Stat of the Match: Bournemouth 0-2 Liverpool
Bournemouth and Liverpool's styles are defined by pressing, as was their recent clash. Dominik Szoboszlai was on top form for pressures.
Liverpool collected three points in battling fashion at Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon. Did they deserve the victory? The expected goal score line of 2.5 versus 1.6 in their favour, per FBRef, suggests an away win was justified.
The Cherries’ only xG defeat at home prior to this in 2024/25 was by just 0.2 against West Ham. They are unaccustomed to being outdone on the balance of chances at the Vitality Stadium. A closer examination of Liverpool’s shots shows how they struggled to create much of value though.
Aside from the penalty - which was somewhat unusual in itself - the Reds’ highest value opportunities were headers. The first came from Luis Díaz (0.50 xG) for which he was flagged offside, then there was a late one by Curtis Jones (0.33 xG) where he steered the ball towards Mohamed Salah at the back post rather than towards the goal itself. The only other two attempts worth more than 0.1 occurred following a second minute corner, both of which were immediately blocked.
The match was played in a fashion most would have predicted. Bournemouth have a zest befitting the second youngest team in the division. Liverpool started five men with more minutes in all competitions than any member of Andoni Iraola’s squad, with Adam Smith (who didn’t feature) the Cherries’ only outfielder in his thirties. That sort of thing can tell.
Pressing was always likely to be hugely important. It defines who Bournemouth are while being hugely relevant to Liverpool’s strategy. Stats Zone revealed pre-match that the teams are the top two in the Premier League for shots following high turnovers in 2024/25, third and fourth for PPDA (passes per defensive action).
Such intensity can come at a cost, possibly explaining some of Bournemouth’s injury problems. They and Tottenham are the top two teams for pressing intensity high up the pitch, at least as measured by opposition defensive third touches per possession regain.
Liverpool’s best seasons under Jürgen Klopp for this metric were followed by campaigns in which they suffered numerous fitness issues. The top four sides last season for this were Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Spurs, none of whom are doing as well in 2024/25 as they would like (to varying extents, clearly).
As well as pressing frequently, Bournemouth lead the Premier League for average pressure duration. They were just 0.01 behind their season-wide level of 0.85 seconds per pressure against Liverpool. Despite being fourth bottom of the league for this in 2024/25, Arne Slot’s side went notably above their regular standard on Saturday to hit the Cherries’ average mark. The Reds did not disappoint when needing to sustain pressure at a higher level than is normally required.
Even when a notch below their regular level, Bournemouth showed the damage they can cause through pressing opponents. It took just six seconds after Liverpool kicked off for Trent Alexander-Arnold to turn the ball over to Antoine Semenyo (who has recently been linked with the Reds). He has made more carries of five-plus metres which end in shots than any other player in the Premier League this season. Here was another with only 11 seconds on the clock.
Slot was clearly anticipating this threat, with Ryan Gravenberch tasked with providing cover on the right flank; “Not many things that we do are just by coincidence,” the boss said when asked about this tactical plan after the game. The Dutch midfielder made seven tackles (the green crosses on the below pitch map) plus four interceptions (diamonds), many of which were in the zone between the edge of the penalty areas and the touchline. His two fouls (black triangles) occurred in that region too.
It was only the 10th instance of a player making a combined total of at least 11 interceptions and tackles in the 2024/25 Premier League, just the second for a team who had at least 50 per cent of the possession. Despite the Cherries making 49 per cent of their attacks down their left - six points above their second-highest-in-the-division average - they did not play a single key pass from that flank or the half space inside it.
Opta deemed that Alexander-Arnold had made a defensive error leading to a shot when he coughed up possession early on. He made another in the 12th minute, though this was not the result of being pressed, with his aimless header in the Liverpool penalty box seized upon by Justin Kluivert.
From the corner which followed, it was Andy Robertson’s turn to make an error leading to a goal attempt (in the opinion of the official data provider), albeit he recovered to block the resulting shot from Semenyo. In stoppage time at the end of the game, Curtis Jones was penalised by Opta for Liverpool’s fourth shot-generating error of the match.
It probably went down in the data as a successful Bournemouth pressure too, though it was clearly borne out of confusion following a drop ball. The examples from this match show how errors in a statistical sense are very much in the eye of the beholder. Even so, having made the fewest in the Premier League this season, the Reds’ tally moved from 10 to 14 in a single game. Playing an Iraola side is a test both mentally and physically.
Liverpool were not the only side whose full-backs made Opta-defined defensive errors. Milos Kerkez lost possession to countryman Dominik Szoboszlai midway through the first half, with Salah then able to fire off a weak shot from distance. The Reds’ Hungarian also successfully applied pressure in the move which led to the penalty. Having lost the ball thanks to a poor touch in the centre circle, Szoboszlai recovered to press Kluivert into losing possession (for which the crowd demanded a free-kick). Number 38 Gravenberch swept up, with the move unfolding quickly from there:
This match review cannot pass without highlighting Szoboszlai’s work rate in detail. It cannot. He made 44 pressures, per Fantasy Football Scout, which was second only to Southampton’s Mateus Fernandes (49) in the top flight this weekend.
It was also the third most by a Liverpool player this season. Among the top 10, only Darwin Núñez against Brighton applied pressure for longer on average, while only Alexis Mac Allister at Newcastle had a higher regain rate. Top work, Dom.
The second goal did not come about thanks to pressing. The move began thanks to something which came up in analysis of the victory over Ipswich last weekend though: the great wall of Ibrahima Konaté. With opponents frequently targeting his side of the defence, the 25-year-old often starts attacking moves for Liverpool by ensuring they regain possession.
Konaté prevented Kluivert from dribbling past him, with Jones collecting the ball in the D on the edge of the Reds’ box. Twelve seconds later, he was in the corresponding zone at the opposite end of the pitch to assist Salah for the fourth time this season.
When two teams play in broadly similar fashion, their strengths can cancel each other out. If this happens, the side with the greater player quality will often prevail, which proved the case here.
Don’t underestimate the tenacity or effort which Liverpool relied upon to beat Bournemouth, though. Their victory would not have occurred without it.
