Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Liverpool 3 Bournemouth 0 in the 2024-2025 Premier League season…
THE way Bournemouth want to go about their business helps.
Of course it does.
They want to be so intensely front foot, effectively playing a shape of 4-Cook-5 at times and leaving poor Lewis looking around hoping for any help going.
So it helps. It helps everyone look good when it is there as a chance to do so. The centre backs have to defend, have to engage and do so brilliantly. The goalkeeper is busy second half and shows yet again he is one of the best in the division.
But the midfielders – especially Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister – get to have the time of their lives. It’s a remarkably difficult first press to beat, but those two are remarkable midfielders. Those two are capable of the remarkable and then there it is. The whole pitch and Liverpool moving through it.
In the end, Liverpool are simultaneously fortunate to win 3-0 and unfortunate not to win 5-0. Bournemouth are a good side who will probably win more games than Nottingham Forest, but they won’t win many on top six grounds as long as we remember that Old Trafford doesn’t count any more.
The three goals are delightful. The ball from Ibou Konate to Luis Diaz was clearly worked on, but the way he takes the keeper out of the equation is pure improvisation and makes the opportunity golden. Diaz is the biggest beneficiary of Liverpool working harder to make very good chances, but this one is all him.
The second is a big slice of Trent Alexander-Arnold and great movement from Darwin Nunez and Mo Salah. Everything opens up – because Bournemouth – and then there is Diaz. The room down the Bournemouth right was just continually there, but it is easy to say that. You still have to do something with it and Diaz does.
I’m delighted for the big man. He was doing a disciplined job adequately, but then he pulled a tremendous finish out on his left foot. The header he won was tidy, the run strong, but that finish. Wow. Remarkable.
In a way, that was that. Bournemouth needed to not be lambs to the slaughter and they managed it – a good side, as I say. Liverpool wanted to keep the game in their hands. Mo Salah wanted more than that, but wasn’t great when he had the ball around their box for the second consecutive home game. Something for him to dwell on, though I suspect he won’t be featuring Wednesday.
The two centre backs probably won’t either and that will be fascinating because the pair of them have been so, so reliable so far. Today again they were totemic. Virgil van Dijk makes it look so easy and Konate doesn’t quite have that vibe, but this is the best the heart of Liverpool’s defence has looked since the autumn of 2021.
Federico Chiesa got on and looked a player and Cody Gakpo hadn’t lost a beat since Tuesday. Curtis Jones was very good, was so continually involved and probably should have grabbed the fourth. Suspect he has West Ham and Bologna in his future and he won’t let anyone down.
It’s what it should be today. I mean that in the context that the way they go about their business helps, but it helps the occasion too. They play football to play, they aren’t scared of going down and they shouldn’t be. But the job isn’t to make it easy for Liverpool.
I think my point is that this, like Manchester United away, shouldn’t have too much taken from it. Nothing is resolved after Forest, because the challenge is so different. We will have to wait to see that, wait to see what we do when a side next has a plan to frustrate first and foremost.
But it is 12 from five and a pathway to 18 from seven and that is the important thing now. That’s the standard we need to hit and suddenly the standards are everything.
This has been the best thing about the manager, the best thing post United, post Forest, post Milan and then today. The best thing is that we are here to win. Nothing but that is acceptable. We know where we stand.
Today, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister were the standard bearers. They were the boys. They were the best of us. They were capable of being remarkable.
And that sort of thing is always a sight to behold.
Subscribe for immediate post-match reaction from around the ground…
“That’s more like it! A proper composed Reds performance and makes last week feel like more of a blip.”
“It was about putting it right today. The way they turned 1 into 2, they recognised there was an opportunity to kill off the game.”
Reaction recorded in L4 on its way pic.twitter.com/qN3xLf518c
— The Anfield Wrap (@TheAnfieldWrap) September 21, 2024
