Just one week after putting seven goals past Manchester United, Liverpool were stunned as they fell 1-0 to Bournemouth away from home.
The fluidity from that famous performance at Anfield was nowhere to be seen here as Philip Billing’s first-half strike brought Jurgen Klopp’s side crashing back down to earth.
It was a hugely open start to the match with Virgil van Dijk having a header cleared off the line, Dango Ouattara rounding Alisson but firing wide and Cody Gakpo having a goal ruled out for offside before the game even reached the 15-minute mark.
After that, the home side settled into the game well, getting in behind their opponents a number of times, and took an arguably deserved lead just before the half-an-hour mark when Billing turned in a cross from Ouattara.
Liverpool didn’t respond well to going behind, being sloppy with the ball and struggling to create any chances of note as the first half of the clash neared its end, looking more likely to concede again than score.
They almost did go two behind just before the break with Dominic Solanke firing over and a penalty claim being waved away, but just about managed to make it down the tunnel only trailing 1-0 despite looking off their game all over the pitch.
In response to his team’s poor performance, Klopp brought Diego Jota on for Harvey Elliott, and the forward almost made an immediate impact, having an effort well saved by Neto at the start of the second half.
Liverpool hardly kicked on after that though, failing to seriously test the Brazilian goalkeeper again before the hour mark. Klopp made more changes as a result, bringing on veterans Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Roberto Firmino for Fabinho, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Darwin Nunez.
Those changes made an immediate impact when Jota got on the end of a Milner cross and had his effort blocked by the arm of Adam Smith, leading to VAR awarding a penalty. Mohamed Salah couldn’t level from the spot though, firing wide – the first time he has failed to hit the target with a spot kick in the Premier League.
The away side wouldn’t get another major chance to level things after that, failing to cause many problems for a resolute Bournemouth backline in what was an uninspired attacking display from start to finish.
Bournemouth claimed a huge three points that opened up the relegation battle even further, and Liverpool missed a chance to go fourth.
GK: Neto – 8/10 – Made one error but some really good saves that more than made up for it.
RB: Adam…
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