AFC Bournemouth 4-3 Liverpool: In game and Post Match discussion

Think that under the management of Klopp LFC have been punching above our weight for a long time, with a average bunch of players, and yesterday showed us were we are truly at as a team...

Under the ownership of FSG we have stood still for a such a long time... As far as bring in "Real" talent goes, we have traded that for bring in "Players with Potential", but we all know the problems with this strategy.Too often you are only "Also Ran's" and "IF" you manage to find that little "Gem" they are off to a "Real Madrid, Barcelona" or another such club... Let's be honest here, We were never going to win the League with this group of players... We dreamt that it was possible, and buoyed by what Leicester City achieved last season we believe it was possible to achieve the same. But in truth it was never going to happen... We have to many chinks in our Armour to make that possible and this season our hope was with a Man Utd in crisis and a Chelsea in disarray we could be challenging for 3rd or 4th spot, but to do that we need to be winning games like this, or hold on to leads like this one and investing in "Quality" experienced players. Until then all we will have is "Hope in your heart" and no real chance of a  Premiere League Title

Some people need a scapegoat simple as and it seems the keeper and Lucas are top of the hit list for the knee jerkers. We defend from the front, everyone is a defender and to give possession away so easily in the oppositions half was a sin in itself. God help West Ham next week.

Nah, no scapegoat mate.

Just saying how it is - Karius is unconvincing and that is putting it politely.

Anyone who's been watching us can in their heart of hearts tell you this.

Admitting it for some maybe another matter - especially when they were so desperate to see the back end of Mignolet.

I think that we lost this game due to leadership in midfield. Who is the boss on the field? No one. If Lucas was in midfield, we would have had better control. At the start of the season I did not like the Lallana-Wijnaldum-Hendo trio. None of them is a leader, all of them are technically good but they don't take responsibilities unlike Lucas or Gerrard. Lucas although he is a limited midfielder, does the job well and knows how to manage difficult situations. Yesterday, we lacked leadership in midfield. I think a good DM/CM is need in this team. We cannot rely on Can, Hendo or Wijnaldum to lead this midfield.

Disagree with this.

I know what you're saying, that none of Wij, Hendo or Lallana have the leadership qualities that you would normally associate with the likes of Gerrard, Keane, Vieira etc but that being said, we have dominated every game in the midfield this season. Despite yesterdays result, we dominated that game too.

It wasn't the midfield that cost us the game yesterday, it was shocking individual defending.

1. Milner dives in when he doesn't need to and gives a pen away. It was something Moreno would have done and not something we expect from James.
2. Good counter by Bournemouth but we still had one maybe two chances to clear the ball when it came into our box which we didn't and then Karius should be saving that shot, awful goalkeeping.
3. Origi should be winning that aerial challenge against Jack Wilshere of all people but he loses concentration and takes his eye off the ball, at a very crucial time in the game and in a dangerous area on the pitch. Very sloppy.
4. Bournemouths player has all the time in the world to take a shot at Karius, he wasn't closed down, and then Karius makes a complete mess of it and spills it.

So I actually thought our midfield played well yesterday but as usual individual errors cost us the game. If matip played yesterday then we win that match 4-0. I think Jürgen needs to bring in another top centre half and certainly a half decent goalie, we can't continue with those two clowns we have on our books.

Has the idea of winning so many games, made people appear disillusioned? I am very surprised by the doom and gloom after this loss...so much so that i find it laughable that people are questioning our title challenge and composition of our team.
We win and lose as a team, its what made us all so excited...having many different scorers and performers and not relying on the genius of one player. So now after our second loss this season, we are back to being sh*t?
Talk about overreacting This is the Premier League, it will happen to all teams at some point this season.

F***ing hell that was f**king unbearable to watch.

As soon as I saw Matip not in the squad, I sh*t myself.

We go up 2-0 and I'm in dreamland again.

Conceded that penalty and I started biting my nails, got the 3rd and nearly torched the joint inside my house.

The rest was a f**king nightmare. The lads thought the game was done and dusted.

