Liverpool vs Bournemouth: Can the Reds find their mojo?

Anfield should be hopping with energy come Saturday noon as Liverpool play host to a wounded and besieged Bournemouth.

Plagued by significant and long term injuries to several key players, Eddie Howe’s men are sitting 18th and battling for their place above relegation.

The Reds are looking to stem the bleeding from a wrinkle in form of late having lost three of their last four across all competitions. Anfield should revel in filling their twelfth man role, as usual, and make the atmosphere a pressure cooker.

After all, the Cherries are standing in the way of three points toward a first Premiere League title and this is how Klopp and company must view the tie. They need to play hungry and determined from the initial whistle.

It is unfortunate that it must be Bournemouth, but Liverpool need to make a statement here; with a decisive, make no mistake about it, thrashing of the Cherries. This will go a long way to restoring the confidence that’s slipped a bit this past month. And it will send a message to Diego Simeone and Atletico Madrid who will be paying attention to this one. We must say: “Welcome to Anfield!”

Liverpool will definitely need to improve their intensity and creativity, and win the midfield battle. Someone in that midfield three will need to step up by making linking and connecting passes going forward to Roberto Firmino. A goal or an assist or two from the midfield wouldn’t hurt either.

More from Rush The Kop

• Set to return, Virgil Van Dijk facing heavy criticism back home
• Liverpool making late comebacks all the rage once again
• Wolves tilt gives Klopp opportunity to tinker with lineup following international duty
• Players to watch in the matchup with Wolves
• Predicting Liverpool’s Next Five Premier League Fixtures

This has been sorely lacking with the injury of captain, Jordan Henderson. Lacking their connecting link up to central attack point Firmino, from the middle of the park, causes the break down in goal scoring chances we’ve seen in recent outings. This puts all the pressure in creating everything from wide areas and is simply too easy to defend.

Look for Howe’s Cherries to set up deep in a low block and pressing hard in the midfield and wide areas along the midfield touch line. They will look to strike on quick counters, but are most dangerous this season from dead balls and set pieces. Corners are a speciality for Bournemouth.

The Cherries will hope to keep Liverpool off balance in the midfield capitalizing on their poor performances of late from that area of the pitch. All other drops in form in defensive structure and our forward attacking line; stems from this fundamental breakdown in the midfield.

The backbone of the Liverpool offense starts with Virgil van Dijk, and connects to Fabinho, to Henderson, to Firmino. This makes those full backs runs down the wide areas much more fluid and dangerous. With Henderson out there is a gap that is wont for filling. Fix this issue and the defense and forward line will play better accordingly.

Opponents have learned to take away that midfield channel, which forces Liverpool to play out wide, and they bog down in attacking run of play. From there the Cherries have a fighting chance.

Liverpool must just make damn sure that it steam engines when it comes steam engine time.

Predicted team to take on Bournemouth: _Allison_, Andy Robertson, Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Georginio Wijnaldum, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah.