Adam on squad spirit ahead of Saints clash

Today will see the midfielder and his Reds teammates travel to St Mary's Stadium for a Barclays Premier League clash with Southampton, the club he joined as a youth player in 2000.

Lallana captained the Saints from 2012 onwards, made 265 appearances for the club and scored 60 goals as he helped inspire the South Coast side's rise from League One to Premier League status over a period of three seasons.

He departed in the summer of 2014 to join Liverpool - and, after a testing start to his Anfield career, hampered by spells on the sidelines due to injury, the 26-year-old insists he's finding his feet.

The same can be said for the team as a whole, according to Lallana, who believes the Reds can be a match for any opposition in their current form.  

"We fancy ourselves in any game at the moment," he told the Liverpool Echo. "When you are confident, it doesn't matter who you are playing.

"Earlier in the season when you're not playing so well, you look at any fixture as difficult. But when you are playing well you're not worried about the opponents. You go into any game thinking 'we can get a win here'.

"We are putting our stamp on games now and teams are having to change their system because of the way we play, which shows the progress we have made.

"You can't just switch confidence on and off, you kind of build it up and then it comes naturally. I think at the minute we have that in abundance.

"We've been going to tough places, putting in mature performances and looking really solid at the back with more clean sheets. It's nicely coming together but there is a lot more work to do."

He added: "Since I came back into the team I have felt more settled in the role I've been playing. That's where I have played a lot of my football, especially last season.

"It was obviously frustrating to pick up the injury but the lads have maintained their form and I want to fight for my place and hopefully keep picking up wins."

Southampton have continued to prosper in the Premier League, despite losing Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Dejan Lovren to Liverpool, along with other talents to various clubs in the summer.

Manager Mauricio Pochettino moved on to Tottenham Hotspur; however, he was replaced by Ronald Koeman, who has since steered the Saints to fifth place in the league standings.

"Deep down I am delighted to see them doing so well," said Lallana. "I'm maybe a bit surprised they have consistently kept up the pace with the top four, but credit to them.

"It will help that the pressure is not there. They are the underdogs still and I've been there - it's a good feeling to have, with nothing to lose.

"You think 'let's go here or there and cause an upset again' rather than being expected to win. For us it's all about catching them now so we need to go down there and win."

While Lallana has proved in recent months just why Brendan Rodgers was so keen to secure his services in the summer of 2014, other young stars, recruited around the same time, have also started to shine for the Reds.

"Lads like [Lazar] Markovic and [Emre] Can have been playing brilliant," Lallana said. "They are both kids, 20 and 21, so of course coming to a big club was always going to take a bit of time.

"You can't always hit the ground running straight away. It takes a while for teammates to know their game, their strengths and their weaknesses, where they want the ball, where they feel more comfortable with it. They are both great lads and I am delighted to see them doing well.

"I knew it was never going to be easy with the amount of signings we had. But I was always confident we would turn a corner and since the Manchester United game we have been on a great run.

"We have found a system now and have a lot of confidence in one another. We have found a different way to play and are causing teams just as many problems again."