AFCB Vital Match Zone

Brighton v AFCB – Highlights & Reaction

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AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe told the Daily Echo

“Apart from the first season, I don’t think we have ever been in the relegation zone after any amount of games, This year, it’s probably been the closest we’ve been but every year we have been in a relegation battle, every year we have been looking over our shoulders below us.

“This is probably the tightest it’s been. I think we’ve got to relish that challenge that we have.

“It’s probably our most difficult moment that we’ve had in the Premier League when you consider the squad depth we have at the moment.

“That’s just where we are, we have to deal with it and try to come through it.”

“We are looking at all situations every day to try to improve where we are. That’s what I’m going to have to do.

Written by Red_till_im_ded

It was garbage. The way we made Mooy look so good shows that. He’s a good player but we made him look world-class today which he’s not or he wouldn’t be on loan at Brighton.

What you could see from them was a desire to win, throwing bodies in the way of everything. They’re not technically great, gave the ball away too much and against a decent opposition would have been in trouble. Against us, they did what they needed to win. We just haven’t got that in us at the moment. Poor teams technically survive on grit, stamina and fight. We have none of that. Our passing was poor, our attack play was poor. Once they scored the first question was ‘ where’s our goal coming from?. At the moment the answer is ‘ God only in knows’. The teams below are creeping closer.

SteveJonesLegend wrote…

The way I see it, everything has come at once… We have had an unprecedented injury list, we have key players out of form and we are getting to a crossroads, I fear, in the club’s future…

Yes, you could look at the players out there yesterday at Brighton and argue that we weren’t far off a full XI, however, Adam Smith, David Brooks, Nathan Ake and Jefferson Lerma are huge players for us… defence, midfield maestro and creativity and goals all in those 4 players… Also, our injury list has left us with kids, out of form players and League One stalwarts on the bench… not exactly game-changers…

As for the dire performances we’re seeing, this is the one area where we are hitting self-destruct… We won at Chelsea and had a decent go at Arsenal with much-improved performance… with 3 in the middle…

For whatever reason Eddie Howe cannot see that Philip Billing has gone into hibernation and 4 across the middle is no longer suiting us and is leaving us overrun in every game…

We have also bought a lot of expensive duds… I like to keep positive about players but Dominic Solanke is looking like the biggest of all. Yes, he’s young but when you think him and Tammy Abraham at Chelsea were once (and not that long ago) at the same level… The career choices they both took have left them where they are today… Tammy an England international, thriving in a top team and scoring for fun, and Solanke now looking like the biggest flop in our clubs history… Even more than Jordon Ibe…

A club of our size cannot just write that £20million off and go and get someone else… I doubt we’ll even be able to shift him on for half the price… In an ideal World, you would bring back Sam Surridge and try and get Solanke on a half-season loan to a Championship club and bring him some confidence… But we are not in a position to be letting one of our 3 strikers go…

I don’t feel that we’re relegated yet, but the form doesn’t lie… They say form is only temporary, which means it is starting to look like this is actually our level…

Looking forward to a few week’s time, and get a midfield back of Lerma, Lewis Cook and Dan Gosling… Joshua King and Ryan Fraser on the wings and Ake and Smith back and I still reckon we’ll scrape it… But my god… there needs to be some conversations in the summer about where this club is going and how it wants to approach it… Because the current style is not us… We know it, pundits know it, opposition fans and managers know it… But Eddie seems blinkered to it… That is what worries me. – Join the conversation, click here.

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DJ

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