AFC Bournemouth v Liverpool

billythekid

UTC Legend
This Will Probably Be Our Hardest Match At Home

After big wins in our last two games against teams who had been in good form, the latest 5-0 against Nottingham Forest, which was the highest we have scored at home without conceding. Our next game at home at Dean Court on Saturday at 3 pm will probably be our hardest of the season at home, when we meet league leaders Liverpool. AFCB go into the game 11 league games unbeaten and Liverpool are unbeaten away in the league.

There are only four managers who have won the title on their debut season with their club. First was Jose Mourinho in 2004-05 with Chelsea, Carlo Ancelotti also with Chelsea in 2009-10, Manuel Pellegrini 2013-14 with Manchester City and Antonio Conte in 2016-17, the third Chelsea manager to achieve this.

Arne Slot could be the first Liverpool manager to win the Premier League title in his first debut season. His side are on an unbeaten 18 game run in the league, including 13 wins. They have only lost one game all season and that was against our previous visitors to Dean Court, Nottingham Forest and it was at Anfield.

Since our game at Anfield, away, Liverpool have beaten Wolves 1-2, Crystal Palace 0-1, Southampton 2-3, Spurs 3-6, West Ham 0-5, Brentford 0-2. Drawn 2-2 with Arsenal, 3-3 with Newcastle United and 1-1 with Nottingham Forest. At home they have won 6, drawn 2.

The last time our two sides met at Dean Court was back in January last year, a brace from both Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota in the second half gave Liverpool all 3 points.

In all our home league games against Liverpool, AFCB have W 2, D 0, L 5.
All competitions, AFCB have W 2, D 3, L 18.

AFCB Team News
So far no news on any new injuries, maybe we may see another player or two return to the side from injury and be on the bench. Mark Travers will be missing from the bench as he looks like joining Middlesbrough on loan.

AFCB Player To Watch
At Newcastle it was Justin Kluivert with a hat-trick, against Nottingham Forest last Saturday it was Dango Ouattara with a hat-trick. In our midfield Ryan Christie and Tyler Adams (3 assists in last two games) have formed a good partnership in recent games, that partnership could be crucial against the league leaders. Also our defenders have been on top of their game as well and we need that to continue on Saturday.

Liverpool Team News
Joe Gomez, Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones have all been out injured.

Liverpool Player To Watch
Mohamed Salah, leading with both goals 19 and assists 13, which is also the most goals and assists in the Premier League this season.

The Referee
Darren England is the man in the middle for this game. He took our FA Cup game last season home to Swansea and the league game away at Fulham. In June last year he was the referee for four games in the Japanese League.
 
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Strangely ambivalent about this one. A loss is to be expected and wouldn’t be the worst result in the world when it comes to the league. A draw or even a win would be some going. Just hope Iraola has done his homework on the two Forest games where they dropped points.
 
Strangely ambivalent about this one. A loss is to be expected and wouldn’t be the worst result in the world when it comes to the league. A draw or even a win would be some going. Just hope Iraola has done his homework on the two Forest games where they dropped points.
I trust AI to have a plan in place for Liverpool.
He'll enjoy having the chance to bloody the nose of the champions elect.

To be honest, I'd consider it more of a shock result if Liverpool managed to beat us as things stand right now. I don't think we'll lose and I'd even be slightly disappointed with a draw. No, I can't believe that I am feeling that way either !!!

I don't know why but I am sensing that Bournemouth 3 Liverpool 1 will be the right result.

I am confident that AI and the team will be too good for Liverpool.
If Florist could beat them, so can we, surely ?

:utc:
 
I trust AI to have a plan in place for Liverpool.
He'll enjoy having the chance to bloody the nose of the champions elect.

To be honest, I'd consider it more of a shock result if Liverpool managed to beat us as things stand right now. I don't think we'll lose and I'd even be slightly disappointed with a draw. No, I can't believe that I am feeling that way either !!!

I don't know why but I am sensing that Bournemouth 3 Liverpool 1 will be the right result.

I am confident that AI and the team will be too good for Liverpool.
If Florist could beat them, so can we, surely ?

:utc:
Just a shame Liverpool are already through in champions league and can rest a few first team players.
 
Last season under Klopp at this stage of the season, Liverpool had only lost one game and that was away at Spurs, their next defeat was also in London against Arsenal on the 4th February.
 
Just a shame Liverpool are already through in champions league and can rest a few first team players.
They'll need to be well rested to keep the score down to 3-1 if you ask me :p
We've got this :thumbup:

But as you said in your original post, even a defeat would not be of great significance to our season. It would just be a shame to see the unbeaten run come to an end and hopefully it won't.
 
Strangely ambivalent about this one. A loss is to be expected and wouldn’t be the worst result in the world when it comes to the league. A draw or even a win would be some going. Just hope Iraola has done his homework on the two Forest games where they dropped points.
Just been reading the report on that game at Anfield.

Forest didn’t have a shot in the first half and it was only after the Forest subs Elanga and Hudson-Odoi came on, that it made a difference, with Elanga setting up Hudson-Odoi for the only goal of the game.

It was Forest’s first win at Anfield since the year Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon.

Stats: Liverpool had 14 shots, 5 on target, against Forest 5 shots, 3 on target.
 
I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Liverpool. They had two home games (Man U and Ipswich) and two away games (N Forest and Brentford). Liverpool have gained 8 points, although they were comfortable the better team in all four games, so this is underachieving. Liverpool have been underperforming against xG values in this period. Liverpool have scored 9 goals and conceded 4 with xG estimating 10.22 goals with 2.56.

Goals Xg.jpg

Liverpool have had 6 goal scorers (Gakpo 3, Salah 2, Nunez 2 and 2 with 1 goal). Both Alexander-Arnold and MacAllister have 2 assists with 5 players with one each.


The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. Liverpool press high regardless of the opposition, with space behind for AFCB to target when we get the ball.

Av Pos.jpg

The following plot compares summary stats of Liverpool and AFCB over the last 4 games.

Liverpool have significantly more attempts, but big chances are more similar, and AFCB have been more clinical scoring more goals. Liverpool have conceded far fewer goal attempts per game, although big chances conceded are the same, with AFCB conceding one fewer goal. Liverpool have the better xG stats, both offensively and defensively.

Comparison.png

Liverpool have a much higher possession percentage than AFCB, and a higher pass completion Liverpool have a higher percentage of chances created from open play whilst AFCB concede a lower proportion from open play – this figure has reduced noticeably, probably because we have played Everton and N Forest in our last 4 games.

Percentages.png
 
Recently before games, other websites mention teams we have beaten at home, but Spurs is never mentioned. When we beat them they had a strong side out.


Couple of comments from Liverpool fans.

Not the end of the world if we drop points from time to time. So is it going to happen against this in form opponent?

My biggest problem with that would be going to Goodison after that and being ‘desperate for a win’

And please don’t get me started with 'we’ll batter Bournemouth because we rested our first team in midweek‘. Stuff like that usually doesn’t work for us.


Really tricky match, they’re absolutely flying right now. Just dismantled Newcastle and Forest but they also had already beaten Arsenal and City at their place iirc. It feels like another chance to make a statement here. We’ve had a couple already recently which we didn’t quite manage to take (United and Forest). It could also affect Arsenal’s mood going into the City game. Very curious to see how this pans out.
 

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