Eddie Howe has spoken to the media after Saturday afternoon’s 4-0 defeat to Liverpool at Vitality Stadium.
The Cherries limited Jurgen Klopp’s side to just the one goal going into half-time, but a Mohamed Salah hat-trick and an unfortunate own goal from Steve Cook gave Liverpool a convincing win to take them to the top of the league table.
During his post-match press conference, the Bournemouth manager discussed the following points.
The performance
It was a difficult match and a tough score-line to take. The first goal had a massive bearing on the game because I thought our shape had been good and Liverpool hadn’t opened us up at that point. The first goal shouldn’t have stood.
We got ourselves back in the game and I felt it was well setup at half-time for us but we started to make some individual mistakes that really hurt us. At the end of the first period we had showed more of what we’re capable of. The second goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of us a little bit and the game became more difficult then.
The opposition
This Liverpool team is a lot more robust and resilient than the one we faced two years ago. They look stronger mentally, physically and tactically.
Mohamed Salah looked very good today, I thought his movement was razor-sharp. We struggled to handle him and he’s one of the best in the world in my opinion. He played more central today and did well from that position.
When they did go in front, we had to open up and that produced more chances on the counter-attack, which Liverpool are so strong at, so the first couple of goals were huge moments in the match.
Callum Wilson's injury
We missed Callum today. He brings us that unique mix of physicality and pace which I think would have troubled Liverpool’s back-line more than we did today. That’s no criticism of the lads who did play.
We re-shuffled and felt we might get more of the ball in dangerous areas but that didn’t really materialise. I don’t think his injury is going to be long-term. He’s got a grade one hamstring injury, so we’ll try to get him fit for Wolves.
