Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Bournemouth 0 Liverpool 4 in the 2023-2024 Premier League season…
THERE’S a wind that blows in from the North.
There was so much weather and so much threat of weather. There were reasons to be indecisive, reasons to be not-so-sure.
There was a side in form, a side at home, a side certain of its values.
There were excuses all over the shop. There was every reason not to win.
The Opposition 0 Liverpool FC 4.
There’s a wind that blows in from the North.
In hindsight, Liverpool are inevitable.
But, in real time, they felt anything but. In real time, balls went across Liverpudlian boxes. In real time, Liverpool’s centre backs and goalkeeper played ever so well. In real time, matters were fraught until they weren’t.
I like them ever so much. Bournemouth are a proper football team, structured and aggressive and certain; they know their areas and know when to go. They get three corners in the first 10 minutes. They know their press and God I love them for it, love them because they have to work, have to play.
Every time Liverpool repel them, Liverpool become likelier. Every time Liverpool see them out, the more you remember Liverpool’s superiority in attack.
We get to half time and Liverpool haven’t created enough, but have exhausted them.
There’s a wind that blows in from the North.
I watch the videos from the ‘80s of brilliant Liverpool sides. They look slow. Then suddenly, they move the ball so fast no one knows what to do and the opposition concede.
Darwin Nunez’s opener looks exactly like that. Everything is pedestrian, but then there is pace, and Curtis Jones, and him, and Diogo Jota, and suddenly there is 0-1, and suddenly this is only going one way.
Jota is quicksilver for the second and the only man alive for the third. He is Ian Rush, he is lithe and certain, the man who knows all the angles. He is revelatory, which he has been in the past in the absence of Mo Salah.
Through the whole game, the pitch belongs to Alexis Mac Allister. He is, by some distance, the best player on the turf. Behind him though, he has centre halves to die for. Adjacent to him Joe Gomez and Conor Bradley are the business.
There’s a wind that blows in from the North.
The third comes when Liverpool need it. Bournemouth can’t get near Liverpool’s goal, but you want the security blanket and there is Rushie, making sure.
It feeling like times past suits Liverpool. They appear the most robust of the teams, the likeliest to view the highs and lows as adventures. It is important to flip ours and Manchester City’s results, ours and City’s situations in the league table and with the games to come.
Come here.
The circumstance is ours, suits us, is us. We need to swagger it, live it, adore it. Nunez’s goal makes it four and it is all about what comes next — Liverpool’s ceiling raises, their floor will not move.
The floor is ‘these are deadly serious’. They have the centre backs who were magnificent. They have Alexis Mac Allister who was the best footballer on the pitch today. They have goals.
These can win the football league again. You want more? You’ll be lucky. These are the best we could have hoped for.
There’s a wind that blows in from the North,
And it says that loving takes this course,
Come here,
Come here…
The Opposition 0 Liverpool FC 4.
Now, 17 more hurdles. I love the hurdles, and the enterprise, and the business. We should only have one thing in mind.
This game fell in the middle of nowhere. It was hard. But now, now — it sets everything up.
Into these.
Neil
Sublime. Writing and performance. Not just second half. First half paved the way for the second. Both were needed for the outcome.
Jota is indeed or current Rushie. Robbo is our Barney, Curtis is our Ronnie Whelan, Dom our Jimmy Case, Virgil is Jocky Hansen, Ibou is Lawro and Connor is our new Chico. We’ll be just fine I reckon.