Still can't believe what I witnessed and as much as the Players have to have a good hard look at themselves, Klopp needed to make some changes and the most important one was to get Klavan on at 3-1 to make sure that sh*t didn't happen.

Look out West Ham, we are going to be one angry mob at Anfield baying for your Blood.

Absolutely shattered and distraught by that result last night.

Yep, we could have been 100 miles apart but I was going through exactly the same thing. Looked at the line-up and thought, a draw would be a good result. The tight pitch, the lack of game changers on the bench.

Saying that we absolutley owned the first half

What I am most disturbed about is the 4th goal. Not the error, but the way that we have to concede and make it a total capitulation.

I get that every team loses a lead. But we HAVE to concede and lose.

QPR, Southampton, Bournemouth - hardly top 4 clubs? 2 goals clear and lose all the games - dont even nick a point - thats what kills me.

I thought I would let the dust settle before I tried to gather my thoughts properly on what happened in the game and what it means.

It's not the worst thing in the world to have your ambitions questioned from time to time and hopefully it's given the players a wake up call.

Some of the knee jerk opinions I've seen on this thread are ridiculous but I think it's fair to ask questions of a few people and these are my thoughts for what they're worth:

Karius - I wrote yesterday that I struggle to see what he offers that we didn't already have in Mignolet, other than he has a few more years on his side. That said, he had played 118 senior games in the Bundesliga before he joined us so it isn't that much of an excuse. Achterbergs rugby pad training obviously isn't working and I really don't buy into the premier league being more "physcial" as being as excuse. He still had to save long distance shots in the Bundesliga, better struck ones than the one he spilt yesterday and I'm pretty sure they still take corners in Germany which he constantly flaps at.
Maybe we can train him to be world number #1 or maybe we should have gone out and bought an established, top quality goalkeeper for the first time in a long time and avoid us even having to have this conversation.

Lucas/Klavan/Sakho - Lucas was poor yesterday, as was Lovren and as HsCRed1 posted yesterday, why did we buy Klavan if he can't get in ahead of Lucas?
Another thing, obviously none of us know what has gone on behind the scenes but I would love to know what went on between Sakho and Klopp because he is definitely a better option than Lucas and obviously Klavan.

Wijnaldum - He is not good enough for our starting XI. I said when we signed him that I didn't see what he brought to the team and I still don't see what he offers.
He has contributed 1 goal and 2 assists to the 35 goals we have scored this season.
He is good at getting the ball from Henderson and our defence and he is good at passing it forward to our attacking players. When everyone is fit he goes about his business unnoticed because nothing is expected of him but when we are relying on players to create a chance or score a goal I wouldn't put my hopes on him to be the one to do it.

Klopp - I think some blame should fall on Klopp for yesterdays defeat. We didn't shut up shop at 3-1 and we should of done. This wasn't a 3-0 at half time at home to Sunderland where the fans expect the players to come out and bang in another 3, this was 3-1 ahead, after them pulling it back to 2-1, away from home with a noisy home crowd after Chelsea had won the day before and 3 points were a must and we carried on playing the way we always try to play. We should of been happy with 3-1, taken it as a big enough cushion to play more reserved.

All of that said there are still many positives surrounding this season and our squad and some of the knee jerk reactions on here are astounding.

"We need Benteke" - that one F***ing slayed me!

We needed something like this to happen so the players don't think they're invincible and they can work on it not happening again. Maybe next time we're away from home and have a two goal lead we wont give away as many silly fouls, we won't get caught on the counter and Karius will keep his eye on the ball.

Now we need a response against West Ham next week.

We switched off.
Simple as that.

I NEVER want to see another second half performance like that again for the rest of this entire season..

For me, once Henderson and Can picked up those stupid yellows early second half we lost the midfield completely.
That combined with losing Mane and Ibe and Fraser coming on and running at us we just couldn't cope.

Apart from the recent Palace game that "Toxic" kit we wore is a bad omen as well.

