Liverpool's first goal underlined why Bournemouth are struggling

The simple fact is that Bournemouth are not defending well when they are preparing to defend free kicks. It doesn't matter that the ball starts off in the other half. The Cherries have to be alert to movement and giving too much space to players. There were times before the first goal against Liverpool, where Liverpool's players were getting a good five yards of space before they received the ball. The Cherries are simply not switched on for 90 minutes.

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The first Liverpool goal was all the more sickening, as it was another ball launched from the opposition half. Whether it is Aké and Cook or in this case Simpson and Mepham, the centre-backs have to read the flight of the high ball and respond accordingly. But letting the ball bounce and land in the stride of the opposition is going to put the team in trouble. Once again, the long ball just wasn't defended and I can't believe that the team didn't practise how to defend against these tactics in the week.

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It was almost like the whole goal was in slow motion. As soon as Henderson hit the pass, Mepham realised he had got the wrong side, and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain had stolen in and jumped on the chance to give Liverpool the lead. It was simple route one, just like the goals that Spurs scored against Bournemouth and they have failed to deal with the high ball again.

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Some of the defending has to come from the front players too. If they don't close down the opposition defenders they'll have time to hit the long balls. Some will also look at Ramsdale's starting position and whether he could have been further advanced when the pass from Henderson was made. The whole problem with the goal was that Bournemouth were reacting and not anticipating, and if you are behind in your thought process to the European Champions' it won't be long before they undo you as Bournemouth found to their cost.

Chimes to Camera: Crystal Palace 1 v 0 AFCB - with a special appearance by Guy Fawkes behind me!

Beleaguered Bournemouth out played by league leaders

Match Report

AFCB 0 v 3 Liverpool

7 December 2019

Attendance: 10,832

Liverpool arrive at Dean Court

Bournemouth were no match for Liverpool. Even while they kept the league leaders in check for the first half hour, it was likely that Liverpool would find a way through. They took their chance when Nathan Aké hobbled off. A long ball over the top caught Bournemouth out again, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain stole in behind Chris Mepham and stabbed the ball under Ramsdale for a goal lead. The Cherries then fell 0-2 down when Mo Salah turned in the box and back heeled the ball to Naby Keita, who stroked Liverpool further ahead on half-time. It could have been a humiliating second half, but Bournemouth rallied as best they could, and while Mo Salah got his goal after a mistake from Simpson, it was more worrying to see Callum Wilson pull a hamstring. Bournemouth need patching up but I'm not sure there is much medicine in the cabinet.

Liverpool fans make their presence known

Eddie Howe made just one change with Simon Francis coming in for the injured Adam Smith. On the bench was Jordan Ibe.

All set for the teams to come out

The crowd saw steady and patient build ups from Liverpool. Keita was running the show. As soon as Bournemouth break Wilson is caught offside. Milner is loitering in the gap between Bournemouth's defence and midfield.

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Lerma wins a free kick. Van Dijk gets away with holding Wilsons arms when on half way. Gomez crosses to Salah and Ramsdale saves brilliantly on seven minutes from Salah's curling shot that was heading for the top left corner of Bournemouth's goal.

Bournemouth press well, win the ball but then head back to their own keeper. Mepham gets a good tackle in on Firmino. Franno blocks.

Oxlade-Chamberlain overruns it in the box. A let off for Bournemouth. Lerma does well to knick the ball off Keita but Wilson runs it out of play.

Robertson has a flash at goal but hits it skyward on 20 minutes. Solanke has a run down the left and hits a shot. It's deflected and hits the side netting. Bournemouth corner.

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Salah through the middle, but he is held up. Milner has a shot just wide of the right post. Fraser gets down the left and crosses early. Danjuma shoots first time but its inches wide.

Gomez crosses and a near post header from, Salah is saved by Ramsdale. Lerma wins a free kick.

Fraser us in for Solanke but can Dijk gets back with a big tackle on 28 minutes.

