Liverpool produced a clinical second-half performance to beat Bournemouth 4-0 and move five points clear at the top of the Premier League.
The Reds weathered some early pressure from Andoni Iraola’s side before taking control of the contest after the break, with Darwin Nunez opening the scoring after a well-worked team goal.
Diogo Jota’s near-post finish doubled Liverpool’s lead, before the Portugal international struck his second, at the second attempt, after being picked out by Conor Bradley inside the area.
Nunez’s second of the game arrived late on to seal the win, as the 24-year-old turned in from Joe Gomez’s cross for his 10th goal of the campaign in all competitions.
It was a fifth win in a row for Liverpool in all competitions, with the Merseysiders impressing in the absence of several leading names, including Mohamed Salah (AFCON), Wataru Endo (Asian Cup) and the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai.
“I’m more happy after the first half because it was a tough one. We didn’t play good football. The message at half-time was that it’s still 0-0 so let’s try to be great and the boys were,” Jurgen Klopp reflected to Match of the Day.
“People might write a story about the half-time changes working again, you can write as well about why you have the first line up from the beginning.
“It was obvious we needed to change something. We did and it worked much better. Everything was better, counter press is better, we put them really under pressure and we scored some beautiful goals, It was well played anyway. Impact from the bench again as well so it turned into a pretty good evening.”
Klopp opened up on the missing stars from his team and said Liverpool must continue to find ‘solutions’ ahead of a crucial period in the campaign.
“We miss a few others (alongside Salah), we missed Joel Matip who won the Champions League for us, Trent [Alexander-Arnold] who was in a pretty good moment, Dominik Szoboszlai is out, Thiago didn’t start, Stefan Bajcetic didn’t start and on top of all of the others, Wataru Endo so it’s a tough moment.
“In the moment we still have solutions and now the boys should come back step by step. We play in three days, then three days, then three days later. Semi-final in cup games and then Chelsea and Arsenal so we better be good otherwise we have a problem.”