Let's hope Jürgen and the team can put this to bed and smash West Ham next week and get back to winning ways..

Bollox to it.. first defeat since August...not bad considering it's December !

I thought after people would have slept on it there would be a little bit more sense and reason in this thread. However some of the sh*t posted in here is borderline ridiculous I get the need to vent and criticize individual players and performance and yes Lovren was sh*t as was Lucas, Karius,Can,Firmino and Hendo but I've read that we're pretenders, that we could have done with Gerrard the last 20 minutes, we could have done with Grujic etc.Defeat really does do weird things to people and perspective is lost we're 4 points of top, first defeat in 16 matches and only second in league I would rather us have this defeat now and learn from it to make sure it isn't repeated when we're in the thick of it at the back end of the season.

Looking at those goals again and the real momentum turner was the second goal for Bournemouth a catologue of defensive errors. Origi gives the ball away which can happen but then after that it was reminiscent of the key stones cops defending from Rodgers time.

Can failing to put in a tackle on the half way line. Lucas falls over trying to stop the cut back, Hendo getting on the wrong side of his runner and even then could have got a block in, Karius should have done better.

That goal just gave them hope and drained all ours away. The midfield got completely steam rollered and they looked like scoring on each attack. Hendo and Can on a yellow each, scared to put in a challenge didn't help. One of them should have been subbed, mistake here by Klopp for having two full backs on the bench and not a CM? - not sure why Grujic is not getting bench time, even the option of Stewart would have halted their momentum, a few niggly fouls to break up play was all it needed.

Maybe I'm being harsh but some of our players are very naive and lack that bit of cynical play when needed.

I wouldn't mind losing so much 1-0 or even 2-0 if we had played badly but letting go a 3-1 lead......

Still 1 loss in 15 and 4 pts off top it's not all bad and if anyone had offered me that at the start of the season I would have bitten their hands off.

Internationals aye...

Looking at those goals again and the real momentum turner was the second goal for Bournemouth a catologue of defensive errors. Origi gives the ball away which can happen but then after that it was reminiscent of the key stones cops defending from Rodgers time.

Can failing to put in a tackle on the half way line. Lucas falls over trying to stop the cut back, Hendo getting on the wrong side of his runner and even then could have got a block in, Karius should have done better.

That goal just gave them hope and drained all ours away. The midfield got completely steam rollered and they looked like scoring on each attack. Hendo and Can on a yellow each, scared to put in a challenge didn't help. One of them should have been subbed, mistake here by Klopp for having two full backs on the bench and not a CM? - not sure why Grujic is not getting bench time, even the option of Stewart would have halted their momentum, a few niggly fouls to break up play was all it needed.

Maybe I'm being harsh but some of our players are very naive and lack that bit of cynical play when needed.

I wouldn't mind losing so much 1-0 or even 2-0 if we had played badly but letting go a 3-1 lead......

Still 1 loss in 15 and 4 pts off top it's not all bad and if anyone had offered me that at the start of the season I would have bitten their hands off.

Nail on head, to many of our players are naive and don't have good game intelligence, after we got to 3-1 we needed to slow the game down, get control and just pass the ball around to frustrate them, that would have provided an opportunity for a 4th goal. This could have been aided by Klopp changing formation and making some subs. Anyway as long as they learn from it, incl Herr Klopp, then its not a disaster and I felt the lads maybe needed a kick up the arse as the intensity has been missing the last few games. What we need to do is come roaring back and absolutely demolish West Ham, anything other than a very convincing win will have me and I'm sure a lot of others getting nervous and screaming for reinforcements in January.
Personally if I was Klopp and or FSG I would go out and pay silly money for a GK plus get rid of that fuckwit Achterburg, the destroyer og goalies. I'd also try to pinch Van Dijk from Southampton as we clearly need an extra CB, playing Lucas there is just daft, he should only be an emergency CB if everyone else if ill option.

