I’ve had enough of losing to Liverpool – here’s how we could beat them

Despite this being our first season in the Premier League, I’ve actually seen AFC Bournemouth play Liverpool 4 times in the last three seasons – and each time we’ve lost, whether it’s been in the FA Cup, League Cup, or the Premier League.

And to be quite honest, I’ve had enough of it. So here are some things I think we can do – and one thing we can simply only hope for - to halt this run of defeats against Jurgen Klopp’s side.

Show more desire and drive than recent games

This is by far the most important point on this list – if we play like we have in the last three games, we will get hammered. Simple as that. We haven’t played well in over a month now in fact – the very tight 3-2 victory against a tidy Swansea side at Dean Court.

We’ve lacked intensity and cohesion in recent matches, and even though two of those were against the imposing forces of Manchester City and Tottenham our scrappy display against Aston Villa was particularly concerning.

So hopefully now that any lingering fears of relegation have been extinguished we can play with some freedom and cause a bit of a shock on Sunday (yes, I would consider us beating Liverpool a shock).

Play Marc Pugh

I adore Max Gradel for his enthusiasm and self-confessed love to the club – he claims he turned down several larger offers in the Summer to play for AFCB – but even I can’t turn a blind eye to his recent poor performances. Even though few of the squad has come out of recent games looking good (as mentioned above) we have looked very weak on our left wing in particular.

This seems to be largely down to Gradel drifting in too often, leaving us with no outlet on that side of the pitch – and also leaves Charlie Daniels far too exposed defensively. Pugh has been impressive when coming off the bench in recent weeks, and links up well with Daniels – so giving him a chance in the first eleven is surely a no brainer.

Experiment a bit

We have little left to play for this season – final lower mid-table position in the league aside – we could look to try out some new and possibly effective combinations in the games we have remaining.

This could include playing the aforementioned Gradel behind the main striker (Josh King), where the Ivory Coast international might have a little more joy with his ambitious flicks and tricks – and also have less defensive responsibilities to worry about. Alternatively, we could give the great enigma Juan Iturbe a go in that position. He’s clearly got talent, so why not give him a chance to show it?

Mix it up with the set pieces

Liverpool have a big weakness if recent games are anything to go by - and that’s defending set pieces. The fact that Stoke City’s five-foot-seven Bojan Krkić managed to score a free header from a free kick against them last week says it all.

We’ve recently mixed up our corners and set-plays to mixed degrees of success, and with Matt Ritchie’s sweet left peg we certainly have the tools to cause problems for any of Liverpool’s lumbering centre backs.

Don’t be afraid to shoot from range

This point is pretty straightforward. I think Simon Mignolet is far from being the most sturdy goalkeeper in the league, and has conceded some dubious goals over the season – so we shouldn’t be afraid to pepper his goal with long range efforts if the opportunity arises.

Get some luck with the official’s decisions

Yeah, I still haven’t go over that offside Christian Benteke goal yet. What can I say, I’m a guy who hold grudges.