« on: January 21, 2024, 03:24:18 pm »
Bournemouth (The Cherries) v Liverpool
Vitality Stadium
Premier League
Sunday 21 January 2024, 4.30pm
So finally, it’s back to Premier League football after the ‘Winter Break’ (10 days for us) and it’s a potentially tricky away game at the Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth. Liverpool sit at the top of the table whilst the Cherries are having a good season and are currently lying in 12th position on 25 points. In the home game table, however, their form would have them lying in 15th position so not as good as their away form (10th place). They currently have three wins, three draws and three defeats at home. We have reasons to be hopeful.
Overall, we have a good record at the Vitality Stadium with our most recent win there coming in October in the League Cup. Our record under Jurgen in the premier league against the Cherries is 10 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats. Our overall record at the Vitality is 7 wins and 2 defeats.
Our own form has been fantastic over the last few weeks with confidence boosting wins (and performances) against Arsenal away in the cup and home to Newcastle in the league. A continuation of that form would be great. Of course, since our last league game (on 1st January wow!!!) we have lost Salah and Endo to their international teams and Trent to injury. With injuries to Szoboszlai, Robertson, Tsimi, Matip, Thiago, Bajcetic and Doak, we really are testing the limits of our squad. So far so good and hopefully Szobo will be back for this one. Due to the reduced numbers available to us this weekend the team probably more or less picks itself. Connor Bradley will probably start at right back with Joe Gomez again at left back. You would expect Van Dijk and Konate to complete the defence. If Szobo is fit then we will probably see him, Macallister and Jones in midfield. The only real question marks will be in attack with three from Jota, Diaz, Nunez and Gakpo. I would expect Elliott to be on the bench.
We are traditionally quite poor in January under Jurgen with the upturn generally coming in mid February. Last season was particularly bad with heavy defeats to Brentford, Brighton and Wolves and a draw with Chelsea from the start of January to the middle of February (dark days). If we are to battle for the PL title this time then we can’t afford any kind of slump.
The Cherries are having a very good season under new manager Andoni Iraola (he replaced Gary O’Neil last June) whilst main striker Dominic Solanke is having a really strong season (being ex-Liverpool its really nice to see him do so well – as long as he blanks on Sunday 😊). Solanke has 12 goals and 1 assist in the league so far this season.
It looks like Bournemouth will be without Senesi, Semenyo and Outtara this weekend. Tyler Adams remains injured and won’t be back for this game.
The referee this weekend will be Andy Madley with our old friend Paul Tierney on VAR. Last time we saw Tierney he was denying us a good goal against Burnley. I don’t want to say too much about this as I don’t want to let it ruin the excitement for the game and we have won both games that he has refereed us this season (3-0 v Brentford and 2-0 v Burnley). However, according to Paul Tomkins, Liverpool’s win percentage drops by about 10% with Tierney whilst City’s goes up by almost 20%. He comes from Wigan in Greater Manchester.
Some memorable results from this fixture include the 9-0 win at Anfield for us last season (which unfortunately did not lead to a general improvement in form) and the 4-3 win for them at the Vitality in 2016, in the early days of Klopp.
Bournemouth AFC, was originally founded in 1890 as Boscombe St. John's Institute F.C. and the team went through several name changes before settling on AFC Bournemouth in 1972. The club's home ground was originally called Dean Court but is currently known as the Vitality Stadium. It’s not so long ago now that Bournemouth faced bankruptcy and possible extinction. In 2008 they were punished for going into administration and were relegated to League two. Their fortunes changed quickly however with the arrival of Eddie Howe in 2009.
In the 2014-2015 season Bournemouth won the Football League Championship and gained promotion to the Pr
emier League for the first time in their history. They were subsequently relegated in 2020 before promotion again in 2022.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2024, 06:21:12 pm by TepidT2O »
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