Written by Druss_the_Legend
Great to be in the position we are, not going to argue with that, but some concerns.
Philip Billing – Should have everything to be a great midfielder in this league. Why has he not shown it so far?
Lloyd Kelly – What’s happened? Hailed as the Nathan Ake replacement at the end of the season, this season he is lucky to be starting matches. Does not seem to recognise danger. Turns into players rather than away and plays with a confidence level that currently is exceeding his ability.
Asmir Begovic – Hands up here. Thought Mark Travers would be number one this season. So far, the best goalkeeping performances in a Cherries shirt for many a year. I blame the coach…
David Brooks – Can we play him more central? How we missed him last year.
Dominic Solanke – I’m one of those who always thought he would do well this season. He’s getting there and you can see there is more to come but very happy with him so far.
The Cooks – If either is out of the side we are simply not as good.
Arnaut Danjuma – Scares the living daylights out of defenders when he’s on the ball. As predicted pre-season, he is one of the best players in the league.
Jefferson Lerma – Amazed he stayed with us, very happy he did.
Junior Stanislas – Ok so this goes back to his comments 6 years ago when he said he was more a Premier League player. He pulls out of tackles, plays for himself and generally seems to lack the team player mentality that I will mention more of in a moment. If he was less selfish at times and rolled his sleeves up he would earn the right to get back up to the Premier League.
The Team – We still don’t seem like one. I know that’s pretty crazy as we have had a great start results-wise, we just don’t seem to play for each other, the badge or the manager. There is none of the cohesion that Eddie’s sides had, even during last season. We have so far relied on individuals to win us games. The trouble with that is, like Saturday, when you haven’t got them then you lose the edge. We played Saturday as if we assumed we would win. It’s not the first time and AFC Bournemouth manager Jason Tindall has admitted it. That’s shocking from a manager, he should be making sure that we play like every game is a cup final. We have the best players in this league, but if they don’t play as a team then while we might still be in the playoffs we miss out on the automatic promotion these players should be attaining.
What’s missing? What does JT have to do to make a “team”.
I’m still hopeful of a great season. Despite not playing well apart from spells in games, we are still up there. Imagine if we gelled and played with a passion and effort level like the Rotherham players did today. We have to earn wins not expect them to happen.
Your say…
Red_Dez wrote…
I think show a couple more the exit door (Joshua King being one) and bring in a couple of new faces that put his mark on the side rather than being Eddie’s squad under JT.
Bit of a strange season all round given the circumstances, but I’m happy with where we are now (was genuinely concerned before a ball was kicked we might struggle to reverse the negative vibes from last season, not adapt to the new division and be one of the sides down the bottom). Way more positives than negatives.
May not be blowing sides out of the water but we are battling away if things click there’s no stopping us.
bpl234 wrote…
I totally disagree with the Stanislas comments.
When he doesn’t play we miss him. A player who like Brooks can open up defences with his passes.
He is always looking to play the little one-twos on the edge of the box, and yeah probably suits the premier league more but he works hard for the for the team.
hba1 wrote…
Stanislas has a football brain and sees the right passes. He may be light in the tackle but with his injury history that is to be accepted. Really puts a shift in every game.
Tinpot Club wrote…
It takes a while for a side to become a team. Although several players have been at the club for a while, they’ve not played many minutes together to form the partnerships great teams do have.
Lewis Cook is obviously the one who makes us tick. I like the movement from Dom to drop deep to create space for Danjuma on the left. Lerma and Stacey also seemed to have a good understanding so it’s a shame we won’t see that for a while.
SlowDownDerek wrote…
I’m quite pleased with this season so far. The biggest worry was whether JT could sort out the confidence and motivation issues that got us relegated last season and he has in the main.
I also worried that he may lack authority and respect among the players but he clearly is able to have an impact on them at half time.
Not perfect though – He needs to sort out our weak starts. – Join the conversation, click here.
