AFCB Vital Match Zone

Highs and Lows

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Written by billythekid

After the high of Wednesday night after beating Chelsea at Dean Court for the first time. It was a convincing win, especially with the four goals the Cherries scored in the second half of the game. Our next game was only three days later and it was away to Cardiff City. Our fans were wondering if this was the end of our recent bad run of games away from home. Sadly that was not the case and AFCB were done by two early goals, one in each half. The weekend ended on a low with our 8th league defeat on the trot away from home. The last time we scored away from home was away at Manchester United on the 30th December.

The next game is also away, this will be a tough one, as the Cherries visit Anfield to play Liverpool who were the league leaders until Wednesday night when Manchester City beat Everton 0-2 at Goodison Park, to go top on goal difference. They have not lost at Anfield this season so far and the only points dropped were in the two draws, against Manchester City and in their last home game against Leicester City. Liverpool are the second highest scoring team at home after Manchester City. Liverpool have scored 32 goals after 12 games, they also have the best home defensive record, conceding 7 goals in 12 games. They are the only team to remain undefeated at home.

Liverpool have had a very good start to this season and since our game, in December they won all their remaining games of that month. At Anfield, they beat Manchester United 3-1. Then they travelled to the Black Country to play Wolves, Liverpool winning 0-2. Back at Anfield to play Newcastle United which finished 4-0, this was the half way stage of the season, after 19 games Liverpool had 51 points. The last game of the month and year they thrashed Arsenal at Anfield 5-1.

Beginning of the new year and it started with two away games, first a 2-1 defeat against Manchester City, followed with a 0-1 win at Brighton. The last two games of January were at Anfield, a 4-3 win against Crystal Palace and a 1-1 draw against Leicester City. The one game in February so far ended with a 1-1 draw away to West Ham, that is two draws for Liverpool in their last two matches.

Last season in the Premier League at Anfield, we lost 3-0, amongst their scorers was Mohamed Salah, he netted his 30th goal of that extraordinary Premier League season he had, where he finished with a record 32 goals. The previous season the Cherries came away with a point after drawing 2-2. In our first season in the Premier League Liverpool won 1-0.
In all competitions, AFCB have won 1, drawn 3 and lost 10.

Six Game Form Guide in the Premier League – Starting with the latest game first:

Liverpool DDWWLW AFCB LWWLDL–

Home Form Table
Liverpool – 2nd P12 W10 D2 L0 GF32 GA7 Pts 32

Away Form Table
AFCB – 16th P12 W3 D0 L9 GF12 GA27 Pts9

Liverpool Team News
Players have been out injured, Trent Alexander-Arnold, knee. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ACL knee injury. Joe Gomez broken ankle. Dejan Lovren hamstring injury. Georgino Wijnaldum knee injury. Jordan Henderson muscle injury. According to latest reports, one or two may be available for Saturday.

Liverpool Player To Watch
Mohamed Salah the Premier League leading scorer this season with 16 and also has 7 assists. Scored a hat-trick against us in December at Dean Court. Two others are Sadio Mane 11 goals and Roberto Firmino with 9 goals.

AFCB Team News
Lewis Cook and Simon Francis out with long term injuries. Recently added to the injury list are David Brooks with an ankle injury and Callum Wilson with a knee injury, both players expected back late February. Nathan Clyne on loan from Liverpool will be ineligible to play. Jefferson Lerma back on the bench at Cardiff will probably come into the team.

AFCB Player To Watch
With Callum Wilson out it will be up to Josh King to step up and score the goals as he did against Chelsea. Also important will be Jefferson Lerma in our midfield.

Your say…

NWCherries98 wrote…

No reason not to play the sexy, infallible counterattacking 4-2-3-1 against this lot:

————Boruc————
Smith—Cook—Ake—Rico
—–Lerma—–Surman—–
Ibe——Stanislas——Fraser
————-King————-

Subs: Begovic, Daniels, Mepham, Gosling, Taylor, Solanke, Mousset

Might see 3 at the back again though:

————-Boruc————-
—-Mepham–Cook–Ake—-
Smith–Lerma–Gosling–Daniels
—-Ibe——King——Fraser—-

Subs: Begovic, Rico, Simpson, Surman, Stanislas, Solanke, Mousset

Slight personnel changes dependent on the approach. There is no doubt in my mind that Rico is a better fullback than Daniels, but at LWB specifically, he’s been atrocious. With more midfielders, I’d always go for Surman ahead of Gosling, since he’s just a much better passer of the ball and is capable of picking out forwards well. Gosling in a two, however, is probably better because he’s much more energetic; Surman is far too passive.

I like the fluidity of having the interchangeable wingers in the front 3; otherwise, Stan is out for Moose. Ibe has done enough to be in the starting lineup for the foreseeable future; unlucky not to have some assists from the last few games.

Fancy another cheeky win here. Nervy Liverpool in front of their own fans (in what I’ve learnt in the past few years is a mostly silent experience). – Join the conversation, click here.

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