Determined to make the most of the winter break, Jürgen Klopp gave his players some time out from the grind, a six-day breather from the brutal Premier League schedule. Klopp headed to Dubai where, apart from playing padel with his assistant, Pep Lijnders, he enjoyed some downtime, even if half of his Liverpool team were on the same seven-hour flight home.
Presumably in those moments at the net, the small talk in between serves, Klopp and his right-hand man pondered how his team would resume on their return to business. The answer? Rather emphatically, after a slow start. Liverpool are now five points clear at the top – Manchester City, of course, in their rearview mirror – after clinical, crisp doubles by Darwin Núñez and Diogo Jota.
Núñez’s second goal was delightful, a delicate one-touch finish with the outside of his right boot clinking in off a post to make it game, set and match in added time. Last week Klopp talked about how Luis Díaz cannot stop smiling but on Sunday it was Núñez who truly enjoyed himself. The boisterous visiting Liverpool supporters serenaded him throughout and even six minutes into second-half stoppage time, the contest long since over, he was desperate to thrust himself into the thick of things, felling the Bournemouth substitute Kieffer Moore on halfway, his way of boxing off a fifth successive victory.
As Núñez headed down the tunnel at full-time, Klopp patted him on the back, this a satisfying afternoon’s work. In the absence of one of Liverpool’s greatest forwards, Núñez moved front and centre.
The signs are promising for Liverpool, even if the picture is not entirely rosy. Their record now shows only one defeat in 21 league matches. There is the obvious concern around the extent of Mohamed Salah’s hamstring injury, sustained on Egypt duty at the Africa Cup of Nations, and Trent Alexander‑Arnold, Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai were among those absent with injury for this victory.
But, despite Klopp being without first-choice picks across his side, most discernibly at full-back, his team displayed the killer instinct that is at the crux of their title push. Jota played a perfect first-time pass for Núñez to open the scoring and went on to score twice himself, the first of which he pinged in off a post, seven minutes after Cody Gakpo arrived off the bench. For all of the panic, Liverpool are unbeaten in their past 11 league matches without Salah.
It would be overegging it to say Liverpool were beset by problems on arrival in Bournemouth but there was an element of needs must about Klopp’s starting lineup. Conor Bradley, who shone on loan in League One at Bolton Wanderers last season, impressed at right-back on his first Premier League start. This time last season he was preparing to face Forest Green Rovers but, despite having his hands full at times, the 20-year-old, wearing No 84, was able to hurt the hosts going forward. Joe Gomez, who assisted Núñez for his nonchalant second, began at left-back.
When these sides met in the Carabao Cup in November it was the high winds and swirling rain of Storm Ciarán that battered the south coast. Núñez scored a beauty that night, too, and relished the responsibility of leading the line here once more. But for 47 or so first-half minutes Liverpool could be forgiven for thinking it was Storm Iraola and not Isha that had the Met Office on alert in recent days.
Bournemouth did what they do best under Andoni Iraola, their in‑your‑face swarming and direct running causing Liverpool problems. The scene at kick‑off suggested as much, left-back James Hill, making his first Premier League start since signing from Fleetwood Town two years ago, lining up on halfway, ready to go toe to toe with Díaz, who started on the right. Once under way, Ryan Christie gave Curtis Jones a tough time and the lively Marcus Tavernier tested Alisson at his near post.
Bournemouth re-emerged for the second half to the unmistakeable beat of Run DMC’s Walk This Way but Iraola’s side do nothing at that kind of pace. Everything is at full tilt, typified by Max Aarons’s burst past Alexis Mac Allister on halfway and Harvey Elliott’s subsequent high-wire act in pursuit of stealing possession from Dominic Solanke, the former Liverpool forward who Klopp signed six and a half years ago. Solanke has deservedly taken the headlines of late but this was not his day.
Liverpool had to ride it out and the first time they truly showed poise, intelligently knitting a silky smooth move together on the edge of the Bournemouth box, it culminated with Núñez slotting the ball into the hosts’ net four minutes into the second half. Jones chested Ibrahima Konaté’s diagonal pass and then located Jota, whose first-time pass left Núñez with only Neto to beat, his finish flawless. The three goals that followed were equally easy on the eye, as Liverpool purred en route to victory. Liverpool have had a break but carried on where they left off: very much in the groove.
