Bournemouth v Liverpool

England Premier League – Vitality Stadium Saturday 18.30 CET

Team News:

Bournemouth have a lot of top players out for this game. Biggest lost is key midfielder Marcus Tavernier. They are without two starting attacking midfielders Justin Kluivert and David Brooks. Multi-positional starter Tyler Adams has been ruled out for a few months. Ex-Liverpool winger Ben Doaks is unavailable (but not a starter) The new signing Hungarian International midfielder Alex Toth will go straight into the matchday squad.

Liverpool will be without several key players here. Alexander Isak (FW) and Conor Bradley (RB) are long term absentees. They have a doubt over Federico Chiesa (RM) but he has been restricted to late cameos anyway. Starting CB Ibrahima Konate is also out due to family bereavement.  Liverpool will shuffle their team slightly after a tough midweek UCL game in Marseille.

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Formations:

Bournemouth stick with Iraola’s favoured 4-2-3-1 but with players dropping like flies he is struggling a bit against the Premier League title holders. He will continue with the formation and we expect goal opportunities at both ends.

Liverpool will replicate the 4-2-3-1 but in truth they have been very fluid with the midfield personnel in most of the games. They can rotate the attackers to fit the opposition. They seem to have lost that solidity in the EPL and look more comfortable in Europe with that little bit of extra time on the ball you get in those games.

Recent Head 2 Heads: P10 Bournemouth Wins 1 Draws 0 Liverpool Wins 9

Referee: Michael Salisbury (Average cards 3.27 Yellow 0.20 Red per game)

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Match Preview:

Bournemouth must deal with injuries to key players and the loss of star man Semanyo to Man City. They have been a breath of fresh air in recent years and despite having to constantly sell star players they seem to have a conveyor belt of talent. Recent games for them have been goal crazy with 27 goals in the  last 6 matches. Since November only Wolves and Burnley have collected less points than Bournemouth. Liverpool drawn the last four consecutive matches in EPL. Just three points from Leeds, Burnley and Fulham is a paltry return. Strangely though it seems that many observers would see The Reds not playing well. No team in Europe’s big five leagues is on a longer run without defeat than Liverpool.

Betting Preview: Injuries and missing men mean both sides are shorn of 1^st team players. You would expect goals here anyway but even more so now. Liverpool will dominate possession here but don’t expect Bournemouth to be passive. They still have offensive threat and Liverpool are delicate and at times seem to switch off and concede soft goals. In head to heads 9 wins from 10 for the visitors is telling. Liverpool to win the game is a decent option.