Liverpool will raise the curtain on their home campaign in the 2023/24 Premier League season when they meet Bournemouth on Saturday.
As predicted in our Liverpool season preview, Mohamed Salah soaked up the limelight as Jurgen Klopp’s standout performer in the opening-day clash against Chelsea.
The Egyptian forward delivered a perfect assist to Luis Diaz for the Reds opener, forced several saves from Robert Sanchez and saw VAR disallow his goal for offside.
However, Salah’s eye-catching individual showing was only enough for a 1-1 draw, as Liverpool failed to get their Premier League proceedings off to a winning start for a second season on the trot.
Visiting Bournemouth had an identical start to the new league campaign, with Dominic Solanke netting a late equaliser to rescue a point against West Ham United on Andoni Iraola’s touchline debut.
In our Bournemouth season preview, we highlighted the 25-year-old as a potential game-changer for the Cherries this term, and based on the opening weekend, he could live up to our expectations.
Solanke will have to be at his best if the visitors are to erase the memory of an embarrassing 9-0 defeat in this corresponding fixture last season and potentially stage an upset at Anfield.
Match Preview
Frustration will likely follow Liverpool into this game after Chelsea inflicted a double transfer blow on them to capture the services of highly-rated midfielders Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo.
Considering the Reds have failed to secure Champions League qualification in the last three seasons when they opened with two winless Premier League outings, they’ll be keen to take three points here.
Liverpool experienced a sluggish start in 2022/23, going winless in their opening three league matches (D2, L1) before Bournemouth paid Anfield a visit in round four.
A historic 9-0 triumph in that encounter was part of the Reds’ seven-game winning streak against the Cherries before a dismal 1-0 defeat at the Vitality Stadium in March halted their dominant H2H run.
Iraola probably wouldn’t mind sharing the spoils again as he did in a 1-1 draw against West Ham last weekend, but Bournemouth’s recent results at Anfield cannot inspire much confidence.
They have lost their last four top-flight visits to Liverpool by a combined score of 17-1, while back-to-back away defeats ‘to nil’ at the tail-end of the 2022/23 season only reinforce their fears.
While Iraola’s impressive work at Rayo Vallecano earned him a move to Boscombe, it’s worth noting that his former club ended last season on an abysmal run of nine winless away matches (D2, L7).
But his conservative approach may at least help the Cherries overcome their defensive woes outside the Vitality Stadium, with only Nottingham Forest (44) conceding more away goals than Bournemouth (41) last term.
Team News
Klopp will unlikely make any changes to the starting line-up that struggled at Stamford Bridge a week ago, with Thiago Alcantara and Stefan Bajcetic still on the sidelines with injuries.
Darwin Nunez produced another underwhelming performance after replacing Diogo Jota in the second half, which can only help the diminutive Portuguese forward retain his place in the starting XI.
Bournemouth cannot call upon Marcus Tavernier, Alex Scott and Ryan Fredericks, while Lloyd Kelly and Adam Smith face a race against time to make the matchday squad.
Liverpool potential starting line-up:
(4-3-3): Alisson Becker; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Andy Robertson; Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo; Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota.
Bournemouth potential starting line-up:
(4-2-3-1): Neto; Jaidon Anthony, Marcos Senesi, Illya Zabarnyi, Milos Kerkez; Lewis Cook, Joe Rothwell; David Brooks, Philip Billing, Dango Ouattara; Dominic Solanke.
We Say: Liverpool 3-1 Bournemouth
Three of Liverpool’s last four home league meetings against Bournemouth have seen them score at least three goals, and we expect that trend to continue on Saturday.
But Klopp’s backline has been prone to conceding cheap goals, leading us to believe the visitors could get on the scoresheet.
