Billing too costly for a lacklustre Reds
Bournemouth 1 Liverpool 0, 11th March 2023.
Bournemouth 1 Liverpool 0, 11th March 2023.
There appeared to be very little danger as Bournemouth’s Brazilian goalkeeping captain Neto hurled a long throw from his penalty area on 28 minutes through the mizzle and drizzle of the falling rain on the south coast. Nor did there appear any danger when the game’s arguable “Man of the Match” Dango Ouattara bent his run on the halfway line to evade the offside trap for the through ball forthcoming. But as Virgil van Dijk continued a first half he’ll wish to forget in a hurry as he dithered with the loose bouncing ball on the edge of his penalty area, Ouattara didn’t. Sprinting clear with the ball toward the by-line, the Burkina Faso born striker even had the presence of mind to ignore the shove in the back from a retreating Andy Robertson before squaring a simple cross into the path of Philip Billing for an even simpler tap-in goal.
From goalkeeper to the opposition’s goal, in a handful of touches and a brief flurry of fast moving seconds.
You could be forgiven for thinking Bournemouth had scored a Liverpool type goal, for that’s what it was.
And that’s all she wrote.
Make no mistake, the Premier League’s bottom team, with 4 points from their last 12 available, fully deserved the 3 precious points on offer today. Whilst Jefferson Lerma was commanding in midfield, the “Cherries” of Bournemouth had no real need for doggedness or determination or a “backs to the wall” rear guard effort as they clung on to their 1–0 lead.
Instead, it was all rather comfortable and the “all rather comfortable” comment is as damning as it is accurate and reflective of the red machine who lashed seven goals past Manchester United just six days ago. Virgil van Dijk simply had to score from his free header in the six yard box on 41 minutes and his countryman Cody Gakpo led the early second half charge in search of an equaliser, but neither the charge or equaliser materialised. Rather, the Reds were as anonymous as they were a silvery white clad ghostly shadow of a team from less than a week ago, with substitute Diogo Jota forcing Neto into his only meaningful save of the entire game with a spectacular diving save and tip around the far post on 48 minutes.
Both teams received their just desserts. Bournemouth climbed out of the relegation zone, a position they retained after the completion of the later games this afternoon, whilst Liverpool stay 5th and 6 points from qualification for the Champions League after Tottenham Hotspur beat Nottingham Forest 3–1 later in the afternoon.
Sadly, this was another nadir amid the peaks and troughs of this “Sword of Damocles season” for a Liverpool team who will be, mark my words, unrecognisable to today’s limp embarrassment come Wednesday night and their trip to the Spanish capital. For it’s Los Blancos of Real Madrid up next and the Reds need, at the very bare minimum, a three goal victory to force extra-time against the Champions of Europe in their two-legged European Cup tie.
Time is running out on this squad of players as well as their participation in Europe’s premier competition.
The sword of Damocles lowers once more.
Afterword from The Boss, Jurgen Klopp, courtesy of www.liverpoolfc.com
“The game was pretty much the opposite of what we wanted to show and to do today. I think we played for pretty much 95 minutes the game Bournemouth wanted to play and a few minutes maybe, a few moments, we did the stuff we wanted to do actually”.
“Being 1–0 down; 45, 50 minutes’ time to sort it. I thought we started OK in the second half, were a bit clearer in our situations, get a penalty, miss the penalty. Now it’s of course hypothetical — it looked a little bit for me like if we score there, it doesn’t make the game better from the first half but it would give us a proper boost. But we didn’t score from that and then you could see we were a bit in a rush, didn’t create enough, in counter-attacking moments Bournemouth fought massively, with really big passion, won these balls and then the Bournemouth boys showed really their quality, how they kept the ball. We couldn’t defend them in the first place so we had to track back and defend them there. I can’t remember, maybe one big chance for them or a big finish, the rest we defended but it’s still pretty exhausting and then you have a long way back into their box, and so we lost the game. Very, very, very frustrating, yeah”.
Thanks for reading. There is a wealth of past and present articles on Liverpool FC within my library here or alternatively, here are my three most recently published articles from this season:
Reds in Seventh Heaven as they cast the Manchester Devils into the night
Liverpool 7 (SEVEN) Manchester United 0, 5th March 2023.medium.com
Reds back to winning ways over a toothless Wolves
Liverpool 2 Wolves 0, 1st March 2023.medium.com
Saturday night thriller it wasn’t as the Reds limp to a point at the Palace
Crystal Palace 0 Liverpool 0, 25th February 2023.medium.com