8 mins: Bournemouth try going route one as Alisson thumps a long ball up for Nunez It bounces dangerously but the retreating Christie manages to get his head on it and nod back to Neto. A potentially fruitful tactic for the Cherries though.

6 mins: Better from Liverpool as they attack down the left but Bournemouth get bodies in front of the ball and clear.

The Cherries then earn another corner down the other end. Tavernier drills a low ball across after a neat short-corner routine that Alisson pushes behind. A fourth corner for the hosts and it’s dangerously in the mixer but headed clear by Van Dijk.

2 mins: Bournemouth immediately on the front foot and Kluivert skips past Gomez down the right flank. His attempted cross is blocked away for a corner.

Konate then forced to clear behind for another corner but this time Liverpool can scramble the ball away. Good start for the Cherries though

Here we go – underway at the Vitality Stadium. Two in-form teams going head to head

Not long until kick-off in Bournemouth now. The players have completed their warm-up

• Bournemouth have taken more points from their last eight Premier League games than any other side (19 – W6 D1 L1). Liverpool rank second for this with 18 points from their last eight (W5 D3).

• Liverpool have rescued more points from losing positions than any other side in the Premier League this season (19), with 12 of those coming away from home. The Reds have lost just one of their last 14 league games in which they’ve trailed (W6 D7), with that defeat coming away to Tottenham in September, going down to a 96th-minute strike in that match.

• Due to Egypt’s participation at this year’s AFCON, this will be Liverpool’s first Premier League game without Mohamed Salah since a 2-1 win at Southampton in May 2022. Since joining the Reds in 2017-18, Liverpool have lost none of their 10 Premier League games without him (W7 D3), winning each of the last four in a row.

• Dominic Solanke, who scored one goal in 21 Premier League appearances for former club Liverpool, has scored in each of his last three home league games (4 goals). He could become the first player to score in four consecutive home appearances in the Premier League for Bournemouth.

• Darwin Nunez is averaging a goal or assist every 93 minutes in all competitions for Liverpool this season (8 goals, 10 assists in 1667 minutes), with only Mohamed Salah having a better average for the Reds this term (one every 79). Nunez’s next goal will be his 100th in his senior career for club and country.

• Bournemouth have lost eight of their last nine league meetings with Liverpool, though the exception was a 1-0 win in this exact fixture last season.

• Liverpool have already won at the Vitality Stadium this season, beating Bournemouth 2-1 in the EFL Cup. The last team to beat the Cherries twice away from home in the same season were Bristol City in 1999-00.

• Bournemouth have lost all nine of their Premier League games against teams starting the day top of the table, conceding 30 goals and scoring just six. It’s the most such games any team has played in the competition with a 100% loss record.

• Bournemouth have won three of their last four Premier League home games (D1), as many as their previous 16 beforehand (D4 L9). They have scored nine goals in their last four league games at the Vitality Stadium, as many as their previous 11 prior to this.

But Klopp believes that no one gets every decision right in life and feels assessments of Henderson’s choices have been too harsh.

They returned to training on Wednesday – a week after their last game – and head to Bournemouth looking to extend their advantage at the top to five points.

While they will still be missing talisman Mohamed Salah, who is at the Africa Cup of Nations, and are waiting for the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai to return from injury, Klopp believes everyone benefited from a break from the intensity of the Premier League.

“Friday was the third session since we are back and you could see it was really important to everybody, for everybody,” he said. “As much as they like going on holiday, the thing they like most is actually playing football and that’s really cool to see.

“Nobody wanted to have three or four weeks, we are in the middle of a season (and) we love what happened so far. We are looking forward to what’s coming up, but these four days were just top class. We had a break and now we can go for the rest of the season.”

And Eriksson could be in the dugout at Anfield in March when a Liverpool Legends team containing some of their former players take on their Ajax counterparts in a charity game with Robbie Fowler, who played for the Swede during his reign with England, saying a call had been made to help arrange it.