AFC Bournemouth travelled to Wembley on Boxing Day to take on Tottenham Hotspur at their temporary home.
But there was no Christmas cheer for the travelling supporters as the Cherries succumbed to a 5-0 defeat.
Written by afcb.czech
Spurs were under par but somehow forced goals from just about every half-chance they got.
We looked pretty good until their first goal. Biggest alarm for me is the visible way our heads seem to drop at 1-0. Mentally, the game was lost at that point.
We should also rightly be concerned by the lack of chances we are able to create in recent weeks. Our offensive build-up play has been predictable and safe. Playing with fear. Prefer to avoid the mistake than create the chance.
Charlie Daniels and Junior Stanislas have both been going through a torrid patch lately. While I appreciate that one of Eddie Howe’s qualities is his loyalty to players, these 2 have both been so consistently bad for so many weeks that it’s surely time to try mixing things up…
Disappointed we couldn’t keep our heads up and play football for 90 minutes. We’re really struggling to find some form at the moment. I would love to see us play with a bit more freedom now. We’ve got a decent number of points on the board and don’t need to play with the fear we saw.
AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe told afcb.co.uk…
“They have forward players that can really create problems. We had equally good opportunities during the game, but we didn’t take them. They were very clinical.
“We tried to change things ahead of the game and we prepared differently. We then had to change things up with the injury during the game.
“I thought we were competitive between the boxes, and around their box we were ok as well. They didn’t created loads of chances but when they did, it was clinical and that’s the difference.
Your say…
Tinpot Club wrote…
Not sure you can blame tactics and formations for the goals.
The first was a deflection so just bad lack there. For the 2nd Daniels gives it away and the 3rd he’s just ball watching. I don’t see how Eddie can be blamed for any of that.
However, where Eddie has got it wrong is by picking the same players who keep making the same mistakes. The formation wasn’t responsible for those mistakes but surely past performances indicated the likelihood of those mistakes.
The frustration is we’ve been at this level for 3.5 seasons now. I believe we are on course to concede more than our first season. We can’t keep thinking our poor defence is a consequence of our tactics, it’s a consequence of playing defenders who aren’t good enough. – Join the conversation, click here.
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