AFC Bournemouth travelled to Leicester City following the international break and were convincingly beaten 2-0 by the host side.
Written by Neil Dawson
The two words that spring to mind watching that.
Same old, same old, same old. 4-4-2 Two in central midfield outran and passed. Both holding midfielders with no vision. In front of them two out and out forwards who can’t link play or trick through (contrast with Maddison) who just face backwards with their hands on hips. This is where we lose every game away and most at home. No breaking three lines and if it wasn’t for Ake we would lose most games even more heavily. Then we throw on yet another forward to turn and face play and concede again. You could write the subs script for every game so the element of surprise is long gone.
And repeat
And repeat
Players on cruise control and management on cruise control. This urgently needs a massive shakeup. New assistant perhaps with new ideas? Fat chance.
Pity those fans that went. We have become a very dull and predictable outfit it pains me to say.
Cue Eddie telling us it’s a mystery. It isn’t Ed.
Cue the usual suspects on here telling us we should just be grateful we are not playing Bury today.
AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe told afcb.co.uk…
“…first and foremost you have to look at yourselves and analyse your own display.
“Leicester did play well but we have fallen short of what we expect, the players looked tired and we are very disappointed with the result.
“The players looked tired, the ones who went away with their international teams.
“I’m not trying to make excuses, Jefferson Lerma travelled across the world and naturally they were tired.
“It’s not a new thing for Premier League teams and you have to deal with it, it’s a situation we’ll want to manage better in the future.
Your say…
Garbo wrote…
…regular theme here?
can’t really say players are tired…just that some are slowing down and are quite obviously not good enough at this level anymore.
Charlie Daniels, Dan Gosling and Andrew Surman being good examples of decent Championship level players now…but not up to the rigours and quick thinking of The Premier League.
Unless Eddie injects some more energy into our team and players who have the nous to react quicker we will struggle to reach a stable position in the top ten, and eventually, we will go down.
It often amazes me how we look sluggish in challenges and show a lack of instinctive reaction in games, the only answer can be that we don’t have the necessary players to fit a more combative style…like a Joe Allen or a Harry Arter type at their peak…Lerma is obviously struggling with his discipline in tackling and until he can time his tackles better he will often look in two minds in games.
Eddie Howe must address our poor away form and needs to dissect his tactical set up to be more effective in these matches.
Priorities for next season for me would be;
Goalkeeper (Pope or Butland would do fine)
Right Back (Not Clyne though, although decent types are hard to find)
Left Back ( Tierney from Celtic?)
Central Midfield (Mason Mount or Ruben Loftus Cheek)
Wing Back (James from Swansea would be ideal in my opinion) – Join the conversation, click here.
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