Liverpool vs Bournemouth Betting Tips (27/08/22) – Under-Pressure Reds Must Find Monster Mentality

Liverpool’s slump continued on Monday evening when a 1-2 defeat at Old Trafford condemned them to a third straight game without a win in the Premier League. Although the panic button is yet to be pressed, there are definitely fingers lingering poised after the Reds tasted defeat against a Manchester United side that had been trounced by Brentford just days earlier.

It would be fair to say that Erik ten Hag won the tactical battle against Jurgen Klopp too. As Liverpool set about their all-action high press, United simply launched direct vertical passes past the marauding hordes, effectively turning the Reds around and leaving them exposed to the counter attack.

Both of the hosts’ goals came about in this fashion. United broke Liverpool’s line, and some decent line-up play enabled Jadon Sancho to find a yard of space and hand his team an early lead.

And their direct, quick play was rewarded again early in the second period, and Anthony Martial’s quick pass was latched onto by Marcus Rashford, who made no mistake.

Fans of the Expected Goals count might have thought this was a close game given the 1.76-1.65 verdict, but in truth Liverpool’s tally was an accumulation of a number of pot shots – 17 in total – that were classified as low-probability chances.

Mind you, Luis Diaz missed an absolute sitter early in the second period which might have altered the course of this game. In the end, Mo Salah’s header set up a fraught final ten minutes, even if it was to only prove to be a consolation.

When you’re under pressure, is a home game against the worst team in the league a good thing or a bad thing? We’ll find out on Saturday when Liverpool welcome Bournemouth to Anfield.

Liverpool Team News

The decision to drop Fabinho for the United game royally came back to haunt Klopp, as his decision to field Jordan Henderson in the midfield anchor role – leaving James Milner and Harvey Elliott as the marauding pair – backfired.

The manager confirmed after the game that the Brazilian was dropped, rather than suffering with injury, and the lack of balance his absence left behind was evident as United cut through the Reds’ midfield like a knife through butter.

To that end, we would expect Fabinho to be restored against Bournemouth, with Henderson moving forward into this favoured number eight role. Klopp would love Naby Keita to be back to add energy in midfield, but he is struggling with injury and so Elliott seems likely to continue.

With both Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate sidelined, Joe Gomez will surely once again partner Virgil van Dijk in defence. And with Diogo Jota injured and Darwin Nunez suspended, Bobby Firmino will presumably get another go at leading the line.

Bournemouth Form

The xG data is making it abundantly clear as to how Scott Parker plans to keep Bournemouth in the Premier League survival race this term.

So far the Cherries have recorded the worst xG for total in the top-flight – just 1.0 from three games is hapless. But they rank sixth for the defence yielding the fewest high-quality chances, and so Parker has evidently set up Bournemouth in a way that makes them hard to break down. It could be a frustrating afternoon at Anfield.

The good news is that Liverpool have become adept at finding a way past deep defensive lines in recent seasons, and the reality is that Bournemouth have shipped seven goals in three games – no matter what the xG data says.

An opening weekend victory over Aston Villa (2-0) has since been followed by defeats against Manchester City (0-4) and Arsenal (0-3).

Liverpool vs Bournemouth Betting Tips

If we were to take things at face value, we might argue that Liverpool are – at their best – on a par with Manchester City and Arsenal.

And so, ordinarily, we would expect the Reds to run out 3-0 or 4-0 winners as those comparative sides have done against Bournemouth in recent times.

Of course, Liverpool lack the attacking flair of a City or an Arsenal right now – especially with the likes of Nunez, Jota, Thiago and Keita out, and a potential lack of confidence suggest this Anfield clash might be somewhat closer.

Even so, Liverpool to Win to Nil is surely the right play at odds of 4/6, and if you want to double down on that theme then we can also back the 1-0 and 2-0 correct scores at odds of 11/1 and 6/1 respectively.