CLEAN BREAK FOR KLOPP
Liverpool happy with points but happier not to concede
WITH more than 30 second-half minutes togo, the pocket of Liverpool fans packed into one corner of the Vitality Stadium could begin the party.
Heads bobbing, arms flailing — ‘Liverpool, top of the league,’ they sang.
They haven’t enjoyed that luxury much on the road this season. Before this comfortable, clinical victory against Bournemouth, Liverpool’s away days had largely been episodes in nail- biting and shattered nerves.
Of their previous six away league wins this season, Jurgen Klopp’s side had won only one by more than a single goal.
Here, though, they stretched their lead atop the Premier League table and picked up a first clean sheet in 14 matches.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita and Mo Salah all found the net against a Bournemouth side further ravaged by injuries to Nathan Ake and Callum Wilson. When things aren’t going your way, and all that.
For Eddie Howe’s side, this slide is quickly turning into a crisis. That’s now one win in 10 and five consecutive Premier League defeats. Not since March 2013 — when they were in League One — have they dug themselves such a hole.
The aggregate score from these sides’ last five meetings, meanwhile, now stands at 17- 0. ‘ We scored wonderful goals, we had more chances and we did really well and we were really uncomfortable to play (against),’ Klopp said.
‘It was an absolutely super performance, super individual performance sand the team performance was just really mature and professional, just what we needed.’
On the long-awaited clean sheet, he added: ‘I forgot actually how it feels, to be honest. It’s great, we should have that more often.
‘ That was the most- used word when I came in the dressing room, clean sheet, clean sheet, clean sheet. Obviously everybody was desperate for that and now we have it, so let’s have it more often… it feels good.’
The only crumb of comfort for Bournemouth is that they kept Liverpool down to three for the first time here since 2016.
‘We’re in a tough spot in a tough, tough league,’ Howe said before this defeat. Life isn’t about to get any easier.
As part of another Christmas reshuffle, Sadio Mane was left on the bench by Klopp. None of the other scorers from the midweek rout of Everton started either and Bournemouth dug in well early doors, frustrating Klopp’s stuttering side.
Until injury struck, that is. After James Milner curled just wide and Arnaut Danjuma sent Ryan Fraser’s cross past the post, the game turned on a sliding tackle by Ake.
The brilliant challenge stopped Salah as he drove at goal but in averti ng danger the key Dutch defender hurt his hamstring.
He was forced off and, with Steve Cook already sidelined, Bournemouth were suddenly without their two first-choice centre backs. Injuries to Charlie Daniels and Adam Smith had already arguably robbed Howe of the rest of his preferred back four. Liverpool profited instantly. Oxlade-Chamberlain latched on to a lovely long ball by Jordan Henderson, stretching to put the ball beyond Aaron Ramsdale. Bournemouth had been warned. When the second came, however, there was little their makeshift defence could do. Trent Alexander-Arnold — on for the injured Dejan Lovren — fed Keita in space and from there, the midfielder slid the ball inside the box to Salah, who drew two Bournemouth players before putting the ball back into Keita’s path with a perfectly disguised back heel. Keita lifted the ball over Ramsdale and Liverpool were in cruise control. It could have been three by the break had Salah diverted Roberto Firmino’s flick- on the other side of the post. He rarely misses two in a row, though.
Shortly after half-time Keita read Jack Simpson’s forward pass and slid a perfectly-weighted throughball to Salah who squeezed his finish past Ramsdale.
As the skies darkened on the south coast, a miserable afternoon for Bournemouth was made worse by another injury to Wilson.
Like Ake, the forward appeared to damage his hamstring and had to be brought off. At the other end, Liverpool’s players began to enjoy themselves. And why not?
Their march goes on and by the end captain Henderson was playing on the right of a back three as this turned into a training game.
The displays of Keita, in his first league start of the season, and substitute Curtis Jones will give Klopp particular satisfaction, too.
As their to-do list continues to l engthen, he will need every member of his squad if they are to make this early advantage count. How his opposite number could do with such resources.
Bournemouth, just a point off the drop zone, barely touched the ball in the closing stages, the jubilant songs of Liverpool fans ringing loud in their ears.