Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Bournemouth 0 Liverpool 1 in the 2026-2027 Premier League at the Vitality Stadium…
QUICK things:
- The only beautiful thing about the performance was the away kit.
- All 16 play their part.
- It looked like they’d played a big Thursday night.
- The first goal would always prove vital.
- The goalkeeper looks utterly locked in and this is worth everyone reflecting on.
It’s a massive victory. One which is necessary in any successful season. The whole weekend was a warning – this thing is hard. Nobody rocks up anywhere these days and makes it look easy.
Brighton and Brentford humiliated Arsenal and Chelsea. For a long while one of my criticisms of Liverpool – a team who lost one in every three Premier League games last season – has been that The Reds have not looked like grown-ups. Have not been serious people.
Today Liverpool looked like serious people.
This is such a relief. The biggest positive from the day collectively. Liverpool are serious business.
The triangle at the heart of the defence between the goalkeeper and the two centre backs is the ultimate win of the first seven games of the manager being in charge. Everyone who has featured there has done well but here we are talking about van Dijk, Jacquet and Becker.
Van Dijk has been himself in the best way. Jeremy Jacquet though has been peak Joe Gomez. The desire to compare Jacquet to Ibou Konate is understandable but Gomez is a better comparison. Jamie Carragher is a better comparison. Jacquet is a pessimist in the best possible way. He sees every crisis early. This will do for me.
Today, if it wasn’t for the goalkeeper being a spiritual leader as much as an actual footballer, it would be enough to see him as player of the match.
Alisson Becker though is our man. Our man of everything. He gets into moods that don’t suit football analysis. The goalkeeper was ethereal. The goalkeeper had an air of the occult. The goalkeeper was all that is seen and unseen. It makes everything else seem somewhat unfair.
Alexis Mac Allister’s renaissance continued with aplomb. Alex Scott looked a player surprised by how hard it was after Thursday. Ryan Christie was ineffective. Dom Szoboszlai was risk averse. For an extended period Tyler Adams was excellent. But Mac Allister was the best midfielder on the pitch.
The Opposition 0 Alexander Isak 1 may be the defining line of the season. God, I hope so. Cody Gakpo does well. Florian Wirtz was dreadful first-half, better second, but in that moment acted like a centre-forward which is the job. Then there is Isak and that is all there is. Seeing him in our end is perfect. All I want, all I can ask for. Some players do their talking that way.
The manager’s subs are excellent in the best way – they solve a problem and create a problem and then solve a problem with the next batch.
Liverpool see it out. Isak resplendent. Gakpo one of ours. The back triangle unbeaten.
Things aren’t perfect, but when are they?
We are unbeaten in seven. We lost too many games last season.
We go from here. Go, go, go Liverpool.
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