Late to comment, but my thought for this result was that the self-inflicted wounds are the worst ones to take. Shades of that Newcastle end of season implosion that we still have nightmares about. Difference here is I was expecting the worst anyway and the obdurate second half from the 9 men almost yielded a point is something to respect if not take comfort in. I don't know how many players are needed, but seeing the way Liverpool have persisted down the stretch shows me we are miles away from the kind of consistency needed for a title challenge in this era. We approached it in that last season at the old WHL, not so much since.
A strange game, before Son's moment of idiocy, we were creating chances, while Bournemouth were dangerous on the break. Dier, who was particularly awful, miraculously avoided getting sent off himself and was lucky not to have conceded a penalty when he hacked down Callum Wilson in the box. In the end, holding the Cherries to the single goal proved to be crucial for our goal difference; we could easily have shipped 3 or 4 having played most of the second half with just 9 men.
So since they were straight red cards, that means a 3 match ban and the players will miss the first 2 game of next season?
IMO, a lot of this comes from overworked players. With only a few players of quality, rotation would have a huge impact.
Toby, yes Eriksen, no. Dier, probably not (as he can fill in at both DM and CB) Wanyama, on the fence, might be given one more year. Vorm, yes Llorente, no. He has a role to play in CL/cup matches, and can still find the goal enough Janssen, oh, please, somebody take him. I also would add Lamela. I think his time has come.
Eriksen is out of contract at the end of next season. He is happy with the terms offered by Daniel Levy to extend, but he is open to the idea of going to Spain, preferably to Barcelona. However, Barca have already signed a similar type player in Frenkie de Jong and for about hallf of Levy's reported asking price of 130-140 million pounds. For us to be successful, we cannot have players like Dier in the squad. He is our version of Phil Jones, too slow and too gaffe prone, his performance on Saturday was an absolute disgrace. Unfortunately, he is signed through 2021 so it looks like we are stick with him. As for Wanyama, watch the Bournemouth goal on Saturday and the pathetic effort he made to a) head the ball and b) prevent the run of Aké, and tell me if you want him in the squad. Vorm and Llorente are gone because they are out of contract and there is no way Daniel Levy will waste 75K a week on a striker who doesn't do much of anything. Unfortunately, we are stuck with Janssen because he has another year on his contract. Lamela is not going anywhere as he is under contract until 2022. But you're right, his fitness has to improve.