(Video) Farcical moment just before Bournemouth goal will have left Arne Slot despairing | OneFootball

Liverpool suffered a double dose of woe with the goal which gave Bournemouth the lead at the Vitality Stadium this evening.

The Reds had made a decent start in wet and windy conditions on the south coast, but the complexion of the game changed significantly in the 26th minute.

A long ball forward ought to have been cut out by Virgil van Dijk, but an inexplicably lackadaisical piece of defending from the LFC captain allowed Alex Scott to nip in ahead of him and cut the ball back to Evanilson, who gleefully hammered it into the visitors’ net to open the scoring.

Gomez injured in trying to prevent Evanilson goal

As if the concession of a farcical goal wasn’t bad enough, Alisson Becker inadvertently collided into Joe Gomez as they tried in vain to block the scorer’s shot, and the Liverpool defender stayed down amid the Bournemouth celebrations.

The 28-year-old looked groggy as he got back to his feet, and having being deemed not fit enough to continue, he was substituted shortly afterwards for Wataru Endo.

The Reds’ misery was compounded even further in the 33rd minute when Alex Jimenez beat the offside trap to fire past Alisson and double the Cherries’ lead.

Image via Sky Sports

Liverpool surely must strengthen at centre-back in January…?

The horrendous weather on the south coast may also be a reflection of Arne Slot’s mood after the costly first goal, and not just because it saw his team fall behind.

That the head coach felt compelled to bring on a midfielder in Endo to replace the stricken Gomez is a damning indictment of Liverpool’s lack of centre-back depth, even accounting for the temporary absence of Ibrahima Konate after the death of his father this week.

With reliable reports indicating that the Reds don’t intend to enter the transfer market this month unless the ‘right opportunity’ comes up, it runs the serious risk of Slot being left horribly short in a crucial area of the pitch.

Injuries aside, the Dutchman will also have been livid with how easily Evanilson’s goal was given up, with Van Dijk culpable of a schoolboy error in failing to deal with the initial danger.

The Liverpool captain did at least halve the deficit in first-half stoppage time, but the champions headed for the dressing room at the interval with some major issues to chew over after a damaging 45 minutes at the Vitality Stadium.

You can view Evanilson’s goal below, via @SkySports on X: