Bournemouth has the expectations as one of the big heavy underdogs of the Premier League so far this season.
Under the custody of Andoni Iraola, the Cherries 7th in the competition and on an unbeaten run of 12 games in all competitions.
This run included great victories over Tottenham, Manchester United, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest.
However, when you look at the underlying figures, Bournemouth seems to have incredible space to get even better.
Their game model and style have emphasized a story of smart recruitment combined with smart tactics reminiscent of Leeds at their best under Marcelo Bielsa.
This weekend the South Coast Outfit sees their most difficult test of the lot in Liverpool, so what can they look like to strengthen Arne Slot's table.
A stifling press
Bournemouth Football this season has surprised many with how aggressive and for foot it is.
Although many clubs lowered the competition, the competition can be satisfied to accept their limitations and play in themselves at the great sides, Bournemouth does not have that many fears.
Instead, they are exceptionally disciplined and hard -working, while they are brave in their approach and the way they look to prevent the opposition from playing from behind.
The key to Iraola and Bournemouth is that players are willing to step immediately as the opposition seems to find ways to promote the ball of their defensive third party.
This season Iraola has almost exclusively set up his direction in a 4-2-3-1 system.
The striker and the three advanced midfielders will be urgent and aggressive, while the two deeper midfielders take the lead on defending the space and high steps to press and follow opposition players deep.
When they insist and work against the ball in these types of areas, they place numbers in central areas and cut off all simple passing options in the middle of the field.
This can mean that their wide midfielders enter and devour themselves and leave the opposition fullbacks in more space.
Although this seems to give the opposition a chance to play and play the space, it is a deliberate act because Bournemouth hopes to force the opposition to play against one of their fullbacks quickly.
In the match against Liverpool there will be an inherent risk of making Trent Alexander-Arnold possible because of his excellent passing skills.
While one of the Bournemouth-wide attackers is limited, at least one midfield player will be instructed to choose Alexander-Arnold Up Man for people to prevent this risk.
Liverpool is a team that is more used to having space and time in the initial phase of their structure.
Teams are generally finished and the central defenders mainly have the ball and as such, Liverpool usually does not go long.
Bournemouth will respond and work aggressively to press high and force errors or longer passes from Liverpool while they look to turn the ball quickly.
Aggressive counterattacks
Although the umbrella principle that we look out of Iraola's side, it is aggressive in winning the ball as high as possible on the field, this also informs one of their most important attacking principles.
When you look at Bournemouth, they will look to regain possession before they quickly release numbers in attacking positions to create overloads and to take advantage of the opposition that is caught.
Bournemouth tends to release one of their deeper midfielders and sometimes both fullbacks, because they really look at it to send players aggressively forward to quickly attack the counter.
Liverpool is used to being the dominant attacking team in their matches, so it will probably try to push players higher.
This is an opportunity for Bournemouth to quickly attack the counter or in transition, with a devastating series of options.
This aggressive counter -attacking style not only comes down to having players make forward to quickly attack an unbalanced defense, but also in those who are looking for aggressive forward passes to release these runners.
Bournemouth is not a team that usually wants to reset and retain property.
She has the 6th lowest on average in the competition – 46.1 percent – and this is because they want to attack the opposition quickly with aggressive passes when they regain possession.
This very intentional attacking style is designed to take advantage of the opposition that is not organized defensively.
By attacking this way quickly, Bournemouth can exploit this lack of defensive organization.
This extends to Liverpool who are willing to rely on the pace of their defenders to return to defensive positions to defend themselves against the counterattack.
Bournemouth will be brave and aggressive in terms of quickly looking for Liverpool on the counterattack.
It will be fascinating to see if lock adjusts his tactics to ensure that at least one of the fullbacks remains deep to protect the side of the room that will protect Iraola.
Shots, shots, shots
Bournemouth, Little Old Bournemouth, currently generates the third most shots per 90 in the Premier League.
They make an average of 16 shots per 90 minutes and 5.57 per 90, which marks them fourth.
If you take this in the context of having a lower half output in terms of possession, it is easy to see why Bournemouth is so dangerous.
What is interesting if you look closely at Bournemouth is that they can generate attacking situations and shots from different parts of the field and from different players.
They are not a team that is highly dependent on a single player for the shot output and the majority of their shots comes from open play and not the attacks of set pieces.
Indeed, their non-penalty expected goals value of 38.5 places the fourth best in the division, while taking penalties has brought them to an XG value of 44 and the third best in the competition.
The only drawback of the cherries is them below average final quality, where Bournemouth scores three goals less than their XG that marks them as an under -average team of Finishers.
It is interesting to note how many photos we see that Bournemouth generates that are taken for the first time.
This is the result of the amount of times they have the ball in the channels in the last third part.
With runners from deeper areas and flooding space we see many low crosses and cuts that result in shooting opportunities from the area.
The issue that Iraola and Bournemouth may find is that they will come up against the team with the best defensive record in the competition in terms of Schoten that are admitted per 90 minutes.
Liverpool admits only 9.36 shots per 90 and only 3.26 on goal per 90.
They are effective in force the opposition to make shots of areas that have less chance of goals, with an XG value at only 0.87 per 90.
It will be interesting to see if the threat that Bournemouth poses when attacking transitions and the way in which they generate shooting opportunities that generates Liverpool to change what they have done.
In most cases, a side like Liverpool would rather keep their tactical structure that worked so well.
This may not be the case against a side of Bournemouth that is currently looking incredibly dangerous.
Conclusion
The match of the coming Sunday at home in Liverpool will be incredibly important for Bournemouth.
A victory or even a draw would, it feels like, to set up Bournemouth for a real run at a top four position comes the end of the season.
This can also offer some valuable insight into lock as a coach.
He will adjust his playing style or hold on to the core beliefs that he and Liverpool have received so far.
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