Slot sack coming as Van Dijk, Kerkez terrible for toothless, turgid and fragile Liverpool | OneFootball

Liverpool were toothless and fragile, Van Dijk was horribly casual and Slot can’t expect to remain in the job when a change to turgid football has resulted in just 18 points in 11 games.

Bournemouth were nowhere for 26 minutes. They sat back, absorbed some fairly insignificant Liverpool pressure and didn’t appear to have a means or even any really desire to get themselves up the pitch. They looked every bit a football team with one win in 14 Premier League games, fully expecting to fall to a seventh defeat in 15.

The Liverpool players, despite themselves having failed to win any of their previous four, should have smelled the blood of a side very much there for the taking, but instead failed to take advantage of the hosts’ slow start and found themselves two goals down as their own insecurities came to the fore in dramatic and damning fashion.

The ball over the top from Marcos Senesi was very good, but Virgil van Dijk should a) have seen it coming from a centre-back renowned for those straight deliveries, b) done more than waft a lazy leg at the ball in a bid to clear his lines, and c) made some attempt to block Alex Scott’s cross for Evanilson, who drove his shot under Alisson.

It was typically casual but atypically poor, at least in comparison to the Van Dijk of old; the Van Dijk of this season has made similar sloppy errors, before throwing his arms up in despair at his teammates, as he did here despite there very clearly being no one to blame but himself.

That wasn’t the case as Alex Jimenez scored his first goal for Bournemouth, in what has so far been a quietly impressive debut season which threatens to get rather louder if he continues in this vein.

Liverpool would perhaps be one of his more dubious potential suitors in future after Bournemouth alumnus Milos Kerkez was withdrawn by Arne Slot at the break thanks to the torrid time Jimenez had given him throughout the first-half, most significantly for the goal, as he tore in behind him having been played onside by Van Dijk, before slotting the ball under Alisson.

James Hill slipped the assist through the Liverpool defence in what was quite the contrasting first half for the two pairs of centre-backs, at least until Van Dijk shouldered Dominik Szoboszlai’s corner past Djordje Petrovic to put some gloss on his inauspicious display.

His partner Joe Gomez was withdrawn shortly after Bournemouth’s second having suffered an injury when he collided with Alisson in a desperate attempt to prevent the first. There were seven minutes between those two goals, but an evidently angry Slot could only blame himself, his coaching staff and players for failing to get Wataru Endo onto the pitch in a timely fashion. “It’s almost amateurish,” Jamie Redknapp said in the Sky Sports studio.

A criticism which could have been aimed at Dominik Szoboszlai, along with more obvious calls of arrogance, after his absurd back heel gifted Barnsley a goal in the FA Cup. But he also scored a stunning free-kick in that game, and got another one here to raise further questions as to just how f***ed Liverpool would have been without him this season.

It was poor from Petrovic, who took a step to his right to give Szoboszlai plenty of space to his left to knuckleball a curler past him, in what was Liverpool’s first and only shot on target in the second half.

From two goals down a draw may well have been billed as a positive result for Liverpool, albeit one to extend the most fraudulent unbeaten run of all time against the team to have dropped more points (18) from winning positions than any other in the Premier League.

They were so unconvincing again though. They had 67 per cent possession but it was Bournemouth spurning chances, as Ryan Christie forced an excellent save from Alisson before Evanilson dragged a shot wide when through one-on-one against Alisson. The Cherries finished the game with an xG of 2.3o to Liverpool’s 0.79.

Justice was done deep into stoppage time to bring the Reds’ unbeaten run to an end, as Liverpool comically failed to clear the ball from a long throw before Amine Adli squeezed the ball past Alisson.

The defeat means Liverpool remain fourth but they could be eighth come the end of the weekend should results go against them. Without the five wins in five at the start of the season, they would be 12th. Since Slot shored things up to stop the rot they’ve still only picked up 18 points from 11 games.

The Liverpool fans may accept that return if the football was half-decent, but this was again turgid. And it’s hard to look at this group of players without thinking they should be able to play more attractive football and pick up plenty more points along the way.

That can only be on Slot, who didn’t quite look like a doomed man as he trudged from the pitch in the rain at the Vitality Stadium, but Van Dijk complaining to the referee about the slightest of pushes after Bournemouth scored the winner does feel like quite a fitting finale to a Liverpool tenure on a knife edge.