Hosting Bournemouth at Anfield gave Liverpool the opportunity to leapfrog the South coast club, who were sitting one place above them in the table in 15th.
Jürgen Klopp made just one change to the side that embarrassed themselves against Manchester United, with Fabinho returning to the starting eleven at the base of the midfield, pushing Jordan Henderson forward into Jame Milner’s spot. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Scott Parker, after back-to-back thrashings at the hands of Manchester City then Arsenal, made three changes. Out went Lloyd Kelly, Ben Pearson and Philip Billing, replaced by Lewis Cook, Jaidon Anthony and Ryan Christie. Bournemouth had previously used variations of a back three, yet lined up in a 4-2-3-1 shape here.
It took Liverpool a little over two minutes to open the scoring. Mark Travers pumped the ball long towards the attackers, but it only got as far as Fabinho. Jordan Zemura headed it back in the other direction, yet Bournemouth’s attackers had failed to retreat, meaning Henderson could retrieve the bouncing ball unopposed. With Bournemouth leaving four men ahead of the ball, their midfielders were left outnumbered by Liverpool’s, especially with Roberto Firmino dropping back, so the Reds easily cut through them to attack the box. Zemura blocked Mohamed Salah’s cross but the loose ball fell to Firmino, who cut back onto his right foot and crossed into the middle. Bournemouth’s defensive line failed to move as a unit, with Adam Smith and Cook stepping up while Marcos Senesi remained deeper, allowing Luis Diaz to remain behind the defenders while staying onside, left free to jump and head home.
They then doubled their lead with a superbly placed shot from Harvey Elliott. Salah cut inside from the right and fed the ball to Firmino, whose poor touch fell fortuitously to Elliott to rifle home with his first touch. Bournemouth gave the teenager little space to make use of, but remaining back behind the play meant he was already facing in the right direction when the ball fell to him, needing no adjustments before taking his shot, enabling him to squeeze it in between Senesi and Cook before they could stop him.
Before the game had even had any opportunity to settle into some sort of pattern, Liverpool had already run up a comfortable lead.
The foundations of Liverpool’s success were laid in the midfield. With Bournemouth playing in a 4-2-3-1, the two sides’ shapes lined up perfectly in the centre, and with Elliott and Henderson sticking to Jefferson Lerma and Cook, Bournemouth found themselves unable to play out from the back, constantly going long to hand the ball back to Liverpool.
On the other hand, Liverpool would outnumber Bournemouth in the middle when they had possession. Firmino and Diaz would drop in to add to the midfield, while Joe Gomez would look to draw out Christie, leaving Lerma and Cook alone against four or five Liverpool players.
Liverpool added a third when they won the ball in midfield and Trent Alexander-Arnold played a one-two around Lerma, giving him the space to fire a shot in from distance.
They then added a fourth minutes later when a Salah pass backwards deflected off of Marcus Tavernier, looped up into the air and fell to Firmino. Chris Mepham appeared to see Travers coming off his line and left it to him, but the goalkeeper immediately retreated instead, leaving Firmino unmarked to divert the dropping ball into the net with the outside of his boot while Mepham stood with his arms outstretched.
Just before half-time, they added a fifth from a corner. Virgil van Dijk just made a simple zig-zagging run to disrupt Tavernier’s man-marking, allowing him to rise above the midfielder and head home.
Towards the end of the first half, Alexander-Arnold began to move inside to join the midfield, which allowed Elliott to pull out wide onto the right flank – a more natural position for him than his central midfield role. Elliott was removed at half-time as a precaution over a potential injury though, replaced by Fabio Carvalho – an attacking midfielder who prefers to play inside. This meant that rather than force Carvalho wide, Salah and Alexander-Arnold alternated between positions through the middle and on the wing.
It was an Alexander-Arnold cross from out wide that led to the next goal, as Mepham turned it into his own net. It was a little dubious as Diaz was in an offside position and, although the Colombian didn’t touch the ball, Mepham only needed to stretch to reach the ball due to the threat of Diaz behind him, asking questions of whether the Liverpool forward was interfering with play, however at 5-0 down the game was already long gone for Bournemouth, rendering refereeing decisions meaningless.
Parker had made changes of his own at half-time, removing Adam Smith and Christie for Dominic Solanke and Billing as Bournemouth switched to a 5-4-1. Anthony was moved back to right wing-back and Lerma back into the centre of the defence, with Billing in midfield and Solanke on the left flank. This was presumably an attempt to shore up the defence and minimise the damage but it clearly didn’t work.
Liverpool got their seventh with a short corner routine. Andrew Robertson and Carvalho doubled up on Cook and the Scot’s cross-cum-shot was palmed away by Travers, albeit only to Firmino standing directly in front of him as Bournemouth’s defenders all stood ball-watching. Travers stopped Firmino’s first shot, but with no help from his teammates he couldn’t do anything about the second.
The eighth came from Bournemouth giving Alexander-Arnold all the time in the world to pick out another cross. He switched play out to substitute Kostas Tsimikas on the left, who tapped it back for Carvalho to finish on the volley.
Liverpool rounded off their win with another from a corner, as Diaz simply got to the ball first at the near post to convert.
A first win of the season, and in such style, is a much-needed confidence boost to the Reds, although it’s difficult to imagine that Bournemouth will be in the Premier League next season.
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