Liverpool can’t cure travel sickness
Another dreadful away day. . . AND IT’S REAL NEXT!
THE irony of the latest dreadful away day is that it will have no bearing on the biggest away day of all. From Naples to Nottingham, from Brighton and now to Bournemouth, Liverpool have been abject outside the confines of Anfield this season and it has become so wearisome that all Jurgen Klopp could offer in response was a look of bewildered exasperation.
An immediate opportunity to change the mood arrives in Madrid on Wednesday and, this being Liverpool, you wouldn’t categorically say it was beyond them to score three goals in the Bernabeu — even though it is highly unlikely.
Big stages have brought the best out of Liverpool and, as such, a 1-0 defeat at the Vitality Stadium will not have them stewing as they head to Spain. They know it is all or nothing against a team that has been like kryptonite to them in the Champions League and they will go there swinging.
What happens next season, though, remains up for debate. Liverpool, somehow, remain in contention for a top-four spot and if they are going to extend their participation in Europe’s top competition to a seventh successive year, the travel sickness they have must be quickly cured.
Immediately after the international break, Liverpool face trips to Manchester City and Chelsea in the space of four days with Arsenal completing an intense week when they travel to Merseyside on Easter Sunday. What happens over those nine days will determine where they finish.
And a warning: play in such a slovenly way at the Etihad Stadium and
Stamford
Bridge, the damage that will be inflicted on them will be far greater than they suffered at the hands of a buoyant Bournemouth side whose performance was full of zest and courage.
For all that Liverpool started brightly, but once they lost their rhythm and fell behind to Philip Billing’s goal there was no way back. Bournemouth, for whom Dango Ouattara excelled on the right flank, deserved the slice of good fortune that came their way when Mo Salah (below) missed a second-half penalty.
‘There is a long way to go and it’s important for us to get top four,’ said Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold, one of many in white who failed to get started. ‘ To be achieving that we have got to be picking up results in places like here. We haven’t done that. We are still in and around it.
‘There’s a big game in midweek! But this was our final Premier League game until after the internationals. We have got to come back and hit the ground running. ‘There’s a tough run of fixtures (waiting for us) after that. This was just difficult all around. They played really well, we didn’t.’
Bournemouth did indeed play well and what made it all the more meritorious was the fact they were able to overcome the emotional damage that had been inflicted by the last-gasp defeat they had suffered at the Emirates Stadium the previous weekend.
So bad did they feel, defender Jack Stephens admitted that he had to spend 10 minutes in his car, sitting on his driveway, before he could go inside to see his baby son, Reuben. The sleepless night that followed had nothing to do with the joys of a new arrival in the house.
‘It’s easy to say we are a strong group and we’re all together but if you don’t get the result people won’t believe you,’ said Stephens. ‘We had to come here and maybe prove a few people wrong. I was on the floor after Arsenal scored and I was there for a couple of minutes as they celebrated.
‘We were disappointed, it felt heartbreaking. But at this level you can’t dwell on results like that because Liverpool were coming this week and they won 7- 0
last week. So we had to pick ourselves up quickly, we couldn’t dwell on it. I think we showed that, didn’t we?’
BOURNEMOUTH (4-4-1-1) Neto 7; Smith 7 (Fredericks 80min), Stephens 7, Sensei 7, Kelly 7; OUATTARA 8, Lerma 7 (Cook 81), Billing 7.5 (Christie 70, 6), Anthony 7 (Vina 88); Rothwell 7; Solanke 6.5 (Semenyo 88). Scorer: Billing 28.
Booked: Anthony, Billing.
Manager: Gary O’Neil 7
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3) Alisson 6; AlexanderArnold 5 (Milner 65min 6), Van Dijk 6, Konate 5, Robertson 7: Elliott 5 (Jota 46, 6), Fabinho 5 (Henderson 65, 6), Bajcetic 6 (Carvalho 88): Salah 5, Gakpo 5, Nunez 5 (Firmino 66, 6).
Booked: Konate.
Manager: Jurgen Klopp 5.
Referee: John Brooks 6.
Attendance: 10,536.