Liverpool vs. AFC Bournemouth 1-0

(Monday 17th august 2015)

December 14^th, 2014 and Liverpool Manager Brendan Rodgers announces that after a string of errors and with his confidence seemingly shot his goalkeeper Simon Mignolet has been dropped “indefinitely,” with his place to be taken by ex-Middlesbrough player Brad Jones.

Fast forward just a fortnight to Boxing Day and Brad Jones was forced off through injury after 16 minutes of their game with Burnley and the Belgian goalkeeper found himself once more in between the sticks for Liverpool. Fast forward even further to August 17^th and Mignolet’s clean sheet against AFC Bournemouth in last night’s 1-0 win now means he has more clean sheets than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League in 2015.

That statistic isn’t meant to suggest that he is by far and away the best goalkeeper in the Premier League, far from it in fact but two clean sheets in two games so far this season does suggest that Rodgers side has toughened up at the back and last week they laid to rest the ghost of the 6-1 final day thumping at the hands of Stoke City as a late Philippe Countinho wonder goal secured a 1-0 win away to the Potters.

Liverpool’s opposition for each off Mignolet’s clean sheets since the turn of 2015; Sunderland, Aston Villa, West Ham, Everton, Southampton, Burnley, Swansea, West Bromwich Albion, Stoke City and AFC Bournemouth.

Whilst the list of teams may not include any of the biggest household names in Premiership football, if Liverpool are to achieve their aspirations of reaching Champions League football for next season then they will have to show better consistency against the teams below them in the league, something that has dogged them in recent seasons. I’ve already mentioned the 6-1 mauling to Stoke City last season, add to that list a 3-1 defeat at home to Crystal Palace a week earlier, a 1-0 away defeat to Hull City at the end of April, another 3-1 defeat by Palace and a 1-0 away to Newcastle back in November, and a 3-1 defeat away to West Ham United in September. In all Liverpool lost 12 games last season so whilst two 1-0 wins and two clean sheets this season is hardly as spectacular as Manchester City’s start, the fact does remain that they lay third in the table behind Manchester City and Leicester City on goal difference and with an equal record of age old rivals Manchester United. If you were to have offered that to Rodgers before the season started I’m sure he would have gladly accepted.

Last night saw AFC Bournemouth’s first ever away game in the Premiership finish with their second 1-0 defeat of the season having lost on the opening weekend to Aston Villa. Whilst the main media pundits have been generally nice in their output towards Bournemouth this season so far, making light of their possession statistics and in the case of last night how they were on the end of some bad refereeing decisions like the one that let Christian Benteke’s first goal at home stand, they remain off the bottom of the table owing only to Sunderland’s poor start to the season. Last season en route to the Championship title Bournemouth scored a staggering 98 goals in 46 matches but so far after 180 Premiership minutes of football have failed to muster a single goal. Anyone who claims the gulf between the Championship and the Premiership isn’t continually widening will need to back their arguments up against the basis of records of the smaller teams like Burnley who were relegated after one season in the top flight and Bournemouth as their season progresses this.

I don’t buy into this namby pamby bullshit of second club syndrome whereby like Burnley last season, Bournemouth end up relegated but held the hearts of other fans for their valiant efforts during this. I couldn’t tell you much about Burnley’s results last season, all that sticks in my mind is that they weren’t good enough to stay up. My over riding memories are of manager Sean Dyche sounding like he ate a bag of gravel for breakfast and that Burnley players covered more blades of grass than any other team which quintessentially meant they spent their entire season chasing the ball. Ifs, buts and maybes count for nothing at the end of the season come May. The table reads; total games played, won, drawn, lost and the total number of goals scored and conceded and if the sum total of points in the end column is less than that of at least 17 other clubs then your fans better get used to the thought of Championship football the season after. I know it’s only two games in but Bournemouth are ticking all the boxes to make them one of the favourites for relegation. The Premier League is an unforgiving place and whilst the likes of manager Eddie Howe and Sean Dyche at Burnley may finish the season saying that they maintained their footballing principles to the last, even the best coaches in the world will when required throw out the coaching manual and ensure their sides do the dirty work in order to get the required result. It might not always be pretty to watch and to give an example; Internazionale’s 2-0 defeat of Bayern Munich in 2010 Champions League final under Jose Mourinho, but sometimes players have to simply roll up their sleeves and get stuck in. You can’t tell me that had Bournemouth won with an 88^th minute own goal last night up at Anfield that their fans would have been any less delirious than a 1-0 win with a 32^nd minute wonder strike per se. Sadly all they will have been left with is what will possibly be a fleeting memory of a day out at Anfield and two refereeing decisions which saw them leave without any points on the board.

Bournemouth had a Tommy Elphick headed goal disallowed for a foul on Dejan Lovren before Christian Benteke’s controversial strike on 26 minutes made it his 12^th goal in the past 13 Premier league matches. With the offside law changed once again to supposedly make things easier for match officials, referee Craig Pawson allowed the goal to stand despite Countinho deemed to be under said new laws – offside.

The new rule states “a player in an offside position shall be penalised if he clearly attempts to play a ball which is close to him when this action impacts on an opponent or makes an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball.”

Coutinho who was clearly offside as he stretched for the ball is called the Little Magician by Liverpool fans so one has to wonder if he managed to simply make himself disappear from the view of Pawson and his assistant.

For Liverpool a sterner test of how far they’ve come awaits next away against Arsenal where they were thumped 4-1 as recently as April. For Bournemouth unless things improve on the goal scoring front and fast, it’s a danger of being a day trip out to London Town as they take on West Ham United.

Stoke City vs. Liverpool 0-1

(Sunday 9th August, 2014)

It wasn’t that long ago that Stoke new boy and ex Liverpool defender Glen Johnson could seemingly score wonder goals from all areas of the pitch. But that touch has seemed to have totally disserted him now and he was left to rue a missed chance from eight yards out as a wonder strike from Philippe Countinho in the 86^th minute saw Liverpool avenge their 6-1 drubbing on the last game of last season to Mark Hughes’ side.

Last season saw Liverpool’s forwards misfiring throughout their campaign as they struggled to fill the void of the departure of Luis Suarez to Barcelona and the injury to striking partner Daniel Sturridge. Whilst many have questioned the temperament of Italian Mario Balotelli and the reasons for bringing him to Anfield in the first place, alongside a proven goal scorer in Rickie Lambert (now at West Bromwich Albion) who was given little or no game time, it’s got to worth asking the question of whether more blame shouldn’t be left at the door of manager Brendan Rodgers for the lack of goals last season in terms of the way his Liverpool side is set up to attack. New signing Christian Benteke would certainly have benefited from seeing attacking balls played over into the box where the Belgian striker thrives in much the same way Andy Carroll did at Newcastle and when fully fit at West Ham. But Rodgers seeming need to continually play the ball on the ground didn’t do Carroll any favours as he offloaded the Geordie at a huge loss and could well end up meaning fans don’t see the best of new signing Benteke unless Liverpool change their style of play to accommodate their new signing more. Ultimately Rodgers refusal to change his style was to the detriment of his Liverpool team last season as they struggled for goals which saw departing skipper Steven Gerrard finishing as top scorer. Failure to do so in this with Sturridge still awaiting a return to full fitness could ultimately cost Rodgers his job I feel.

In a game as dull as the United – Spurs one the day before Liverpool fans will be hoping to see far more from their side in the upcoming weeks but the three points will go a long way to avenging last season’s final day crushing defeat.