Lerma is winning the battle in midfield. Aké gets back to stop Salah but his hamstring is a problem.

Aké is off, replaced by Simpson on 35 minutes. Long ball and Mepham has let Oxlade-Chamberlain go its 0-1 to Liverpool on 36 minutes.

Firmino's shot is saved by Ramsdale. Solanke is brought down by Gomez who is yellow carded.

Lovren is replaced by Trent Alexander-Arnold on 39 minutes.

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Firmino's shot is deflected for a goal kick after a good build up on the right. Billing concedes a corner. Salah with three players around him some how finds Keita and its 2-0 on half time.

Three minutes of added time. Salah handball in the box. Firmino shoots wide. Corner for Liverpool and Salah misses.

The Cherries are two down at half-time an have lost Nathan Aké

Second half
Trent Alexander-Arnold is blocked by Rico. Fraser puts in a cross that is blocked and the follow up is caught by Allison.

Keita shoots and Ramsdale gets down well. Milner drills a cross across the box. Simpson gives the ball away and Salah makes it 3-0 on 54 minutes.

Rico plays a hood ball up and Wilson is away until Milner comes across. Trent Alexander-Arnold drifts in but shoots wide. Lewis Cook replaces. Billing on 57 minutes.

Wilson pulls up. Gosling comes on for Wilson on 64 minutes. Liverpool corner is defended. Free kick to Bournemouth.

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Solanke does well. Rico crosses but is offside and Danjuma's finish is ruled out. Danjuma's shot is blocked. Salah's shot is palmed away. Danjuma is muscled off the ball by van Dijk.

Total dominance from Liverpool now. Robertson is subbed for Curtis Jones on 76 minutes.
Milner crosses and Oxlade-Chamberlain comes in and Ramsdale and a defender just keep it out.

Gosling clears and Trent Alexander-Arnold screws his shot. Ramsdale messes a kick up but gets away with it.

Oxlade-Chamberlain is subbed for  Shaqiri on 87 minutes. Shaqiri crossed and Jones volleys over.

Henderson free kick is saved by Ramsdale.

Summary
Bournemouth knew this was going to be tough. What Eddie Howe didn't need was two more injuries to key players. The injuries to Aké and Callum Wilson are devastating at this time of the season. The players managed well until Aké went off and Mepham again was not alert to the long ball over the top. It's a weakness that has to be worked on as it is giving teams starts in games against Bournemouth, and it was all Liverpool needed to go on and start playing their football with more confidence and extend the lead. The game was gone by half-time and the second goal was of Salah's making - just sublime. There was a reward for Salah when he scored Liverpool's third, but it was hard for Bournemouth even to get hold of the ball in the second half. A week is not gong to be enough to repair the damage that Bournemouth are in, and they could be a lot lower in the table by Monday night when all the other games have been completed in this round of fixtures.

AFCB line up

AFCB Subs: Boruc, Stacey, Simpson, Gosling, Surman, Ibe, L Cook

AFCB Ratings
Ramsdale 5, Francis 4, Mepham 3, Ake 5 (Simpson 3), Rico 6, Danjuma 6, Lerma 7
Billing 4 (L Cook 4), Fraser 5, Solanke 3, Wilson 3 (Gosling 5)

Cherry Chimes MoM: Jefferson Lerma

Ref Watch: Chris Kavanagh 6/10 little to cause him any problems.

Liverpool
1 Alisson, 12 Gomez, 6 LovrenAlexander-Arnold, 4 van Dijk, 26 Robertson (Jones)
8 Keita, 14 Henderson, 7 Milner, 11 Salah, 9 Firmino, 15 Oxlade-Chamberlain (Shaqiri)

Liverpool Subs
13Adrián, 23 Shaqiri, 27 Origi, 48 Jones, 66 Alexander-Arnold, 67 Elliott, 10 Mané,

Howe calls for unity from players

It was a revealing press conference before the Liverpool match from Eddie Howe. He was keen to say that AFCB can get out of the situation they are in, but he needs everyone to come together. Fighting qualities is what Howe has asked for. But AFCB's heads are only just above the water now.

