• Aaditya Narayan

Jan 22, 2026, 11:00 AM

Liverpool resume their Premier League commitments, as they travel down south to face Bournemouth on Saturday evening in a push to consolidate their place within the league’s top four.

Liverpool come into the game on the back of a 13-game unbeaten run — the latest of which was an impressive 3-0 away win in the UEFA Champions League against Marseille, in a game that saw Mohamed Salah return to the Liverpool starting lineup for the first time since late November.

In their last Premier League match, Liverpool played out an uninspiring 1-1 draw at Anfield, as they couldn’t further their advantage following a Florian Wirtz goal in the first half, with Marcus Edwards equalising for Burnley midway through the second half.

Bournemouth aren’t quite in crisis, but they need to start picking up wins again. They’ve only won one of their last 14 games in all competitions, but that win came in their last home game, when they beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-2. The positive news for Andoni Iraola is that Bournemouth have lost only one of their last five games in 90 minutes, with the other loss in that time coming in an FA Cup penalty shootout against Newcastle United.

Here’s everything you need to know about Saturday’s game.

How to watch:

The match will be shown on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League in the U.K., NBC in the U.S., JioHotstar in India and Stan Sport in Australia. You can also follow ESPN’s live updates.

Key Details:

Kick-off time: Saturday, Jan. 24 at 5:30 p.m. GMT (12:30 p.m. ET; 11:00 p.m. IST and 3:30 a.m. AEST, Sunday)
Venue: Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth
Referee: Michael Salisbury
VAR: John Brooks

Injury and Team News:

Bournemouth

Justin Kluivert, F: knee, OUT, est. return mid-April
David Brooks. F: ankle, DOUBT
Ben Gannon Doak, F: hamstring, OUT, est. return late February
Tyler Adams, M: knee, OUT, est. return late February
Enes Ünal, F: muscle, OUT, est. return early February
Will Dennis, G: ankle, OUT, est. return late March

Liverpool

Alexander Isak, F: ankle, OUT, est. return mid-March
Conor Bradley, D: knee, OUT for the season
Giovanni Leoni, D: ACL, OUT for the season
Federico Chiesa, F: knock, DOUBT
Stefan Bajcetic, M: hamstring, OUT, est return late January

Talking Points

A must-win for Liverpool

Liverpool’s current unbeaten run across competitions is the longest for any team in Europe’s top five leagues, but there have been a few too many draws for Arne Slot’s liking. The Reds have not won any of the four Premier League games they have played in the calendar year 2026 so far, after draws against Leeds United, Fulham, Arsenal and Burnley.

Liverpool are still fourth in the Premier League but their position within the UEFA Champions League places is far from secure. They have 36 points from 22 games, with just four points separating them from tenth-placed Everton. Considering how closely the teams between fourth and 12th are bunched together, Liverpool cannot afford to drop any more points.

Bournemouth’s lack of recent form makes this an enticing prospect for Slot and Liverpool, as will their recent record against the Cherries. Iraola has managed five games against Liverpool as Bournemouth boss, and lost all five, including a thriller in the opening game of this season. In that game, Liverpool went 2-0 up through Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo, only for an Antoine Semenyo brace to peg them back to 2-2. However, late goals from Federico Chiesa and Mohamed Salah gave the Reds a 4-2 win on that day.

Will Slot stick to the system adopted in Marseille?

A changed 4-4-2 system worked a treat for Liverpool in Marseille. Ekitike and Salah played as wide strikers, with Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai both operating as no.10s. It gave freedom to Liverpool’s full-backs Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, allowed them to have the strength of numbers in midfield, and a consistent threat in central attacking areas.

With Salah’s defensive work being a question mark when he starts in his usual right wing position in a 4-3-3, this tweak from Slot could bring the best out of him too. He wasn’t at his effective best against Marseille, with some poor decisions and technique letting him down in the final third, but he was a consistent threat. That is important for Liverpool, who are desperately seeking some attacking momentum in the Premier League.

However, with the fixtures now coming thick and fast for the next few weeks, Slot will also have to rotate his squad with the options that he has, which could hamper the system, with depth limited in key positions like right-back and centre-back.

Iraola must adapt to Liverpool’s strengths

In his two-and-a-half seasons with Bournemouth, Iraola has shown that he isn’t particularly fond of setting his teams up to defend in a low block to then spring on counter-attacks with long balls. They are high-energy, intense team full of running, who want to attack whenever they can. They’ve got some techincally gifted players to help them do just that. However, that is exactly what this Liverpool team now wants against them. Against teams that take the game to Liverpool, they seem adept at picking them off on counter-attacks, as they did against Marseille, or against Brighton in the Premier League last month.

Teams must now simply not play into Liverpool’s hands. They have clear weaknesses against low blocks, when their possession-heavy football works against them. Burnley, Fulham and Leeds have set the template, Iraola would do well to adapt to that.

Bournemouth’s injuries are a worry

In their 1-1 draw against Brighton and Hove Albion on Monday night, Brighton had only 15 senior players available for selection, and just 13 outfield players. They had no real attacking substitutes to call upon, and only one midfielder in reserve, in Ryan Christie. The departure of Semenyo to Manchester City, and injuries to Justin Kluivert, David Brooks and Ben Gannon Doak have left Iraola concerningly short of options.

They’ve signed Hungarian midfielder Alex Tóth this week from Ferencvaros, so that gives them additional option in the deeper midfield areas, alongside Alex Scott and Lewis Cook. However, it is a big ask to expect Toth to be thrown straight into a game against Liverpool for his Premier League debut.

In an ideal world, Iraola would like to wait and phase Toth into his squad, but it’s a case of needs must for him, so don’t be surprised if the Hungarian youngster is thrown right into the deep end this weekend.

Salah’s importance to Liverpool

One chance in the first half, where he took a poor touch in the box. A few in the second half — didn’t find the best final pass, and then missed a sitter one-on-one. In addition to that, he created a chance for Ekitike with a cross in the first half that the Frenchman put over. In his first game back — against Marseille in the Champions League — Salah showed Liverpool what they were missing when he was away on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.

His is an omnipresent threat. He runs in behind, he’s got a great pass on him, and is always threat in the box. Liverpool have missed that at different stages of their four consecutive draws in the Premier League. Salah this season may not be the absolute force that he was in Liverpool’s Premier League title win last year, but he’s still so important, just to ensure that Liverpool’s other players in those areas, like Wirtz and Ekitike, don’t have all the focus on them.