Liverpool leave Klopp baffled again
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Bournemouth’s win against Liverpool
Rarely has a Premier League team lurched between extremes quite like this Liverpool side. Six days on from their historic 7-0 thrashing of Manchester United comes a 1-0 reverse to a relegation-threatened Bournemouth outfit they beat 9-0 earlier in the season.
“What can I say?” said a baffled Jurgen Klopp in his television interview afterwards. “It was never really our game.”
That said, they started promisingly enough, creating a flurry of chances as they sought to pick up where they left off at Anfield, but opportunities were passed up and, at the other end, familiar issues resurfaced as Gary O’Neil’s side grew in confidence.
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Most of the problems stemmed from the right-hand side, where Dango Ouattara repeatedly got in behind Liverpool’s ragged defensive line. It was one such instance that yielded the goal and the visitors were fortunate not to have been punished earlier.
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Virgil van Dijk, once imperious at the heart of this Liverpool defence, was far too easily beaten when it came, with Philip Billing left in space to dispatch the finish from the centre of the box.
Liverpool never really got to grips with Ouattara, who continued to threaten on the break deep into the second half, and there were problems in midfield too. At times, a lack of intensity and control. At others, a complete lack of imagination on the ball.
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That lack of imagination was never clearer than in the closing stages of the game. Mohamed Salah’s missed penalty came on 69 minutes. In the remaining 26, including stoppage time, and despite the urgency of the situation, they mustered only two shots.
It spoke to a complete lack of confidence as well as a lack of creativity and imagination, and that despite events at Anfield only six days earlier, when they looked back to their devastating best.
It turns out it was just another mirage. This Liverpool team are fragile, in every sense, capable of brilliance in bursts, but just as quick to show their worst selves. This was a case of the latter.
Nick Wright
Billing shows qualities Liverpool lack
Image: Philip Billing celebrates after the win over Liverpool
Bournemouth had numerous candidates for the player of the match award at the Vitality Stadium. Dango Ouattara was one. Marcos Senesi and Lloyd Kelly others. But Philip Billing had as strong a claim as anyone.
The Dane’s goal, his second in a week after he struck inside 10 seconds against Arsenal, was clinically taken, albeit against an obliging Liverpool defence, and it was just one of many moments which caught the eye.
There were marauding runs, smart interceptions and well-timed tackles, the 26-year-old contributing at both ends of the pitch, and most striking of all, particularly in contrast to the sluggishness of Liverpool’s midfielders, was the intensity with which he did it.
Billing only spent 69 minutes on the pitch before his second-half substitution, his early withdrawal a testament to how he had run himself into the ground in pursuit of victory, but Premier League tracking data showed he still made more high-intensity sprints (22) than anyone in Liverpool colours.
In fact, only one player on either side – Ouattara – beat his total. “We had to be diligent,” said Billing in his post-match TV interview. He typified that diligence as much as anyone. How Liverpool would love to have a midfielder like him right now.
Nick Wright
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