Eddie Howe may call on some of those who were subs at Palace to start against Liverpool.

Eddie has criticised the players for not fighting for every second ball enough this season. He will have known that a bad run would come at some point, but it is the timing of the poor run that has been surprising. AFCB still have the big teams to play. Eddie is right in that he can't afford a negative atmosphere around the ground and the crowd needs to get behind the club.

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Eddie says that Adam Smith, Steve Cook and Josh King will all miss out on this fixture. There is some choices to make though in midfield. Dan Gosling just might be an option now that Eddie has to look to. He has played Lerma, Lewis Cook and Billing in recent games, but Gosling has not been tainted by those performances and it is perhaps time to use a bit of his experience.

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Eddie is very much searching for answers as to why he is not getting the top performances from his players at the moment, yet only a few weeks ago they did beat Manchester United. Perhaps Bournemouth are not as broken as some may think. But the players need to show that on the pitch and go and take a big scalp in one of the next two games to consolidate in mid-table.

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Catching Liverpool cold won't be easy, but just imagine what a win against them would do for moral. UTCIAD!

Possible AFCB Line-up

AFCB Subs: Boruc, Stacey, Kelly, Billing, L Cook, Kilkenny, Solanke 

It's not a team I like, but I fear Franno will play and it could be a back five which we all hate. I'd much rather see Kelly and Stacey play. I'd like to see Stanislas back at least on the bench.

AFCB TV Match Preview

Pressure is on Eddie Howe and AFCB's players

The league table is not lying now. AFCB have a real relegation fight on and the visit of Liverpool is going to hold fears if the Cherries can't get themselves into a more organised force for the game. Liverpool have gone unbeaten so far this season, and Eddie Howe needs to challenge his players to go and end that record to win back some belief in their own season.

AFCB need to find some pride and fight for one of their biggest tests of the season.

Eddie has stuck by his players while the criticism mounts. The players might be attempting to do the right things but they have been making curious defensive mistakes in games where they really have their best chance in picking up points. Now they face the league leaders who spanked Everton for five goals midweek, and they don't look like they have any concerns about visiting teams who are struggling to pick up points.

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You wonder where the biggest threats are going to come for Bournemouth and it's all over the pitch. Jurgen Klopp will get his attackers to interchange and stretch AFCB and Bournemouth will need to be ready to deal with the pace of Liverpool as well as the aerial threat of Vigil van Dijk at corners and free kicks.

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Bournemouth will have to make a change to their line up as well. Harry Wilson won't be available as a loan player from Liverpool, so Danjuma and Fraser are likely to start on the wings. It is probably why Fraser was a sub in midweek. A bigger question will be what Eddie does at the back of the team. He took criticism for playing Simon Francis in the second half at Crystal Palace, and he'll have to work if Chris Mepham did well enough to keep his starting place, while Adam Smith is an injury worry.

Liverpool Away Form
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AFCB Home Form
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Pedestrian AFCB need to move it up a few gears

The match against Crystal Palace will not live long in the memory. One fan said to me that Bournemouth don't know how to stretch teams when they have the man advantage and the Crystal Palace game kind of underlines that. Bournemouth have become a good counter-attacking team, but they are not finding it as easy as they have in the past when they have had the majority of the possession.

Confidence takes a hit at Selhurst Park.

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There was a point in the game at Crystal Palace when I thought, AFCB needed to try something different. They seemed set in their passing and kept trying to get down the sides without having the odd shot from range, or even letting Crystal Palace come out and have some ground, before trying to press, when there was better chance of a successful break with room in behind their defenders. The press was on all the time and it just meant that Palace could back up their lines of five and four, and wait for Bournemouth to commit too many players forward. They set the trap and Jeff Schlupp executed the perfect ending for Palace.

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The match against Liverpool will be very different. Liverpool with be coming onto the Cherries and it will be a case of whether Bournemouth can counter-attack well, and if they can even get a breather from the Liverpool attacks. It will be a good video to show the players after the game as when Liverpool come up against stubborn sides that sit in, they find ways of going up a gear or two and trying a long ball or a shot from range just to break up their pattern of play and make the opposition make a mistake.

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Bournemouth still have to do more to push and probe sides into making mistakes. Eddie Howe admits his team have been too predictable. Whether it is the combination of players who are currently fit, or Eddie's game plans, something has to change. Liverpool will be a stiff examination, but if Bournemouth don't go up several gears against Klopp's men they will have even more doubts about how this season will pan out for AFCB. 

The buck stops with Eddie

Eddie Howe was brave himself in saying he is responsible for the lacklustre performance at Crystal Palace. He admits the game was not good enough from a Bournemouth point of view and the team should have done better against a well-drilled but beatable Crystal Palace who had 10-men.

Eddie Howe in reflective mood.

He recognises that the players were not able to fight hard enough for every ball and didn't do enough to try to win. Injuries aside, the players at Eddie Howe's disposal should be good enough to give teams like Crystal Palace a good game. Eddie promises the team will regroup and come out fighting, but that will not be easy against league leaders Liverpool.

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It was a shame for Nathan Aké who had his first chance to captain AFCB with Steve Cook having fractured his wrist against Tottenham. But Bournemouth will be kicking themselves that Crystal Palace created little all night but for the one moment when they scored. I didn't feel that Bournemouth were that much weaker in a playing ability with Chris Mepham replacing Steve Cook, but they didn't have the motivational leadership of Steve Cook and it's hard to know how much it counts to have a recognisable leader.

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Of course, Eddie Howe put Simon Francis on to try and add some leadership, but putting him up against Wilfred Zaha was not one of his best decisions on the night. Eddie was more concerned with getting Adam Smith on the left side but that didn't really pay off in an attacking sense. If Eddie Howe need to take a hit for this one, he needs to get it right in the games coming up in December, because AFCB will be looking over their shoulder if they are not already when they don't get a result, and don't create enough against sides that simply sit in.

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AFC Business Christmas Dinner hits big numbers

Cherry Chimes went along to the AFC Business Christmas Lunch yesterday. It was a packed Champions Top Floor Restaurant with some 150 people attending the meal. The crowd were given a brief overview of how the club had won back many corporate businesses, and small business firms, in the local area since Rob Mitchell had joined the club 11 years ago, and was given the message that club is still listening and trying to see how it can improve and grow the AFC Business community further still.

Local businesses tuck in to their Christmas Lunch 

AFC Business has grown substantially in the last decade

I had an obvious reason for being at the event as it gave me a chance to network with local people in Bournemouth that I don't often get the chance to do living up in Redhill in Surrey. The conversations quickly turned to the prior evening's game and how the team had missed a big three points at Selhurst Park. There were quite a few AFCB supporters among the sponsors and I got the impression that all the businesses want AFCB to do very well, even if they have individual football loyalties elsewhere. I also wanted to meet people to make them aware of my book Eddie Had A Dream, so it was good to distribute some cards and get people talking about the book and Cherry Chimes.

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The star of the event was probably Jimmy Glass, the AFCB player's liaison officer, who was in charge of the microphone for the Christmas quiz. Jimmy was on the look out for anyone touching their phone during the quiz, and there were a few that got caught and had to give a rendition of their favourite Christmas carol or song. Luckily my phone didn't go off and I managed to get the odd football question right for my table that finished midway in the quiz.

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The winners received tickets to the next AFC Business breakfast event in January, a bottle of bubbly and tickets to the Spurs home game next year. For me it was just helpful to see another side of the football club, and a few faces that I have met before.

Beware Jimmy Glass is looking to pick people out