Mignolet: We must forget Saints defeat
Simon Mignolet has called on Liverpool to forget the surprise defeat they suffered on home soil against Southampton earlier this season and simply put things right at St Mary's on Saturday.
The Saints are the only team to have departed Anfield with a victory in 2013-14, as defender Dejan Lovren's effort shortly after half-time earned the visitors a 1-0 win back in September.
Brendan Rodgers' team were overturned on their last trip to the south coast too, falling 3-1 almost 12 months ago. Mignolet, though, puts little stock in either result ahead of the latest encounter.
In fact, the Belgian stopper expects nobody to be thinking about what has happened before when the two sides line up and prepare to cross swords in the 5.30pm GMT kick-off this evening.
He told Liverpoolfc.com: "We don't really have to make it more difficult than it is. Southampton got a result against us at Anfield, but that's in the past. I'm sure nobody will think about that any more once the game kicks off on Saturday.
"They have got a few players who can score a goal and create something. Everybody has spoken about the likes of Lallana, Rodriguez and Rickie Lambert up front.
"But, for us, it's more about looking at ourselves; we have to be at our best and we don't really have to think about the opponents or their threats. We have to make sure that we're at a level we want to be.
"There's no point in looking at the other teams. We have to look at ourselves and we have to do our job. We won last week, but that's the past now.
"We have to look forward and the next game is Southampton. We'll try to prepare ourselves this week the best we can, to make sure that we start that game in a positive way. We'll prepare ourselves this week to make sure that we start the game in the right way at kick-off."
Last Sunday's dramatic triumph over Swansea City, coupled with Tottenham Hotspur's loss at Norwich City on the same day, opened up a six-point cushion for Liverpool in fourth place.
The Barclays Premier League standings show the Reds trailing the leaders by just four points too, with Kopites around the world growing ever more excited about what could happen this season.
A studious and composed character, however, Mignolet refused to countenance talk of a title challenge - pledging instead that the team will focus solely on the task of beating Southampton.
"It's still too early to talk about that," the 25-year-old 'keeper continued. "There are still 11 games to play and a lot to play for.
"We have to stay calm and make sure that we're focused on the next job in hand, not looking too far ahead of us or to the end of the season, because there are still a lot of games to be played.
"We've got Southampton at the weekend and our focus is only on that single game - not what's going to happen after that. We have to make sure that we prepare ourselves for that game and get a result away to Southampton."