Martin says his side are "a big scalp" for other teams.

The Saints had been on a club record unbeaten run before their 3-1 defeat by Bristol City 10 days ago.

After bouncing back against West Bromwich Albion, they followed that with a narrow loss to promotion rivals Hull City on Tuesday, leaving them fourth in the Championship.

As they prepare to face a Millwall side with a new manager in charge, Martin feels teams are now changing the way they play when coming up against his side to try and get a result.

"[The players] face everything in training I can give them. As I always say to you, I don't sit here and tell the players I know exactly what the opposition are going to come with because I don't," he said in his pre-match news conference.

"We watched Hull in the previous game before us and they looked very different to the team that came and played against us in their approach. Bristol City were the same, we watched them against Leeds the week before they played us, then they came against us with way more aggression than we've seen from them since Liam [Manning] took over.

"It was the same with Hull, they had way more aggression. Whether that is a decision they make to play against us, the guys have to accept that Southampton is a big scalp for people with the players that we have in the building.

"I don't mean that in any disrespectful way, but teams are desperate to go against the guys here because of the run we've been on. That is a testament and credit to the guys. We must step up to that."

Image source, Getty Images

Southampton missed out on the chance to move up to second in the Championship after Hull City's 2-1 victory brought their nine-game unbeaten run at home to an end.

Russell Martin's side have now lost two games out of their last three, following their club-record 25-match unbeaten run, and former Saints player Jo Tessem has been discussing their performance on Goin' Home With Adam and Jo: "You have got to be smart when you see that you are playing yourself into trouble over and over again, and that's the player's job on the pitch.

"When you can't play small passes in the midfield, and you keep losing it, you have got to just do something different. Something different might just be a long ball over the top or just being more cynical in that way.

"Hull set a trap for us over and over again in the midfield and they were successful because they scored a goal from it in the end. That's the problem.

"They were smart, tough, crucial in the moments they needed to be, worked really hard and were brave on the ball. There's not many teams that come to St Mary's and have the same amount of possession rate as they had."

Tessem went on to criticise forward Sekou Mara's performance, stating: "He played OK against West Bromwich, I wouldn't say he was really good, but he was a mile away from it against Hull.

"He has a lot to learn. He's a young player, learning the trade, so that will happen. In the 4-3-3, you have got to have a striker who stays high up on the pitch, like Che Adams did when he came on. You just have to stay and occupy the two centre-halves. He didn't.

"He drifted everywhere, away from the two centre-halves, and one of his jobs as a striker is to push the back four backwards to create the space in the middle of the park.

"It kind of went wrong there and it's because the strikers and wingers didn't stretch them forward. We didn't play in behind and we didn't create any runs in behind either."

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds