It was an eventful match at the Vitality Stadium as Liverpool lost a two-goal lead and finished up losing to Bournemouth. In the first half, Liverpool were excellent and arguably deserved a bigger lead. However, Bournemouth bounced back and were much better in the second half.
The introduction of Ryan Fraser changed the game and after fighting back to 3-3, the home side looked the most likely winners. In the dying minutes, Nathan Ake got an opportunity and he took it like a natural finisher. It was an incredible game and a contender for the match of the season so far.
Here are three things we learned from Bournemouth’s breath-taking victory…
Liverpool need to strengthen their defence
They should never have lost a two-goal lead in the way that they did. Every goal was avoidable and there were mistakes made by several of the players on the pitch. Loris Karius will take the headlines as he could have done better with the second goal and really should have done a lot better for the winner. However, the defence as a whole wasn’t good enough. James Milner was caught out of position on a number of occasions, while it was obvious that Lucas wasn’t comfortable in the centre of defence.
In January, Liverpool may look to strengthen their defence, especially as Ragnar Klaven and Mamadou Sakho seem out of favour with Jurgen Klopp. They can’t rely on Lucas as a third choice centre back as he can be easily exposed. In recent weeks, teams haven’t tried to get at Liverpool’s defence and Bournemouth showed today that if you do look to attack them, there is a possibility to get a lot of joy. There will be calls for Liverpool to bring in another goalkeeper, but it is too early to write off Karius. He needs time to adjust.