AFCB Vital Blogs

Conclusions against Watford

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Written by kirsikka

Watford v AFC Bournemouth Match Report – Click here

– The last match against Cardiff City was two points lost, this was one point won. I’d have taken it before kick-off so can’t complain now.

– Through the match, I wrote time and again ‘terrible set-piece delivery’. We shouldn’t allow the fact that we’re scoring from set-pieces disguise the fact that most of the balls in were utter dirge.

– That was probably the best performance I can remember seeing from Lewis Cook since he came back. Almost everything positive went through him at some point.

– After the last match, I said the only thing left for Asmir Begovic to do to complete his rehabilitation was give us a point(s) winning performance. He delivered. Another keeper would have conceded one of those chances.

– Lloyd Kelly needs to put this behind it. A horrendous day at the office but they happen to everyone.

– Jason Tindall switching Jefferson Lerma for Dominic Solanke when the injury happened was a bold decision and I think it paid off so a hat tip to him.

– Watford set up to defend to the extent they make a Karanka team look ill-disciplined and attacking. With the quality of their pacey front line, it will likely work very well for them this season. Meanwhile, we will have to face a lot of teams that want to play like this against us so we need to work out how we’re going to break them down.

Man of the match against Watford

Mepham

Mepham

S. Cook

S. Cook

Begovic

Begovic

Someone else

Someone else

— Player Ratings —

Begovic – 8
Could do nothing about the goal and without his saves, it would have been 0 points today.

Mepham – 7
A better performance from him and nabs an extra point for grabbing the all-important equaliser

S Cook – 6
Mostly steady, nothing spectacular. Nothing to complain about really.

Kelly – 4
Should have been sent off twice plus at fault for the goal. Everyone has shocking days at the office. We know he has the quality to turn it around plus it was his first game back so a clean slate for Wednesday.

L Cook – 8
Good interceptions, good distribution and good energy. An all-round excellent performance and probably what we all hoped to see from him since his early promise. More, please.

Stacey – 7
Great energy up and down the line. The only fault I can find is that sometimes he needs to pick his man out with the low crosses rather than hitting them low and hoping they find someone. He’d then be an utterly lethal attacking threat.

Lerma – 6
Looked fine in his short spell on the pitch. Let’s hope it’s only a niggle and he’s available for Wednesday

Billing – 7
Much better. Had to cover a lot of ground which he did but was also much tidier on the ball.

Rico – 6
He had some good moments but wasn’t nearly as effective as Stacey and a shadow of the player we saw at Left Centre Back, In many ways, it was a performance that explains why Smith has been playing there.

Danjuma – 6
Fits and starts. Moments of quality interspersed with moments of poor play. Looked much the worse for not having Stanislas to partner him.

King – 5
Hard to say if this was lack of match practice or a 70% performance as he doesn’t want to be here but did little through most of the match. Let’s hope it was the former as he will be needed until January.

— Subs —
Solanke (on from 18) – 8 and Man of the Match
Just pips L Cook to man of the match for me, in part, because I gave him such a hard time after the last game. He was by far our most potent attacking player. It’d be a 9 if he’d have got the goal his play deserved.

Stanislas (on from 73) – 6
Didn’t really impact things after he came on.

Riquelme (on from 85) – 6
Looked eager to impress but lightweight. However, I think he may have put the ball in for the equaliser which is worthy of note.

Overall grade: B
Results against our main rivals matter so that injury-time equaliser jumped it from C to B. The performance was fine, the tactics from JT were mostly good. Big performances from Begovic, L Cook and Solanke made the difference.

Your say…

cherrycarl2004 wrote…

Agree with every single word. I thought it was interesting that you say Rico was a shadow of himself as a Left Centre Back. Everyone was clammering for him to return at Left Wing Back but I thought at the time, he has looked far better at Left Centre Back. Should’ve kept Charlie Daniels in my opinion. – Join the conversation, click here.

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