Bournemouth’s manager, Andoni Iraola, showered praise on Liverpool, after his team’s 4-0 defeat in the Premier League on Sunday.
Andoni Iraola admits his Bournemouth side had no answer to Liverpool’s “amazing” second-half prowess as the Reds went five points clear at the Premier League summit.
Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota each netted two goals in the second half, leading Liverpool to a decisive 4-0 victory at the Vitality Stadium.
Despite Liverpool’s initial struggle to make a significant impact in the first half after their mid-winter break, they ultimately displayed formidable strength, leaving Bournemouth with no answers to their prowess.
Iraola highlighted the reasons why Liverpool stand as a strong contender for the title, emphasising the team’s overall strength and performance.
“Liverpool were really clinical,” said the Cherries manager. “Especially their first goal, it’s difficult to defend as it’s a really good combination. The other goals I think we could do more and defend better and react more quickly to these second balls.
“Liverpool are really physical and they keep for 100 minutes this high intensity, they win a lot of duels in the middle and once you become a little bit weaker and don’t arrive too early and leave them a bit of space, it becomes really difficult because they take their chances every time they arrive – their finishes were very, very good.
“If you see the second-half numbers of Liverpool they are amazing. They are usually good in the first half but in the second half they are amazing.
“We know against this top level of opposition we have to be at our best and have some moments of inspiration like they did with their first goal. We didn’t find that.
“Even at our best, in the (League) Cup game (when Liverpool won 2-1 in November), we couldn’t beat Liverpool and there’s a reason they’ve only lost one game and that was with nine players. They scored four goals which were all really quality finishes.”
Bournemouth and Liverpool, the top-performing teams in the Premier League, entered the match with a combined 22 points out of a potential 30 in their recent games.
And of the game, Iraola added: “We kept a high level in the first 45 minutes, but after their first goal we started doing things that we hadn’t been doing before, going too fast and not as disciplined tactically. We played worse in the second half, yes.
“We had our chances, we had a lot of set-pieces and we could have shot more, but were trying to find better positions. Against this level of opposition, sometimes you just need to give it a try and finish the things.
“I was happy with the beginning of the first half and how we ended the first half. The last 10 minutes of the first half we had momentum and were being what we wanted to be. But the first goal they scored was key. From then, they won confidence and started to be even more aggressive in the press and we weren’t so clear with the things we were doing.”
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