Against big teams, Arnautovic can’t do it all
One thing that was very obvious at Anfield is that last seasons’ top scorer cannot do it all alone, at least against the big teams. He cut a frustrated and isolated figure throughout the game, especially in the second half. Yes he would have liked to have done better with the two half chances he had, but we can’t expect him to defy the odds all the time.
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Taking the previous lesson into account, in that I know Liverpool will provide a tough challenge to most attacks, I didn’t think we put the Liverpool defence under enough pressure defensively. When the ball was fed into Arnautovic no-one made runs beyond him, and when he was trying to push the defence back only a few long balls were able to find him because people weren’t willing to take the ball forward.
Obviously this is a minor point because, as I said before, this Liverpool game isn’t what I will judge this season on. However against Bournemouth we really need to get up and around the forward players. We can’t expect something from nothing, and we have more quality than last season coming from midfield.