Perennial Premier League title challengers Liverpool have made an indifferent start to the 2022/23 campaign and will be looking to post their first win. Criticism surrounding the Merseyside giants is especially loud given the manner in which they collapsed and suffered a 2-1 loss at the hands of arch-rivals Manchester United at the Old Trafford last weekend.
Liverpool will now focus on hosting Bournemouth at home and they are 16th in the Premier League table as things stand. Jurgen Klopp’s side has picked up just two points from their opening three matches so far while Bournemouth currently occupy the 15th place in the standings with three points from their first three Premier League fixtures so far this season.
While they were being praised for being in the race to become the first club from England to win the quadruple as recently as March this year, Liverpool’s 2021-22 campaign ended in disappointment across all fronts. They lost the Premier League title to Manchester City in the final weekend and then went on to suffer a 1-0 loss with Spanish giants Real Madrid winning the Champions League final.
Despite their dominance and consistency across all formats, Liverpool only have a single Premier League title and one Champions League title to show for their efforts. In manager Jurgen Klopp’s seventh season at the club, the wheels seem to be coming off as was also the case with Klopp at his previous clubs in Mainz and Dortmund.
Liverpool couldn’t have gotten off to a worst possible start to their 2022/23 Premier League campaign and they have really struggled to get going so far. They drew their opening couple of fixtures against Fulham and Crystal Palace. The draw against Fulham, was especially fortunate given that they were second best to the side all afternoon and managed to grab a point through a lucky goal.
The start to the season went from bad to worse for the Merseyside giants as they suffered a 2-1 defeat to Manchester United of all teams. A struggling Red Devils outfit dominated much of the early proceedings and got their noses ahead with Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford scoring on either side of the half-time break.
Although star man Mohamed Salah halved the deficit with a scrappy goal in the 81st minute and threatened to claim a late point in Manchester, the hosts had done enough to hold off Klopp’s army and secured a massive victory as criticism continues to mount around. That loss has left Liverpool down in 16th position in the Premier League table with just two points to show from their opening three matches.
It has also left Klopp’s side with plenty of ground to cover when it comes to the teams at the summit of the Premier League. Early leaders Arsenal are already seven points while defending champions Manchester City currently have a five-point lead.
Therefore, it goes without saying that the pressure is definitely on Klopp’s side heading into this match, especially given that their next matches after this encounter with Bournemouth are against an improving Newcastle United and a Merseyside derby contest against Everton which always raises the occasion.
Klopp may not be ready to give in to panic and the German manager has offered a few inexplicable reasons behind Liverpool’s early struggles already. However, the club’s relative lack of activity in the transfer market despite knowing the team’s injury problems and lack of squad depth has received plenty of criticism and it could lead to another poor campaign, if not dealt with properly.
On paper, Bournemouth do not represent the strongest of challenges to Liverpool as they have won only a single of the 17 matches held between the two sides. They have also lost each of their last six meetings with English top flight giants Liverpool, including both the fixtures during the 2019-20 campaign. The last time the Cherries got the better of Liverpool was at home way back in December 2016.
However, between Liverpool and Bournemouth, it is the latter who can claim to have already notched up a win in the Premier League so far this season. Scott Parker’s team began proceedings this season with a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa in the first week of August. However, they were under the cosh in their next couple of matches against English heavyweights Manchester City and Arsenal and unsurprisingly, lost both the matches while conceding seven goals in the process.
The defeats may have done enough damage to deflate the confidence of the players as Bournemouth visibly struggled in their last two encounters against the current top two in the Premier League. The newly-promoted outfit will have their work cut out for them once again in the matter of three weeks as they face a huge test of their mettle with the trip to Liverpool.
Bournemouth, however, are arriving into this contest on the back of a victory, having dealt a loss to Norwich City on penalties in the EFL Cup on Tuesday night.
After the action-packed encounter with Liverpool, the Cherries will end the month with a home fixture against Wolverhampton Wanderers. They had finished second in the second division of English football last season with 88 points from 46 matches and suffered just eight losses during the season. However, they will be fully aware of the massive challenge that awaits them and their primary goal will be to stay up in the English top flight.
Bournemouth had spent five consecutive seasons in the lucrative Premier League before going down and spending two seasons in the Championship. They will be looking to consolidate their place back among the elites of English football once again.
LIV vs BOU, Premier League 2022/23
Date: 27th August, 2022
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Venue: Anfield Stadium, Liverpool
FORM GUIDE:
Liverpool Premier League form:
- D-D-L
Liverpool form (all competitions):
- D-D-L
Bournemouth Premier League form:
- W-L-L
Bournemouth form (all competitions):
- W-L-L-W
HEAD-TO-HEAD:
Liverpool wins: 13
Draws: 3
Bournemouth wins: 1
TEAM NEWS:
Liverpool Team News:
Liverpool will once again miss the services of their big-money acquisition upfront Darwin Nunez due to the straight red card that he saw against Crystal Palace. Besides him, the rest of the team continues to suffer from a plethora of injury issues that is showing no signs of ending.
Thiago Alcantara, Diogo Jota, Joel Matip, Curtis Jones, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ibrahima Konate and Calvin Ramsay are all in the treatment while the likely participation of Caoimhin Kelleher is also doubtful. As such, it hardly makes sense why Liverpool haven’t been more active in order to seek replacements in the transfer market.
Fabinho was fit enough to make it to the bench against Manchester United last Monday, but he is expected to return to the starting XI which might force one off James Milner or Jordan Henderson off.
Besides him, Klopp doesn’t have too many options to force his hand and therefore, the Liverpool XI is expected to be quite similar to the one that took the field against Old Trafford despite their massively disappointing performance.
Bournemouth Team News:
As far as Bournemouth are concerned, Joe Rothwell, Ryan Fredericks, David Brooks and Junior Stanislas will continue to miss out. However, there might be some respite in the shape of Jamal Lowe returning to the squad after recovering from his illness.
During his press conference, the Cherries boss Scott Parker also revealed that Dominic Solanke is also pushing to be available for selection after recovering from an ankle injury but he may only be fit enough to make it to the bench.
During the EFL Cup contest with Norwich City, there were a number of changes to the Bournemouth XI. However, the players who got a deserved rest should be back into the side here with Kieffer Moore ready to lead the frontline against an unsuspecting and weary Liverpool defence that has conceded goals of late.
Liverpool possible starting lineup:
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Elliott, Fabinho, Henderson; Salah, Firmino, Diaz
Bournemouth possible starting lineup:
Travers; Mepham, Senesi, Kelly; Smith, Pearson, Lerma, Zemura; Tavernier, Moore, Christie
Predictions:
Despite the obvious gulf in quality as far as the two sides are concerned – Liverpool finished in the Premier League last season while Bournemouth finished second in the Championship – the visitors will take some comfort in the fact that the Merseyside giants have looked like a shadow of their own selves in the early quarters of the season and have had their fair share of struggles.
Klopp will be under quite some pressure to deliver a win in front of the Kop at Anfield, especially after the bitter loss to Manchester United. What’s quite evident is the fact that Liverpool cannot afford to make mistakes after their poor start to the campaign. The hosts will be expected to go all guns blazing in this encounter and notch up a win.
