'It's hard' Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson's words of warning leaves Arne Slot much to ponder

Liverpool eventually saw off the Cherries thanks to late goals from Federico Chiesa and Mohamed Salah, but the manner in which they conceded twice on the counter attack was something Jamie Carragher addressed in his post-match chat with boss Arne Slot.

Liverpool had eight players in the opposition box despite being 2-1 up, leaving Antoine Semenyo to run half the length of the pitch to equalise for his, albeit expertly taken, second goal of the night.

Both goals were conceded from what Opta define as ‘fast breaks’ - a total the Reds conceded in the whole of last season.

Liverpool's 4-2 win over Bournemouth wasn't without issues

Carragher pressed Slot on this, but the Dutchman insisted it wasn’t a structural issue: “I think if you stop the play at the moment Mo [Salah] loses the ball, there is not such a big problem. I think the rest defence is in order, but then they just came with three or four out of their 18-yard box.”

Slot went on to describe how, “I like it that our players like to play football and I think last season we were a joy to watch," also relating to how Paris Saint-Germain play.

Slot did, though, acknowledge it is something to work on, later saying: “We want to do better in the transitions, of course. We will fine-tune even more these counter-attacks hopefully, but we will work on that definitely, but we do want to stay a team that is a joy to watch offensively.”

Liverpool had four league debuts against Bournemouth, full backs Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, plus midfielder Florian Wirtz and forward Hugo Ekitike - whose performance up front was one of the major positives.

With the potential for a further addition up front, plus uncertainty over Ibrahima Konate’s immediate future, further changes in the regular XI could yet follow.

It is this that Alisson admitted is something for the squad to navigate, telling NBC Sports post-match: “I think it’s hard. Not many people talk about the changes we had in the team.

“Everybody’s said how good our team is becoming with new players coming in, but nobody talks about the challenge that this is. It is a big challenge.”

It is, perhaps, a warning to those of a Liverpudlian persuasion who went into the campaign optimistic of back-to-back titles for the first time in 41 years. Perhaps this is the season of transition, rather than last season when the playing squad remained familiar.

What Slot can do differently

There are things that Slot could do to mitigate this. Firstly, the Dutchman could revert to last season’s shape in midfield in particular. By playing Wirtz as the advanced No.10, you’re losing one of the three midfielders who provided the consistency en route to the title last season.

Moving Wirtz to the left of the attack, a not entirely unfamiliar role to that which he occupied at Bayer Leverkusen and indeed with Germany, Slot could get his midfield trio back together and have a solid platform in the middle - which would help with both the issue of being open on the counter and also the changes within the side.

And while Kerkez is clearly the future on the left, perhaps Andy Robertson wouldn’t be worth marginalising completely this early on, with the Scot’s experience being valuable during this period of change.

Kerkez’s performance was somewhat erratic and it might be worth remembering how Robertson himself didn’t become a regular in the team under Jurgen Klopp for several months after his arrival.

With two huge games up next, away to Newcastle and home to Arsenal, it might be worth Slot considering a more balanced, experienced XI, with Robertson in and Ryan Gravenberch alongside both Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai in the middle.

It will be interesting to see what the 46-year-old does in this coming fortnight; sticking to his ideals for the long-term, or seeking immediate reliability in the short-term. The problem with the former is, two poor results could set the season back considerably so early on.