The first half of Liverpool’s match against Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t exactly promising, either, a scoreless draw that played out similarly to the previous weekend’s step-back of a nil-nil draw with Fulham. The second half, though, was much improved.
By the end of it, you couldn’t have said Andoni Iraola’s Reds weren’t the day’s deserved winners, heading home with a 1-0 victory that never felt particularly threatened after Alexander Isak put them ahead in the 57th
minute, finishing off a good piece of wing play by a revived Cody Gakpo.
“I was disappointed with the first 20-25 minutes,” Iraola said after it was all said and done. “I think we didn’t start the game with the intensity required. To win here is very difficult, I know that well. Normally Bournemouth start really strong and it took us a little bit to match this level.
“From there and I think in the second half we played better, we had better situations with the ball, and we could win the game. And I think overall we’ve improved since the first games. Some things we still need to improve, but I am happy it is the third clean sheet in a row in the league.
“Today was a kind of difficult game, I know you never play comfortably here. Bournemouth don’t allow you to play comfortably but you have to adapt and you have to win this kind of game. Now we have to get ready because this month, after this break, is going be very demanding for us.”
