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The high-flying Liverpool travel to the south coast where they face a Bournemouth side which continues to defy expectations in the Premier League. Join The Roar from 12:30am (AEDT) Monday for all the scores and action in the live blog.
Liverpool will be on a high after Tuesday’s EFL Cup quarter-final victory over Leeds United. The side Jurgen Klopp fielded at Anfield that night was relatively inexperienced with the likes of Trent Alexander Arnold and Ovie Ejaria deputising, but they got the job done. Despite impressing though, the likes of Nathaniel Clyne, Jordan Henderson and Roberto Firmino will all return for this Premier League clash.
The main story coming out of their win over Leeds, besides the club reaching a record 17th EFL Cup semi-final, was undoubtedly Ben Woodburn. The 17-year old striker broke Michael Owen’s long-held record for being the youngest scorer in Liverpool’s history, and already there is high expectations for him. Klopp spoke afterwards of protecting the youngster though, so it remains to be seen if he will feature at all on Sunday.
After looking so impressive and packed full of attacking talent a few weeks earlier, Liverpool are now about to go through a testing spell. With injuries to key men like Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana and Daniel Sturridge, along with Sadio Mane’s imminent departure for the African Cup of Nations- their squad depth will be severely tested over the next few busy months.
Meanwhile for Bournemouth their last start resulted in a 3-1 loss to Arsenal which manager Eddie Howe described as an “unfair reflection” of the game. They currently sit in the bottom half of the table, four points above the relegation zone. They’ve lost three of their last four in the league, with the only victory in that run coming away to Stoke a fortnight ago. Thirteen sides have scored more than the Cherries, while only eight have worse defences than them. They are very much a middling team at the moment.
Their record signing, Jordan Ibe, will come up against his former team for the first time with heavy expectation on his shoulders. The young Englishman has yet to really get started for his new club, but his immense potential means Howe must continue to have patience. Despite his promise and obvious attacking mentality though there are significant shortcomings in the winger’s game. Decision making in key moments continues to let him down at times, while the fact he has been substituted in 11 of his first 11 games means his fitness and consistency needs to be improved on.
Elsewhere, Jack Wilshere will be looking to gain the upper hand in the middle of the park against his English team-mate Henderson. The captain for Liverpool has been in impressive form as of late though and his calm assurance in front of the defence has allowed his side to recycle possession consistently and dominate the ball. If that happens once again at Vitality Stadium then Bournemouth could be in for a long afternoon. Divock Origi has scored in his last two games that he has featured in, and the young Belgian has a tendency to go on runs of form once he gets going.
Prediction
Liverpool will go into this game full of confidence despite missing a number of key players through injury. If they are to put a title challenge together this season though, the side needs to prove that it can cope with the losses and still pick up results. I think they’ll do just that in an entertaining game.
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