AFC Bournemouth returned to Dean Court to face Hull City, who made the trip to the south coast following an excellent victory over Blackburn Rovers.
AFC Bournemouth head coach Scott Parker was able to welcome Philip Billing back into the starting XI following an injury, however, Gary Cahill dropped to the bench and was replaced by Chris Mepham, a change that probably indicated some sort of niggle for the veteran former England defender.
Jamal Lowe was favoured to Jaidon Anthony down the left flank, whilst Emiliano Marcondes replaced Lewis Cook in an advanced central midfield role.
The rest of the team remained settled with Mark Travers in goal, Jack Stacey and Leif Davis operating as full-backs, Lloyd Kelly wearing the captain’s armband in central defence, Ryan Christie on the right-wing and Dominic Solanke the lone striker.
In a game that the cliche, a game of two halves, was made for, AFC Bournemouth dominated the first half, enjoying over 70% of possession and having 15 shots on goal. The second half saw AFC Bournemouth add just one shot to their tally.
After the match, Parker told Sky Sports…
“There are certain things I want my players to stand for, certain things I stood for as a player and as a man. The second half was nowhere near what I want my team to look like. It is a wake-up call for all of us. The whole second half was mind-boggling after having 15 shots in the first half. The game of football is 90 minutes long and today we only turned up for 45.
“I am not hurt that we lost. I am hurt in the way we lost and in the way we performed in the second half. I can accept bad play and missing chances but when the game swung a little bit we did not react to it. There are certain traits I did not like. It is my job and my responsibility to get that right. I hope the players will reflect tonight and understand there is a certain ingredient I want from my team and want from individuals.”
Man of the match against Hull
Davis
Christie
Marcondes
Travers
Someone else
Scott Parker shares his thoughts after today's defeat 👇
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) January 22, 2022
"This is a big week for the team"
Listen to Bournemouth manager Scott Parker in full with @kristemple 🔊👉 https://t.co/zw4jOKIktK #afcb https://t.co/pbr4xyCi0n pic.twitter.com/Ih1oW0Spud
— BBC Radio Solent Sport (@solentsport) January 22, 2022
Written by AFCB_Liam
The first half was decent (bar the finishing) but in the second half our attitude, quality and concentration were so far off promotion quality it was embarrassing. We never looked like getting back into it once they scored, this team is so fragile.
Our options from the bench are desperately poor in an attacking sense, with nobody really influencing the game.
We’ve gone from being 10 points clear of 3rd to looking over our shoulders at the teams in 5th, 6th and 7th in a matter of weeks, and it’s not even been a particularly difficult run.
Looking at our March and April fixtures, if Parker doesn’t sort this mess out quickly we are in genuine danger of even dropping out of the top 6.
Telling quote from Parker today.
"There’s certain things I want my team to stand for, there’s certain things that I stood for as a player, there’s certain things I stand for as a man as well and second half, that was nowhere near what I want my team to look like." #afcb pic.twitter.com/fzzVMyA0mF
— Tom Crocker (@TomCrockerEcho) January 22, 2022
Your say…
AFCBmattjamr wrote…
25 minutes of toothless attacking football followed by 75 minutes of turgid boring predictable stale Parkerball that led to us once again losing to a long-ball team. Still waiting for a complete 90 minutes of good football.
Title chance is long gone now.
On another note where would we be in the table since our winning run came to an end, lower mid-table I reckon. We’ve imploded. – Join the conversation, click here
