Liverpool play the very first game of the 2025/26 Premier League season as they take on Bournemouth at Anfield.

The Reds ran away with the division last term and will hope to start out as they mean to go on against the Cherries.

Andoni Iraola runs an incredibly tight ship at Dean Court, though, and it will not be an easy way for Liverpool to start the season.

Nevertheless, after a ninth place finish last season, Iraola and Bournemouth have had a tough summer.

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Three of their regular back four were picked off by Liverpool, Real Madrid and PSG, with Iraola having to gel together an almost entirely new defence in the early part of the season.

Anfield is really not the place to go for that kind of thing, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the Bournemouth manager admitted he will be missing another key player for the visit to Merseyside.

Photo by Robin Jones – AFC Bournemouth/AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images

Bournemouth were a joy to watch at times in 2024/25, but the departures of Milos Kerkez, Illia Zabarnyi and Dean Huijsen will surely affect them deeply.

Given the sales, Iraola could have done with having a full squad available to him on Friday.

But as he confirmed during his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Justin Kluivert is also injured.

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Kluivert had an excellent season last time out, scoring 12 Premier League goals, top-scoring for the Cherries.

But according to his manager, the Dutchman will not be ready for Friday.

“Justin hasn’t been training with us and won’t play,” Iraola confirmed.

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The Basque also had an update on midfielder Ryan Christie, admitting that the game against Liverpool will come too soon for him as well.

“Ryan has been training this week with us, which is positive,” Iraola said.

“It’s too early for him to play as he hasn’t done any pre-season.

He hasn’t done a lot of things for a lot of weeks, so it’s too early – but it’s good to have him back on the pitch with the group.”

Iraola deemed Kluivert to be ‘amazing‘ after he hit a hat-trick against Newcastle at St James’ Park in January.

He will be a big miss for the Cherries at Anfield.

As for Liverpool, they are heading into the clash in decent shape.
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