Andoni Iraola has suggested Liverpool\u2019s extra recovery time could tilt Sunday\u2019s meeting in their favour at the Vitality Stadium.<\/p>\n
Liverpool arrived into the fixture after Tuesday\u2019s Carabao Cup third-round win over Tottenham Hotspur, where a rotated side claimed a 3-1 victory. Bournemouth, by contrast, were in Europa League action on Thursday and returned from their trip to Real Sociedad with a 2-1 win, earned through goals from Justin Kluivert and Rayan.<\/p>\n
Speaking in his prematch press conference, Iraola was clear about the scheduling imbalance. \u201cI think we have an advantage,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of the times it has been the opposite. We have been the team that played last, but this time we played two days before they played.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there should be an advantage there, but also I know where we are going, and I know what they have there, not only the stadium but overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see the number of games they have lost in a long while [just three defeats in 2026], you realize how difficult it is to beat Bournemouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool were able to use younger players and lesser-used squad members against Spurs, while Marco Rose selected a full-strength Bournemouth line-up in San Sebasti\u00e1n. On that basis, the Reds are expected to arrive fresher for Iraola\u2019s reunion.<\/p>\n
Even so, the Bournemouth boss will have noticed Liverpool\u2019s flat display in last Saturday\u2019s 0-0 draw with Fulham. After their victory over Atl\u00e9tico Madrid only a few days earlier, Liverpool appeared drained at Anfield and struggled to impose themselves in a match that finished without a goal.<\/p>\n
That pattern is not new. In the 11 Liverpool matches that have followed midweek trips this calendar year, they have won only six. Three draws and two defeats sit alongside that return, including one loss at Bournemouth in January. For Iraola, the recent numbers offer reason to believe this could be a tighter contest than the schedule alone might suggest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iraola says Liverpool may have an edge from extra rest ahead of Bournemouth\u2019s Vitality Stadium reunion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[739,175,172],"tags":[1836,1066,59],"class_list":["post-19878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bournemouth","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-carabao-cup","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}