By Jordan Carreno

Matchday 26 has Bournemouth paying a visit to Liverpool up at Anfield. Kick off is scheduled for 10:00 AM EST on Saturday.

Liverpool v Bournemouth — 02/09/2019 1500 GMT

For the first time since December 8th, and the last time Liverpool faced Bournemouth, the Reds have a chance to claim top spot for their own. It may be a hard pill to swallow given we were 7 points up a few short weeks ago, but, as James Milner put it after the West Ham match, it sure beats the alternative of chasing down the front runner. As always, all 3 LFC Tampa Bay locations will be open, so come on out and enjoy the nerves with a room full of fellow nervous, red wrecks. With all that being said, let’s get into the talking points.

The Right Perspective

When the final whistle went on Monday night, and Liverpool dropped points for a second game in a row, most of the Liverpool internet domain went into full meltdown. “We’ve lost the title, we’ve bottled the league, the team isn’t good enough, they’re all nervous”; the inundation of lazy narratives and pessimism finally spilled over the edge. It was almost as if God himself had started the next great flood and we were all left to drown in the nonsense. Which is exactly why all this doom and gloom needs to stop.

Firstly, this side is literally the greatest side Liverpool have had in the 29 years since the club last won the title. They’ve accrued more points than any other Liverpool side has to this point in the Premier League and are further up the table. Even in 08/09 and 13/14, the two seasons that seemingly haunt the dreams of every Liverpool fan with a twitter handle or reddit account, the team was 2nd and 4th respectively. The fact remains, this is the best we’ve ever seen from a Liverpool side in the Premier League era which makes the tantrum that much more confusing.

On top of that, this team has far exceeded everyone’s expectations heading into the season and has vastly improved over the previous seasons. We never expected to be pushing City, the crowned champions and favorites to repeat, this far and this hard. This is a team that took Champions League qualification to the final days of the past two seasons and finished 7th the year before that. No one, not even the most optimistic of fans, really expected Liverpool to have a realistic chance of winning the title.

Even if it has no tangible effect, we should all heed the calls to cast off the doubt and believe in this club

That we were 7 points up at the start of January makes the current situation less than ideal. Yes, we should have beaten both Leicester and West Ham and preserved that room for error for more superior opponents. However, if I told you mid July we’d be top at the beginning of February and would have only dropped 4 points to teams outside the top 6 by that time, you would have bitten my hand off, regurgitated it, and eaten it again.

This team, regardless of what City ends up doing, has been performing at a level this season that deserves genuine praise and admiration. We have genuine and multiple world class players all over the pitch for the first time in a decade. The club is no longer propped up by financial stilts and has laid a solid foundation to build from. We are a genuine contender and a real force in the league again, finally.

Yes, we all so desperately want this club to win a Premier League title for the first time. Personally, it is the only thing I have not seen Liverpool win with my own two eyes. I remember the disappointment of getting swept up in the 08/09 run and even worse in 13/14. Both of those attempts were built on hopes and dreams and ultimately crushed the spirit. Both of those felt as if they were last chances to reach what could become an unreachable goal. This is much different than that. Regardless of what happens, this team and club have taken a step forward. We are moving in the right direction. It would be a shame to lose sight of all of that before this season even finishes.

Regaining Control

It’s not just our own fanbase that has descended into spinning doomsday prophecies. The wider world of football, the journalists, pundits, experts, and commentators, have also begun to change their opinions on this Liverpool side. Questions of mental toughness, squad depth, and ability have found their way back into the conversations on Liverpool.

As I have said at various points of the season, controlling and shaping this narrative all comes down to the squad. Unfortunately, following two lackluster draws, Liverpool have allowed an opportunity for the negative narratives to reappear. Though Jurgen Klopp will be doing his best to make sure none of this outside noise comes into the locker room, it has an effect and can leak into the consciousness of the fanbase and players. Of course, it is ultimately the job of the players to halt the negativity and force the narratives to be positive.

More dropped points on the weekend will only mean the questions intensify and that the panic in the fanbase hits a fever pitch. Despite all the good work done this season and that the final third of the season has yet to be played, the word on the street will be that Liverpool have lost the title and are indeed bottlers. Anything other than a win could allow this blip to snowball into a collapse.

