Klopp’s machine on cruise control to add to Bournemouth woe
For Liverpool, the title charge shows no sign of being derailed. As the rest of the Premier League huffs and puffs in their wake, this became not just another win for Jurgen Klopp’s pointsgathering machine, at times it was so comfortable it appeared as if his players were wearing slippers.
They scored three goals without response, claiming their first clean sheet in 15 matches, and were able to spend much of the second half conserving their energy for their Champions League date with Salzburg on Tuesday.
For their opponents, however, things are looking bleak: Bournemouth have now lost five in a row, their worst run of defeats since they were in
League One in 2013. As if the result was not bad enough, it came complete with unwelcome additions to an already extensive injury list.
Not that they started badly. Despite missing six regulars, there was vigour in their opening exchanges. Dominic Solanke, as if anxious to demonstrate that Liverpool were wrong to send him south in the summer, was particularly busy as the home side pressed.
After setting up Arnaut Danjuma, who steered the ball wide, he was found brilliantly by Ryan Fraser and was bearing down on goal. He had options, but, as he sized them up, Virgil van Dijk did what Virgil van Dijk does and glided across to dispossess him.
Then Nathan Ake showed anything his fellow Dutchman can do, he could do as well, sliding in as Mohamed Salah advanced. It was a marvellous tackle. But Ake tore his hamstring and Bournemouth’s best player was obliged to hobble to the dressing room.
He barely had time to climb aboard the Vitality’s over-occupied treatment table before Liverpool exploited the hole he had left. Jordan Henderson provided a route-one long ball and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, playing up front ahead of Sadio Mane, outwitted Chris Mepham to volley the ball under Aaron Ramsdale into the net.
“To that point we’d looked relatively solid, he gets injured and we concede, it was a real double whammy,” said Eddie Howe of Ake’s departure.
Moments later, suggesting this was not an afternoon for centre-backs, Liverpool’s Dejan Lovren hobbled off. On in his place came Trent Alexander-Arnold, benched ahead of the midweek appointment. Within moments of his arrival, the Premier League’s assist machine was involved in a goal.
The busy, productive James Milner found him on the right. The full-back passed inside to the excellent Naby Keita, who moved the ball on to Salah. The Egyptian trapped the ball, then returned it with the deftest of back heels. Keita, running on, delivered a precise chip to steer the ball beyond Ramsdale. By now, Howe was sending notes on to the pitch in an effort to block the widening gaps in his defence. They did not work. The second half grew only worse for Bournemouth.
Keita picked up a loose pass from the home substitute Jack Simpson and perfectly played in Salah. Once the ball was at his feet, there was no doubt what would happen next. He scored.
Bournemouth looked shell-shocked. And it got worse. Callum Wilson collapsed to join the ever-lengthening
list of those Howe can no longer call on. His is an injury crisis that is threatening to turn critical.
“It’s the biggest challenge we’ve faced since coming into the Premier League,” he said. “We can’t let this run continue, so we’ve just got to find a way through it.”
For Klopp, things became so comfortable as Roberto Firmino, Salah and Oxlade-Chamberlain played keep-ball triangles, he was even able to substitute Andrew Robertson, whose precision on the left provides so much fuel for the Liverpool machine. But he acknowledged that his good fortune was, in part, a product of his opposite number’s miserable ill luck.
“I really feel for him, to lose Ake and Wilson in the same game is a major blow,” Klopp said of Howe.
But this is not a business in which sympathy carries weight. And Howe’s misfortune ensured Klopp could enjoy another satisfactory afternoon.
“The most used words in the dressing room when I came in were ‘clean sheet, clean sheet’,” he said. “When another one would be really useful is in the next game against Salzburg.”
And how he could use one then to smooth Champions League qualification: not in every competition are Liverpool dominant. Bournemouth (4-4-2) Ramsdale 6; Francis 5, Ake 6 (Simpson 33), Mepham 5, Rico 5; Fraser 5, Billing 4 (L Cook 57), Lerma 6, Danjuma 5; C Wilson 5 (Gosling 63), Solanke 6. Subs Boruc, Surman, Ibe, Stacey. Liverpool (4-3-3) Alisson 6; Gomez 6, Van Dijk 7, Lovren 6 (Alexander-Arnold 40), Robertson 6 (Jones 75); Keita 8, Milner 7, Henderson 7; Oxlade-Chamberlain 6 (Shaqiri 86), Firmino 6, Salah 8. Subs Adrian, Mane, Origi, Elliot. Booked Gomez. Referee C Kavanagh (Manchester).