Liverpool is looking to continue their winning momentum after their incredible 7-0 victory over Manchester United last Sunday when they face Bournemouth this lunchtime. Jurgen Klopp’s team has had a challenging season, but they bounced back in style by smashing seven goals past their rivals. The Merseysiders will be eager to back up their win against Bournemouth as they continue to chase Tottenham in the race for a top-four finish.
Liverpool was in scintillating form when they faced the Cherries in August, romping to a brilliant 9-0 win at Anfield. Gary O’Neil, Bournemouth’s manager, may be fearing another long afternoon as his side goes into the game bottom of the Premier League table. The south coast team threw away a two-goal lead to lose to Arsenal last weekend and have only won once since mid-November.
The Premier League clash between Bournemouth and Liverpool will take place on Saturday, March 11, with kick-off at the Vitality Stadium scheduled for 12:30 pm. TalkSPORT will have full coverage of the match with Reshmin Chowdhury as the host. Exclusive commentary from the south coast will then come from Sam Matterface and former Chelsea defender Scott Minto. Fans can tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, live stream, talkSPORT app, DAB digital radio, smart speaker, or on 1089 or 1053 AM.
In terms of team news, Jefferson Lerma remains a doubt for Bournemouth while Marcus Tavernier is not ready to return yet. Hamed Traore, Lloyd Kelly, and Junior Stanislas are also not fit to feature this weekend but are close. Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino are pushing for starts for Liverpool. Joe Gomez is nearly ready to feature again but is unlikely to make the squad this weekend. Luis Diaz, Calvin Ramsay, and Thiago Alcantara remain absent, but Naby Keita is back in full training.
Klopp stated that Liverpool has to chase and challenge everyone in the top-four race. The main thing is going to Bournemouth and playing a game there. He watched the way they play and said it can be really uncomfortable for teams. Klopp believes that the fight for staying in the league is just as exciting as the fight for Champions League spots. He is sure that Bournemouth will fight like crazy.
Bournemouth has lost three Premier League games this season in which they had a two-goal lead (v Spurs in October, Leeds in November, Arsenal this month), the most by a side in a single campaign in the competition. Overall, they have lost 17 points from winning positions in 2022-23, behind only Leicester (19) in the Premier League this term. Liverpool has kept a clean sheet in each of their last five Premier League games, as many as they had in their previous 24 combined. They last had a longer run of games without conceding between December 2019 and January 2020 (7).
Liverpool has drawn 2-2 at Fulham and lost 1-0 at Nottingham Forest so far this season – only in 2010-11 (L3) and 2003-04 (D2 L1) have they failed to win away against all three promoted clubs in a single Premier League campaign. Liverpool won the reverse fixture against Bournemouth 9-0 at Anfield in August – the most goals they’ve ever scored against an opponent in a single top-flight season is 11, doing so on five occasions and most recently against Ipswich Town in 2001-02.
Bournemouth has won just one of their 11 Premier League meetings with Liverpool (D1 L9), losing the last seven in a row by an aggregate score of 28-1. Mohamed Salah has been involved in ten goals in his last eight games in all competitions (five goals, five assists). The Liverpool forward has both scored and assisted in five different matches in all competitions this term, with no Premier League player doing so more often.
Philip Billing is Bournemouth’s highest Premier League goalscorer this season with five goals – he’d netted just three goals across his three previous campaigns in the competition combined. His opener against Arsenal last time out was the second fastest goal scored from the start of a game in Premier League history (9.11 seconds). Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino has been directly involved in 12 Premier League goals against Bournemouth (five goals, seven assists), only registering more goal involvements in the competition against Arsenal (13). Indeed, the Brazilian was involved in five of the Reds’ goals in their 9-0 win in the reverse fixture (two goals, three assists).
Since (and including) Bournemouth’s first Premier League defeat under Gary O’Neil back in October, the Cherries have lost more Premier League games than any other side (11). They won more points in their first six league games under O’Neil (10 – W2 D4) than they have in their subsequent 15 (8 – W2 D2 L11). After losing three of their first four Premier League games in 2023 (D1), Liverpool has now won four of their last five (D1). They scored as many goals in their 7-0 win against Man Utd last time out as they had in their previous eight league games combined.