FORMER Saints skipper Adam Lallana won praise last night despite Liverpool’s Champions League humbling by Real Madrid at Anfield.

Lallana was brought on at half-time for the ineffectual Mario Balotelli with the Reds 3-0 down, and that is how the game ended.

On his decision to substitute Balotelli, Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers said: "It was purely tactical.

“ I felt we needed a bit more movement centrally to occupy the centre-halves and Raheem's speed and movement would give us that.

“Adam Lallana came on and he was tireless.

“In the second half every single player was pressing and working wanting to get something from the game and for us the minimum here.

“Adam came on and did that very well.”

Despite Real's obvious brilliance after riding out a spell of Liverpool pressure for the first 20 minutes Rodgers felt the half-time scoreline was harsh on his side.

“We conceded a disappointing first goal and the other two were sloppy and loose and nowhere near to what we would want,” he said.

Ex-Saint Dejan Lovren played the entire 90 minutes, but Rickie Lambert was one of the four unused substitutes.

Lambert’s involvement in three Champions League games so far has been limited to nine minutes as a late sub in a 1-0 loss at Basle.

He has only made one Premier League start for the club, plus five appearances off the bench.