Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Liverpool 4 Bournemouth 2 in the 2025-2026 Premier League season…
WHEN you need them, The Reds come through for you.
For years, honestly years before 2015 this was rarely the case. The Reds could shoot themselves in any foot going at any time and limp towards defeat.
They could find that defeat in the jaws of victory.
Tonight, at 2-2, all I could say to myself was “not today Liverpool. Not today.” At 2-2 all I could see was the abyss and it felt just too early for the abyss. Not today. Not for me. Not for us.
I hate the abyss. I hate the self-inflicted long look at it. It is always there and will be all season as Champions. The funny thing about playing Bournemouth is that it is one thing to look into the abyss – it isn’t meant to wink back at you.
My god do they wink. I love them, you know. I love the spirit the manager has imbued in them. They keep coming. Centre-back crisis? Keep coming. Lose an attacker? Keep coming. Injuries from pre-season? Fuck you. We keep coming. We run at you and we press you and we keep fighting. In tons of ways they are the most impressive team in the country. Because they keep coming.
But at 2-2 they did have a few minutes of seeming leggy. They seemed like they had climbed a mountain and enjoyed it and then realised the oxygen is thin up there.
The manager had made two mad substitutions and a tactical shift, made two substitutions to counteract his two mad ones and then lined up Federico Chiesa. The man with the song.
We needed more than wanted. And there he was. The finish: unorthodox but natural. There is a ball. It needs to go in a goal.
It was bedlam. It was whatever you get beyond bedlam. And then there was the song. Everyone wanted him to have the moment. Him more than anyone and then we got what we all wanted. Needed.
—
We all learn a lot in this game. If the most common scoreline is 2-1, 4-2 is the most commonly wild. Goals that come thick and fast, defensive mistakes, boots flying everywhere, and a Liverpool side that is finding how to change, fast.
Amazingly, of the six goals there are none before the 37th minute. There is a lot of tension. Bournemouth are intense and can see their battles and win them. Our new players are treated to a big Premier League game of physical defending. That’s good. They will learn from it. Our senior players are working out how to integrate the new players. That’s good. They will learn from that.
Our new forward Hugo Ekitiké does exactly what he does in the friendly and at Wembley and runs at the Bournemouth players fast. He will learn that he’ll never get the space he is used to, and you have to be as robust as Mo Salah in these games. You have to be nails. He looks and plays a bit like an early Fernando Torres: quick, young and knows where the goal is.
If he can pull the other Torres trick – the swagger, the cool, we could really have something on our hands and so far he has a big bowl of both. I love a number 9 who loves himself.
Gakpo’s goal just after half-time is a solid strike. For a moment you wonder if maybe this is all going to be straight forward after all. Maybe the arms round Salah aren’t going to win. Maybe Liverpool are just going to outplay the rough and tumble Bournemouth bring and bring and bring.
But no. We have looked a bit shaky at the back all the way through. Semenyo has had a ball with Milos Kerkez. We’ve not quite got to grips with Tavernier.
When Slot brings Endo on for Frimpong, you wonder how this is going to improve matters. It doesn’t. Semenyo cuts through us like a knife through butter. Defensive mistakes take us to 2-1.
What happens at 2-1, what happens when eight (8) EIGHT Liverpool players are wrong side of the ball should make up a strong session for the manager next week. Eight. (8). Semenyo makes it 2-2 and we can have no argument.
There, look, the abyss. Smiling and winking. Beckoning.
—
At the time of writing I don’t know much. But know that racist abuse is vile, toxic and utterly unacceptable. Solidarity to Antoine Semenyo. This has to be stopped, and all of us can call it out and not stand for it.
—-
The tribute to Diogo Jota and Andre Silva at the beginning of the match is painful and beautiful all at once. Diogo played with joy. It’s how I choose to think of him. His smile. But how painful to see the sign on the Kop telling his wife and children that they will always be at home with us. In such situations, this is what we can do. Let them know they are not alone. Let them know they are with us and we are with them. Diogo gave his heart and soul. We give our heart and soul for them. Mo Salah cries for us all.
—
Salah makes it four. Of course he does. He always scores on the first day. He had to find his way but he was worthy of his goal.
Liverpool are weirdly, counter-intuitively, worthy of their win. Serious teams don’t go 2-0 to 2-2 at home. But serious teams find a way. And regardless Bournemouth laugh at serious teams. Mock their pomposity.
They came through. When we needed. They came through with spirit and urgency. They came through with a song. With the song.
They came through so we could sing.
He will take us to victory.
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I love to read this post match review. Unfiltered, absolutely to the point. Thank you Neil for the great piece.
“Getting football miracles on a weekly basis season after season.”
At 2-0 and even 2-1, I could do with a bit more of Slot’s control from last season when we used to just ping it around our own half for a minute or two at a time. But then we don’t get our footballing miracle, that giddy rush of footballing dopamine when Chiesa scores and we sing, and a giddier rush of dopamine when Salah refuses to finish the match without a goal.
That we can wrap that joy around the profound empathy that was moving through Anfield in waves of collective grief and collective healing, passing between each other, the players, the family – it says so much about who we are as a club. And it makes it all the more jarring that one of our own could possibly do something so antithetical to joy and empathy. More heart goes out to Semenyo. The last thing we need tonight is more grief. YNWA