Conclusions on Luton Town – A case for VAR?

Written by kirsikka

AFC Bournemouth v Luton Town – Match Report – Click here

– I said after the Millwall game that AFC Bournemouth manager Jason Tindall lacked tactically bravery and that cost us the win in that match. In a way, it’s doubly so now because this was a game lost outside of our control. The reason why you have to take the wins on offer is because in football you can miss out in games unjustly. Three points from six wouldn’t have been too bad. One from six is really poor and makes the Millwall result look even worse, no matter the reason for today.

– Conversely, the management and team didn’t lack ambition in this game. If we’d show today’s kind of desire to win against Millwall we’d have run away with it. I’ll say that aside whilst applauding the excellent effort from all concerned in this match.

– I loved what I saw from King out there. Having lambasted him for much of the prior five months it might be time to lay off since if he’s going to be his old self for the remainder of his contract then Championship defenders… watch out!

– I’d like to buy Begovic a pint. At the start of this season that isn’t sentiment, I would have expected to express.

– Despite all the positives we still have problems breaking down the teams that come here to sit in and hope they get lucky. We need to find a solution since we’re going to see it a lot.

– Football is a cruel mistress. We didn’t deserve to lose today. We didn’t deserve to draw today. We didn’t deserve to go down to ten men today. However, the performance was there in stark contrast to Tuesday. That’s what we need to do game in and game out. In the end, it will pay off and we’ll look back at today and laugh at the ridiculous official.

– I wouldn’t like to buy David Webb a pint.

—– Player Ratings —–

Begovic – 8 and Man of the Match
Those three saves in two minutes deserved to win us points. They were that good they also get him MotM.

S Cook – 6
Stood off his man for the goal but apart from that not bad.

Carter-Vickers – 7
Looks very tidy indeed. Good anticipation and defensive work.

Rico (off on 71) – 7
Dreadful set-piece delivery but, crucially, he was constantly getting forward to support Smith which this system demands. I suspect it would have paid off but for Webb’s intervention.

Stacey (off on 71) – 7
Great energy and pace. A welcome relief to have him back.

Lerma (red card on 26) – 6
Blameless in the sending off. Up until then not much either way.

L Cook – 6
Had to be more circumspect due to the man shortage in the midfield.

A Smith (off on 82) – 7
Combined well with Rico on the left. He isn’t a natural fit there but it seems of the three options he may be the best for this system.

Brooks (off on 82) – 7
Grafted well in the middle when forced to fill in so deserves a lot of credit for that.

Solanke – 7
Worked hard and a little unlucky not to score. Nice link up with King.

King (off on 71) – 7
Probably the best display from him this season. The partnership with Solanke looks like it could be very effective if he puts in more performances like this (and sees his contract out).

— Subs —
Billing (on from 71) – 6
One moment of excellent skill and got himself around the pitch.

Kelly (on from 71) – 7
Actually did well in the LWB role and unlucky not to set up the equaliser.

Surridge (on from 71) – 6
One beautiful lay off but quiet aside from that.

Riquelme (on from 82) – 6
Unfortunate not to score. Still seems desperate to impress.

Anthony (on from 82) – 6
Enthusiastic but didn’t quite happen for him in this cameo.

Overall grade: B
It isn’t often I’ll give a grade like that in a match we lost and in which we didn’t score. However, the deck was stacked against us by incompetent refereeing but we still looked by far the better team throughout.

Play that well in that same game and nine times out of ten we’d win. Today was the outlier.

At the same time, previous games are now coming back to haunt us as we’ve been drawn into the chasing pack. We need a run of good results and we need them soon.

Your say…

ChampagneCherry wrote…

If we play with that commitment and 11 for the rest of the season, we should soon see the luck turn.

You will though find me continuing to support VAR. The concept is fine and we need to stick with it to improve implementation/application. That would have been sorted before the injured player left the pitch, no time impact at all. – Join the conversation, click here.