AFC Bournemouth players put in another lacklustre and unacceptable performance in front of the Dean Court faithful on Saturday. Despite a good start to the season results-wise, there have been a fair few poor periods of performance.
Following the 2-1 home defeat on Saturday, there has been a lot of criticism laid at the door of AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe for his tactics in attempting to match up against Wolverhampton Wanderers well-drilled and rehearsed 3-4-3, but also for the selection of veteran defender and club captain Simon Francis.
However, it is the players that should take responsibility once they step over that white line. It was the players that put in a performance that was lackadaisical in possession, lacking tempo, lacking the press.
It was the players, who individually and collectively suffered errors that cost the goals and a red card, that put AFC Bournemouth on the back foot going into a run of fixtures that includes Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal over the next six games.
AFC Bournemouth defender Steve Cook told AFCBTV as quoted by the Daily Echo…
“(What went wrong in the first half?) Everything. The levels of the commitment, we didn’t look after the ball, didn’t have any options, no movement. Everything that could go wrong in a half did for us.
“They (Wolverhampton Wanderers) didn’t do anything special, they didn’t score from a nice bit of play or they didn’t slice through us, it was just ourselves creating those chances. Inexcusable, (we’ve got) a lot to do, we know what run we’ve got ahead of us now.
“We wanted to start it on a positive note, the only thing we can do now is take that 45 minutes into Tottenham (next week).”
“There were opportunities to win the ball from them and we were shying out of tackles in the first half.
“Whoever plays for this club, that’s the level that we expect. We didn’t do that in the first half, in the second half we did and that’s the benchmark.”
Your say…
Tinpot Club wrote…
That first half was bad. It’s just as well it was only Wolves and not Leicester. I can’t for the life of me understand why Eddie thought a 3-4-3 formation, which you ask the full-backs and wingers to play higher, would be effective against 2 of the quickest wingers in the league.
Anyway, can’t be bothered to focus on the negatives so I’ll mention a few positives!
1. We aren’t as bad as Southampton. That might have been a 0-7 if we’d not rolled our sleeves up after Half Time
2. Jefferson Lerma is just so good. Not only his defensive work but he just gives us that pivot for other players to play around
3. Callum Wilson really put himself about in the 2nd half and made himself a nuisance. He obviously took on board the rocket he received at Half Time
4. Danjuma looks like he understands how to play in a front 3 more than anyone else in our squad. He hasn’t convinced me previously, but now he’s fully fit he showed excellent pace and dribbling. Almost like the player, Jordon Ibe was supposed to be but for less money.
5. Eddie’s post-match interview suggested he’d genuinely accepted he made mistakes today and would learn from it. – Join the conversation, click here.
