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Iraola: We won't change this approach against Liverpool

25 Jan 2025

AFC Bournemouth take on the Premier League leaders next after hitting Nottingham Forest for five

Andoni Iraola said his AFC Bournemouth team won't be changing their aggressive approach when Premier League leaders Liverpool visit the Vitality Stadium next weekend.

Bournemouth beat another high-flying team as they thrashed third-placed Nottingham Forest 5-0, to extend their unbeaten run to 11 matches in the battle of the Premier League upstarts.

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Justin Kluivert continued his recent hot streak to open the scoring, netting his fifth goal in three top-flight games in the ninth minute before Dango Ouattara's incredible hat-trick. Antoine Semenyo added the gloss with a fifth goal in stoppage time.

Bournemouth add Forest's name to their list of home scalps which includes Arsenal and Manchester City as their high-tempo, high-risk tactics continue to produce results.

Iraola highlighted the importance of getting the opening goal that set them on their way to their biggest Premier League win since a 5-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion in April 2019.

"It was a great result,” he told BBC Match of the Day. “We knew we were facing a very good team on a very good run. To score first was key. Most of the last games they have been winning from the first half. The goal at the beginning helped us and made the game look better for us."

Forest are the latest high-flying team that Bournemouth have handed a bloody nose to this season, having also beaten Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United and Manchester United with their pressing game.

Iraola is not looking to alter his approach for the visit of Liverpool when the leaders visit on Saturday 1 February.

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"I think we are not going to change,” Iraola said. “We are taking the games game by game. We have Liverpool next. We are thin on numbers so we try to recover players for that game. Still there are a lot of games to play. I will not change the approach we are taking.

"I hope they [the fans] are enjoying. It's always difficult when you are in the Premier League. You are facing the best teams in the country. The players are giving everything and they are getting good results. There will be a moment when we do not do this.

"I think the supporters understand this and they enjoy not only when we win, but all they ask is we give everything. And that's what we try to do."

While Kluivert’s goal extended his hot streak of five goals in the last three matches, including a hat-trick at Newcastle United last week, this weekend’s hero was Ouattara, who claimed the match ball with a treble, the first player from Burkina Faso to register a hat-trick in the Premier League.

He was also the third Bournemouth player to score a hat-trick this season, as many as the Cherries’ previous six Premier League seasons combined.

An injury crisis at Bournemouth has forced Iraola to play Ouattara in various positions, including as a wing-back and as a striker against Forest.

"He has been very good, all the games, the four he has played as a No 9," Iraola said of Ouattara. "I think he's playing really well. He's been a threat, plus he helps with the link-up play. We can use him in many positions."

Nuno stunned by result

As for Forest, they saw their eight-match unbeaten run in the Premier League come to humbling end and head coach Nuno Espirito Santos was shocked by the manner of the defeat.

"Nobody expected a game like this," he told BBC Match of the Day. "Bournemouth were better than us. We did a lot of things wrong. When we are blocked and compact and give spaces, it is harder.

"We are unbalanced and we didn't defend well. In the second half we tried to correct things and put things right, but we didn't react. The second half was very bad.

"We have to realise the things we did well until now, we have to do it. When we don't do those things we are a very fragile team.

"Football is our life. Today is not a happy day, of course."