Nail on head, to many of our players are naive and don't have good game intelligence, after we got to 3-1 we needed to slow the game down, get control and just pass the ball around to frustrate them, that would have provided an opportunity for a 4th goal. This could have been aided by Klopp changing formation and making some subs.

Our bench yesterday was pretty light and inexperienced to be fair. 

And hindsight is a wonderful thing. 

When we went 3-1 up my thought was Bournemouth would have had the stuffing knocked out of them and we would stick a couple more past them.  When we went two goals up against Watford I don't remember a clamour by people saying we should slow the game down. 

No - we went on and scored 6.

Our bench yesterday was pretty light and inexperienced to be fair. 

And hindsight is a wonderful thing. 

When we went 3-1 up my thought was Bournemouth would have had the stuffing knocked out of them and we would stick a couple more past them.  When we went two goals up against Watford I don't remember a clamour by people saying we should slow the game down. 

No - we went on and scored 6.

It's probably something we need to look at as the number of goals we have conceded away from home 14 is pretty poor.

It's fine going all out attack at home but maybe a bit more football brains needed away from home.

 Geggenpressing is hugely energy sapping and I doubt we will make it to the end of the season playing like that for 90 mins for 38 matches and that's not inc the Cup matches.

Our bench yesterday was pretty light and inexperienced to be fair. 

And hindsight is a wonderful thing. 

When we went 3-1 up my thought was Bournemouth would have had the stuffing knocked out of them and we would stick a couple more past them.  When we went two goals up against Watford I don't remember a clamour by people saying we should slow the game down. 

No - we went on and scored 6.

A different game though, Watford were completely demoralised and blown away by us on that day, Bournemouth even at 3-1 were still going for it and causing us problems. As said it comes down to game intelligence and as long as we learn from it then all is good but Klopp needs to add the ability to defend a lead to his wonderful attacking philosophy because it simply is not possible to always be on the attack, especially if your players are not at 100%.

All players to blame so many key points origi for two , Karius two, Lovren , Milner , Firminho wrong side of cook the list goes on cant scapegoat one player but the TEAM needs to have a plan when it reaches  the point to shut the game down which I am not convinced they know how to do and no leaders on pitch to put it into practice

I think its nice that Talk Sport have made a day of inviting anyone who has holidayed in Bournemouth to come on and tell the world how sh*t our defence and goalkeepers are.
That bloke who scored the 3rd, who gave away the game at the emirates should be ashamed of himself - we had a tactic to shoot as many times as possible, as we identified Karius as a weak link - really? well done, ingenius.

Didn't get Emre Can's thought processes for this match. Should have taken down the Bournemouth player in the centre circle in the run up to their all important second goal (the goal that really killed us) and yet was giving crucial free kicks away during that last 15 minutes (tackling the neck of an opponent? Come on!)

Two years on and I'm still undecided on this guy. For sure, ridiculously young (something we all have to remind ourselves given his gladiatorial stature) but take away the physique and is there a good enough player there technically and mentally? For all his physical presence he seems to negate that influence by being complicit in some fairly stupid and damaging phases of play for us.

As soon as I saw Matip not in the squad, I sh*t myself.

As soon as I saw Lucas at CB, I thought Klopp could have made a mistake. But I was wrong. We went 2-0 then 3-1 up.

I love reading all your knee jerk reactions in the player thread!

We've gone from a Title challenging team with great squad depth to a defeated club with massive recruitment required. All of a sudden we need to get rid of some of our better performers.
You lot are a fickle bunch

Ah well if we won every game it wouldn't be interesting! As Klopp said himself, "no road is without rocks or stones"

We will have more days like yesterday, and more like Burnley, ahead of us. Was working so didn't watch the game other than highlights can't really comment on individual performances, but it sounds like we lost the momentum and lost our concentration. It can happen, hopefully less and less after you lose a game like that!

We learn from it, move on and I expect a reaction against West Ham next week.

Ah well if we won every game it wouldn't be interesting! As Klopp said himself, "no road is without rocks or stones"

We were certainly lacking a rock yesterday! Although Stones isn't the answer, he's sh*te