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Sunday, 17 December 2017

Can Bournemouth make Liverpool defend?

We are all aware of how good Liverpool's fab four are in attack. Klopp loves to let them loose and hit teams with pace to get in behind defences, but the Cherries must find a plan to keep Mane, Salah, Ferminio and Coutinho from camping out near Begovic's goal. So how do you make Liverpool defend?

It has to be a full team effort to stop Liverpool.
I think the choice of who Eddie picks in midfield is going to be extremely important today. He could stay with two central midfielders or add a third. Having seen how well the team played up at Manchester, Eddie Howe is likely to be just as brave at home. But an experienced pairing might just be favourited for Howe who does not like to move away from Surman and Arter that often. We saw Arter in relatively good form up at Manchester and Surman has been rested, so there is plenty of reason for him to go with this pairing, even though fans have seen the benefits of playing Lewis Cook in recent games. Whoever plays though, Bournemouth have to be strong and full of energy to cope with the skill of Can Coutinho and Wijnaldum. If AFCB can stop balls getting through to Mane and Salah frequently then they'll be in the game. 

Liverpool might not be able to put the line up out that Klopp would really like to. Salah felt his hamstring in the match against Everton but played agains against WBA, so he could be rested while Emre Can is suspended. For Bournemouth. Harry Arter and Steve Cook are just a card away from their fifth yellows and suspension.





The problem for Bournemouth will be in getting not only the possession but doing the right things in the last third. They came close to getting it right at Old Trafford and they'll get opportunities against Liverpool. They need a high number of chances though as Bournemouth have not been finding it easy to get goals and Eddie Howe is still not clear from what I can see in who he believes is the best strike partnership to get goals. If he can get it right though in a game like this, the team might find its stride in future games, as beating Liverpool would be a tremendous achievement and probably even more impressive than the win that was managed in the same fixture last season.


Possible AFCB line up
AFCB Subs: Boruc (GK), A Smith (RD), Gosling (CM), L Cook (CM), Fraser (RW/LW),
King (FW), Wilson (FW)



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