Rodgers: Saints win huge for the Reds

At the beginning of a surge towards the Barclays Premier League title in 2013-14, the Reds had excelled at St Mary's and returned to Merseyside with a 3-0 win and maximum points.

This time around, the race for Champions League qualification was the dominant theme of the day and Rodgers' charges responded to the game's importance in impressive fashion.

Barely three minutes had elapsed before Philippe Coutinho sized up his options 25 yards out and decided that crashing in a sublime shot off the crossbar was his preferred choice.

Liverpool then weathered the Saints' efforts in riposte and sealed all three points midway through the second half when Raheem Sterling pounced on a loose ball to double the lead.

The outcome moved the travellers up to sixth in the Premier League standings with 12 games remaining, two points off fourth place and three behind Arsenal in third position.

"It was an outstanding win for us, very controlled," said Rodgers. "Of course, you have got to defend at times, in particular away from home against a very good side.

"But it was a wonderful win for us and I thought as the game wore on, if we had picked our passes a bit better we might have got in a bit more.

"But we got two wonderful goals, different types of goals, and were defensively very, very strong so it was an excellent win.

"It's just going to be small steps for us. The first period of this season was nothing like what we've been in my time at the club. We had to find a solution to that.

"We have restructured the team and organised the team in a different way, to get that solidity back and get the balance back both offensively and defensively.

"And the players' response has been absolutely magnificent; we have been playing two or three times a week now for the last four months.

"Today was a huge win. To come here and win at any time, it is always a good victory if you can get a win here. But to come here on the back of a tough European game in the week, not concede and score two goals really shows the level that the players are working at.

"This is arguably as good, if not better, than the result we had here last year, when we played very well."

Liverpool's next five Premier League fixtures include meetings with Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal as the campaign approaches a decisive climax.

But with his team in such resolute and effective form - just a single defeat in the past 18 games in all competitions - Rodgers insisted they will embrace the challenges ahead.

The Northern Irishman continued: "When this team is in the condition that it has been for the majority of the last two-and-a-half months, we relish every game that we play.

"We have got Manchester City and Manchester United to play at home, and Arsenal away. It was a big step for us today to go three points behind, considering the start we had to the season.

"It really shows the consistency of the players. Hopefully, we'll use the experiences of last year, where we had a lot of young players gaining experience of the run-in - they coped with that very well and just missed out last year.

"Hopefully now we can keep the mentality and focus, and keep the performance level."

The manager made three changes to his starting XI against Southampton - Dejan Lovren, at his former club, Lazar Markovic and Sterling were named from the off.

Adam Lallana also featured from the first whistle in opposition to his ex-club and Rodgers praised the duo for the manner in which they handled the experience.

He said: "[Mamadou] Sakho has been in the team in the winning run, and it has been difficult for the players that haven't been able to perform, but they have kept up their work in training and been very professional.

"When Dejan has been asked, he has come off the bench and had to do a job for us in the last few games and played very well.

"Today was always going to be difficult, but I thought he dealt with it very well. Adam Lallana was outstanding."