Bournemouth vs Liverpool live: Mohamed Salah makes first Premier League start since November | OneFootball

(Adam Davy/PA Wire)

Mohamed Salah is in line for his first Premier League appearance since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations as Liverpool travel south to face Bournemouth.

The Egyptian returned to the fold in Liverpool’s impressive 3-0 win over Marseille on Wednesday, making his first start for the club since 26 November, when the Reds were humiliated by PSV in the Champions League.

Salah’s infamous tirade against Arne Slot and the Reds hierarchy followed 10 days later, though it seems tensions have since been eased and Liverpool will hope the 33-year-old can return to form to help reignite Liverpool’s top four push going into the second half of the season.

Slot’s side are currently on a 13-game unbeaten run in all competitions but are without a win in the league in 2025, having drawn four consecutive outings to Leeds, Fulham, Arsenal and Burnley.

Bournemouth, meanwhile, are now adjusting to life without talisman Antoine Semenyo, though their previous two home games have seen the 15th-placed side give stern tests to Arsenal and Tottenham, beating the latter in a dramatic last-gasp win.

Arne Slot makes surprise admission over Liverpool struggles

Arne Slot has admitted he and Liverpool were always aware this could have been a year of transition – despite the fact that the defending champions spent a record £450m on new signings.

“Could have been, yes,” Slot said. “Everyone at the club was aware of this. If you make changes, transition can be a part of that. But after the first six games, we had a different idea. But looking where we are now, I don’t think anyone sees it as a surprise that we needed a bit of time to adjust.”

Slot’s plans have been further disrupted by injuries to new signings Giovanni Leoni and Isak – and he said the £125m forward has only been in peak condition for 10 minutes of his Liverpool career.

He added: “Giovanni Leoni was injured straight away. We had 10 minutes of the Alex we thought we were getting at Tottenham. That was the first time we had seen him – then he was out. If you take that all into account, if I have to use one word for this season then it is ‘adaptation’.

“Every single time, it feels like something happens. ‘S**t, I haven’t got a full-back!’ or ‘who am I going to play there?’ or “we don’t have a winger” – it is a constant adaptation to things we have had during the season. This club makes signings that are mostly young and you know the best is still to come. They are young but they are also very good. If you sign the same player aged 27, then he is cheaper.”

Arne Slot makes surprise admission over Liverpool struggles

The Reds snapped a run of four games without a win against top-flight opposition in Marseille to boost hopes of a top-eight finish in the Champions League, but Slot has underlined the need for patience after a flurry of expensive signings last summer

Will Castle24 January 2026 16:50

Prediction: Expect goals aplenty at the Vitality

Bournemouth have been struggling to win games this season, coming out on top just once in their last 13 league outings.

However, goals have not been a problem for Andoni Iraola’s side, and that’s despite losing Antoine Semenyo to Manchester City for £65m. They have scored four goals in the two games since he left, and have actually only failed to score four times so far this season.

When the two sides met on the opening day of the Premier League season, Liverpool let a two-goal lead at Anfield slip when Semenyo scored twice to cancel out goals from Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo. Just as Bournemouth thought they would be leaving Anfield with a point, Federico Chiesa and Mo Salah scored in the last two minutes to secure a 4-2 win.

The Reds have scored three or more goals against the south coast side 10 times since December 2017, and given that the two sides have conceded 70 goals between them and kept just 14 clean sheets, we should expect goals.

Read The Independent’s full prediction below:

Bournemouth vs Liverpool: Prediction, betting tips and lineups

Follow our football betting tips as Bournemouth host Liverpool this evening

Will Castle24 January 2026 16:30

Closing in on team news

Just a few minutes away from hearing confirmation on today’s line-ups.

We’ll bring it right to you as it lands. Stay tuned!

Will Castle24 January 2026 16:10

What Arne Slot said on Liverpool absences

Liverpool manager Arne Slot has confirmed that he could be without five members of his first-team squad for the match against Bournemouth, with both Federico Chiesa and Ibrahima Konate likely to be absent.

The Reds come into the weekend off the back of an impressive 3-0 win over Marseille in the Champions League in midweek, with Joe Gomez deputising for Konate, who was absent due to a family bereavement.

“I've spoken to him a few times and these are private matters and they should stay that way,” said Slot on the Frenchman.

“It's very obvious when something like that happens the player needs time to be there for his family and for himself.@

While Slot has to contend with the long-term absences of Alexander Isak, Giovanni Leoni and Conor Bradley, the Dutchman also added that he could be without Chiesa this weekend, with the Italian “maybe 50-50” to feature.

“Federico wasn't able to be on the bench on Wednesday. There was a recovery session yesterday, [it’s] difficult to say if he's available for Bournemouth. Maybe 50-50,” said Slot.

In better news, Slot added that “nobody picked up a knock or problem after the game” against Marseille, with the 47-year-old adding that he expects all the same players to be available this weekend.

Will Castle24 January 2026 16:00

The second coming of Loris Karius, eight years on from his Liverpool nightmare in Kiev

Here’s our exclusive interview with former Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, speaking to Will Castle:

Loris Karius had come to terms with his footballing career being over when, following his Liverpool release in 2021, he was left without any desirable club prospects at the prime goalkeeping age of 28. “I was retired,” Karius tells The Independent, “because I didn’t do anything for seven months. It sounds dramatic. In my mind, I was pretty much retired.”

You wouldn’t blame him for falling out of love with the game. Three years prior, Karius had endured one of the cruellest nights a sportsman could possibly conceive, sparking a downward spiral that looked terminal. The infamy of his 2018 Champions League final capitulation in Kiev, later discovered to have been catalysed by a concussion, came to unfairly but understandably define his time on Merseyside. There, they struggle to remember him beyond his worst moment.

But while his legacy remains tainted by that one fateful night in Ukraine, Karius is writing a new story in his homeland. The German stopper’s “retirement” was short-lived, and he is now quietly in the midst of a quite remarkable redemption arc at Schalke 04 – traditionally Germany’s third biggest club who now find themselves in the second tier – with both sharing the common goal of clawing their way back after a dramatic fall from grace.

The second coming of Karius, eight years on from his Liverpool nightmare in Kiev

Regret and retirement followed Karius’ disastrous 2018 Champions League final, but the former Liverpool goalkeeper now finds himself in the midst of a remarkable redemption arc at fallen giants Schalke 04, as he tells Will Castle

Will Castle24 January 2026 15:45