Liverpool’s season is up and running with 9-0 annihilation of Bournemouth
Liverpool’s 125,000 Welsh fans will be relieved after what can only be described as a unique start to the Premier League season for Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool. Despite winning the Community Shield in Leicester in the campaign’s curtain-raiser, dispatching of champions Manchester City 3-1, their emphatic victory was quickly overshadowed by an underwhelming start to the competitive season.
In all honesty, they were fortunate to draw away at Fulham. A hungry, motivated side pressed and harried the Reds, who took their chances when they came, but the 2-2 draw was a sign of things to come. In terms of a performance, a draw against Crystal Palace — a night of frustration epitomised by Darwin Núñez’s headbutt and resulting five-game ban — on top of a loss to bitter rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford, were more encouraging but still represented a winless start.
While it sounds strange to have written Liverpool off in the title race after four games, the margin for error in the Premier League is so minimal that every win is precious. Indeed, both City and Liverpool have set the standard so high that, as demonstrated on two occasions now, even 90-plus points might not be enough to guarantee a title when it comes to the Premier League winner odds.
With Newcastle United earning a point against Pep Guardiola’s side, there was still a string of optimism for Klopp’s Liverpool heading back to Anfield to face newly promoted Bournemouth.
As it turns out, Scott Parker’s first trip to the north this season was to be his last as manager on the south, as the Reds swept his side away emphatically, costing the former England international his job. It serves as the first managerial sacking of the season, and while reactionary, the Cherries look far from a stable outfit, and as much as Liverpool impressed, they hardly had to work to get off their mark for a first win of the season.
A back post header from Luis Díaz opened the floodgates, and before the sixth minute Harvey Elliott had doubled the lead with a finessed strike around Mark Travers, who was helpless throughout most of the afternoon’s onslaught. Regardless, not many of that Anfield crowd could have anticipated what followed. The rout was a statement of intent from Klopp’s side — as proficient as they were creative — beginning to look more like the team on the cusp of a quadruple just a few months ago.
The second half would see the record winning margin for a single game equalised. And despite the Kop’s endearing cries of ‘we want 10’ the goals from Díaz, a Roberto Firmino hat-trick, and a first in red for Fábio Carvalho will have been enough to satisfy the Liverpool crowd over the next 45 minutes, as the side were hailed as perfect by Klopp after the game.
“I know how it sounds when you lose a game and then you try to explain it,” he said. “It’s always the same. We were not happy with the way we played. We had good moments in nearly all the games where we showed things which we are strong at, and other things where we have to improve.
“That’s what we had to do today, but you cannot make a list and take them all off the list step by step. You just have to give the game a proper direction and that’s why I loved the start today so much. I can say it already before we’ve played it will be crazy and in the end it was the perfect football afternoon for us.”
Parker’s dismissal after the thrashing showcases the brutality of life in the top flight, and while the Premier League news will be dominated with potential candidates for the job, whoever takes over has their work cut out for them. The former boss’s cardigan thrashed to the ground in anger and embarrassment a lasting memory in what looks to be a bleak season for the Cherries.
As for Liverpool, the dying embers of the transfer window provided an opportunity for a last-gasp ploy at a centre midfielder. Frenkie de Jong and Jude Bellingham were identified as suitable cogs for the Klopp engine, especially given their injury issues in that department, but only time will tell if Liverpool could come back in for them in January, and if it could influence their season as they embark on a 20th league title.