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Liverpool kicked off this season’s Premier League by hosting Bournemouth at Anfield.
Arne Slot made one change to the side that lost the Community Shield to Crystal Palace, as Alexis Mac Allister replaced Curtis Jones in midfield.
With most of his defence sold, Andoni Iraola has been forced into changes from last year’s successful team.
Although slight changes cropped up as Liverpool’s midfielders roamed, Bournemouth’s press followed a consistent pattern: the wingers picked up Liverpool’s full-backs, Evanilson picked up Ibrahima Konaté, Alex Scott positioned himself to block the pass into Mac Allister while also stepping up to press Virgil van Dijk, Marcus Tavernier followed Dominik Szoboszlai, and Tyler Adams picked up Florian Wirtz.
Early on Liverpool mainly sought to get around this by simply going over the top, playing direct passes to the forwards.
It didn’t take them long to work out they could take advantage of Scott’s dual role though. Putting some distance between Mac Allister and Van Dijk would make it near-impossible for Scott to cover both, either creating space for Van Dijk to pass forward, or opening up space for Mac Allister. The other Bournemouth midfielders may come across to pick up Mac Allister, but that would only leave Szoboszlai or Wirtz free. At least one man would be left free, so Liverpool could advance the ball through the middle.
Hugo Ekitiké played a big role in these early stages, dropping off the frontline into midfield. With the Bournemouth midfielders getting tied up following his teammates, Ekitiké had plenty of space to drop back and take advantage.
It came as little surprise that he was the main man in Liverpool’s opener, not only scoring but setting it up too.
Wirtz dropped back deep into midfield, concerning Scott enough to open up space for Mac Allister to receive the ball. Wirtz coming deep also opened up space for Ekitiké to drop into, although, followed by Bafodé Diakité, he played the ball backwards. Wirtz’ movement once again opened up space in midfield though, dragging Adams away, and, distracted by Mac Allister, Diakité moved away from Ekitiké, so the Frenchman attacked the gap, getting lucky with the bounce of Marcos Senesi’s weak tackle to score his debut goal.
Ekitiké was once again key when Liverpool doubled their lead just after half-time, making a run to pick up the ball between the full-back and centre-back, drawing them both towards him, then offloading it to Cody Gakpo, who drove inside and finished low.
Bournemouth upped their intensity in the second half though. Scott was able to push forward and press Van Dijk more, as Adams would pick up Mac Allister, with Senesi taking over tracking Wirtz. This made it more difficult for Liverpool to play out, but it meant that when they did manage it, Bournemouth’s defence was left more exposed than they had been in the first half. Ekitiké was once again very helpful dropping off into gaps.
Bournemouth hadn’t really offered much going forward at this point. They mostly looked to hit the ball long to Antoine Semenyo, and while he was having some joy against Milos Kerkez, who was a little too keen to go into challenges, the Ghanaian wasn’t given much to work with.
When Bournemouth did try to pass the ball out they usually gave it away, not dealing with Liverpool’s pressure well.
Having gone two down, they did appear more willing to commit men forward in the second half, and getting Tavernier making runs into attack helped threaten Liverpool, but it was through two counter-attacks that Bournemouth got back on level terms.
First Szoboszlai’s flick was intercepted in the Bournemouth half, seeing Liverpool caught with six players ahead of the ball. Adams played the ball forward, and all of a sudden Bournemouth were three-versus-three against Liverpool’s defence. David Brooks crossed first time for Semenyo to finish.
Twelve minutes later Liverpool were once again on the attack but Szoboszlai slipped on the edge of the area, and Liverpool were now caught with eight players ahead of the ball. Substitute Hamed Traore quickly knocked the ball on to Semenyo, who ran the length of the pitch to finish at the other end. With his teammates making supporting runs either side of him, Konaté and Van Dijk had to just keep backing up, but Semenyo got into shooting distance before Liverpool could get players back to help.
This wasn’t the first time they had been caught out by this either. They had four players in attack, would often push their full-backs forward, and both Szoboszlai, and Mac Allister like to push forward and join the attack. Wirtz was able to balance this out a little by dropping back to cover for them, but both men found themselves caught ahead of the ball when Liverpool lost it several times. Committing so many men forward like this obviously increases their attacking threat, but it leaves them with little cover when they lose the ball. Liverpool haven’t been able to quite find their balance yet.
Having been punished for pushing men forward, Liverpool now found themselves needing to do so again in a bid to find a winner, although they managed it before the ninety minutes were up.
Bournemouth managed to clear away a free-kick, but Liverpool sent it back in. Mohamed Salah’s cross was pushed away by Djordje Petrovic, but the defenders collided trying to clear the rebound, and substitute Federico Chiesa was on hand to volley the loose ball into the net for his first Premier League goal.
Salah got his customary opening day goal to seal the victory. The ball bounced back and forth as Bournemouth tried to get it forward, but Endo cleared it long. The ball dropped in behind the Bournemouth backline for Salah to collect, before cutting inside and finishing with his right foot.
Liverpool kicked off their title defence with three points, however they made this more difficult for themselves than it needed to be. It was both a display of their attacking prowess, and a warning that they still have weaknesses to work on.
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