It goes without saying but the best way for this squad to seize control of the narratives and quash the negative vibes surrounding the club is to go in and take the 3 points from the upcoming match against Bournemouth. Even better would be to win convincingly and go into the upcoming mini-break full of confidence. Plus, with a Champions League tie against Bayern and a derby day away to United on the other side of that 10 day layoff, Liverpool would do well to purify the noise surrounding them.

Renewed Defensive Stoutness

Regaining the defensive form from earlier this season is vital to our title challenge

The most refreshing part of the first half of the season was the new found defensive stoutness Liverpool exhibited. Through the first 20 games, heading into the Manchester City match, Liverpool had only conceded 8 goals which was borderline record setting. In the last five games, starting with that Manchester City match, Liverpool have conceded seven goals. It would seem that this recent dip in form coincides with lowered level of performances at the back.

Whilst the team should have definitely been able to put more past Leicester City and West Ham, two clean sheets and better concentration from set pieces would have gotten Liverpool the 3 points in both of those matches. Both of the goals conceded in those games were reminiscent of seasons gone by where Liverpool seemingly had no clue how to properly defend dead ball scenarios. An in-form Liverpool backline would have been able to handle those situations and deliver the side two more 1–0 victories to add to this year’s collection.

Though we all miss the high flying Red performances of the past two seasons, where our strategy was to score as many goals possible, this season’s success has largely been built on that newly found defensive stability. Collecting clean sheets and having the confidence that one goal should be enough to get the 3 points laid the foundation for the incredible first half of the season. Regaining that form would drastically help clear the path to a title.

Having Gomez out, and having his timetable to return lengthened by surgery, and not having a proper healthy RB has obviously played its part. However, there is still enough talent in the squad to keep teams like Leicester, West Ham, and Bournemouth out. The sooner the Red’s backline regains their form, the better.

Prediction

We stay in the domestic league again where, for the first time this season, neither myself nor David managed to pick up any points. So, David remains ahead 31–30.

There have been calls around social media to turn Anfield into a Champions League type of atmosphere on Saturday. Honestly, I couldn’t think of a better way for the Anfield faithful to respond to the apocalyptic meltdown of the past week and a half. If the Kop show up in full form it will hopefully inspire the players to do the same.

Klopp has yet to do his press conference as of me writing this, but hopes are that Trent will be fit enough to play on Saturday so I’m going to assume he finds his way into the starting 11. Having a proper fullback out there on the right will do wonders for us both defensively and going forward. Milner’s lack of pace meant he couldn’t really venture too far up the pitch as he couldn’t afford to be caught on the counter. Matip, Van Dijk, Robbo, and Alisson make up the rest of the back line.

As for the rest of the squad, I think Klopp surprisingly opts for the 4–3–3. Even though Bournemouth are the type of team that we’ve used our 4–2–3–1 against, they’re also more attacking minded than most of the teams that make up the middle chunk of the Premier League. The 4–3–3 will give us the stability in transition at the back whilst still possessing the flexibility to take advantage of having a lion’s share of possession. I suspect Klopp will run out Henderson, Fabinho, and Keita in the midfield whilst going for the usual suspects up front.

I think the lads use this as an opportunity to regain control of the season and begin to turn the corner on what has been a subpar start to 2019. Though Bournemouth are in a bit of form themselves, they have the unenviable task of coming to Anfield to face a Liverpool team with a point to prove. We get a cleansheet, we score the goals, and then attention turns to City v Chelsea on Sunday, which interestingly enough is the team that beat City allowing us to claim top spot for our own the last time we faced the Cherries. 3–0.

David’s Prediction: Not sure about the state of our back four at the moment and that’s okay. Dips will happen. I think over the course of a season you need a lot of different people to step up and surprise you if you’re to go the distance and I also think you have to win a lot of different ways. The Cherries popped four past Chelsea just 9 days ago, so it’ll be difficult to keep a clean sheet against a team that finds its own brand of joy in front of net. I have faith in our attack, however, and with the Anfield noise hopefully cranked up to high, the players bring their A game and fire us to a thrilling win, with Naby Keita getting a much needed, confidence boosting goal. I’ll take the Reds winning 4–2.