Bournemouth 3 Liverpool 2
What a statement from Bournemouth. All the talk after the game will be about Liverpool but I want give a shout out to Bournemouth for taking the game to Liverpool despite missing several key players like Tyler Adams, Justin Kluivert, Marcus Tavernier, David Brooks and losing their best player Antoine Semenyo to City last week. Despite missing so many players Bournemouth took the game to Liverpool as they do to everyone and didn’t sit back for the draw after Liverpool equalised in the 80th minute, Bournemouth looked the more likely to score in the closing stages of the game and that’s exactly what Amine Adli did from a Bournemouth long-throw that caused chaos in the Liverpool box leading to Adli poking home the winner with the last kick of the game.
What on Earth were Liverpool doing for that second goal? The first goal was bad enough from a Liverpool perspective with Virgil Van Dijk misjudging the bounce of the ball and letting Alex Scott pass it back into Evanilson who opened the scoring for Bournemouth, Alisson in coming out and trying to save it clattered into Joe Gomez who then had to go off because of the challenge. You’d think that Liverpool would have had a sub ready in a few minutes but no, Waturu Endo was stood on the side-line waiting to come on for 5 minutes and you’d think Liverpool might kick the ball out of play to get him on and get back to playing with 11 men but no, the ball goes back to Bournemouth who play the ball forward to Alex Jimenez who makes it 2-0 to Bournemouth, a completely avoidable goal for Liverpool who were playing with 10 men from the 26th minute to the 35th because they weren’t ready to sub someone on and kick the ball out of play.
Massive props to Andoni Iraola. You have to give massive credit to the Bournemouth manager for this game and the way his team played without so many first-teamers. This season has been a struggle so far for Bournemouth who now sit 13th in the table after this win but there’s been games I’ve been mightily impressed with them, the games against United at Old Trafford were they probably should have won, the win against Spurs a couple of weeks ago and now a huge win against a Liverpool side that was unbeaten for 12 matches in all competitions. He easily could have sat back after Szoboszlai equalised from a well-worked free-kick but he went for the win and got his just reward in the end with the last kick of the game.
Liverpool are just too inconsistent at the minute. During the week I thought Liverpool played really well against Marseille and should have scored more against one of the best teams in France, I thought that they would bring a similar type of performance in this game and they were showing signs of it in the first 25 minutes piling the pressure onto Bournemouth but lacking that cutting edge to score the first goal. The Liverpool attack was dreadful in this game with Mohamed Salah in particular having a really poor game but also Florian Wirtz and Cody Gakpo who were so wasteful throughout the match, Hugo Ekitike is the only Liverpool player that consistently looks like a threat when he plays but he can’t do it all by himself. There’s times when I’ve liked the way Liverpool have played this season like against Marseille or Real Madrid earlier on in the season but they are simply too inconsistent to challenge for the major honours this year.
Who wants top 4/5 this season? It seems like yet again the points total to get Champions League football this season is going to go down as the big teams like Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United etc just love to drop points far too often this year, Liverpool currently sit 4th on 36 points with United close behind in 5th on 35 points and a game in hand against Arsenal were they could move to 4th with a point, Chelsea are 6th on 34 points with a game against Palace that could see them in 4th if results go their way on Sunday. There’s a few other teams but you’d imagine that those 3 will be fighting for 2 positions come the end of the season with Newcastle not far behind. Aston Villa could also drop out if they begin a run of poor form over the next few weeks but I suppose we’ll wait and see if that happens. Some exciting football to come tomorrow in the Premier League, stay tuned.