Dan Bardell predicts resilient Liverpool to recover this weekend v Bournemouth
Dan Bardell believes Liverpool will bounce back from the shock 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest last weekend with a win against Bournemouth on Saturday.
The Reds returned to winning ways in the Champions League, opening up their 2024/25 campaign with a 3-1 win against AC Milan at the San Siro.
Speaking exclusively to Liverpool News, Sky Sports journalist Bardell shared his belief that the loss last weekend was merely a blip and expects the Reds to use their “resilience” to recover with a Premier League victory against Bournemouth.
“Great, great match but you can obviously lose football matches and they’ve obviously lost to Forest. Forest have had a decent start to the season, had a game plan and they went to Liverpool and it worked.
“But there’s good resilience from Liverpool and I thought they played really well in that game [against AC Milan] as well, they went 1-0 down and they recovered. It could have been a more difficult game, difficult task of going 1-0 down but they got themselves back in the game and got themselves ahead at half-time.
“In the end, it was quite a comfortable win for Liverpool, so I was really impressed with they way they bounced back midweek. That’s a really, really big win at the San Siro and I’d expect them to win again at the weekend.”
Liverpool showing teething problems under Arne Slot
The last thing that Liverpool needed at the San Siro on Tuesday [17 September] happened as Christian Pulisic raced through on goal and gave the hosts the lead inside the first three minutes of the match.
Unlike against Nottingham Forest, the Reds turned around the deficit before half-time and recorded a resounding win, however, after keeping three clean sheets in the opening three Premier League matches the club have now conceded the first goal in their last two outings.
Liverpool conceding the first goal became somewhat of a guarantee in Jurgen Klopp’s final season at Anfield. While more often than not, the German would find a way to claim the three points, the supporters are hardly eager to relive the knife-edge football on display last season.
Arne Slot will suffer more setbacks throughout the season as is always when a new manager takes charge in the Premier League for the first time but the Dutchman has impressed with his ability to comfortably see out a result.
The squad he inherited, barring Federico Chiesa, is entirely of Klopp’s design and not all of the players will enjoy a seamless transition to the new philosophy at Anfield.
Liverpool supporters understand that the side will not challenge for the title overnight under Slot but losing at home to Nottingham Forest is unacceptable, to lose at home again to Bournemouth is unfathomable and the Reds should record a comfortable victory on Saturday.
In other Liverpool news, the Reds plan for life without Andy Robertson with a replacement in sight.
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