AFC Bournemouth v Wolves

Just got back and for a 0-0 draw I quite enjoyed it.

Our team badly needed something from this game and though we didn’t get a home win our side got a point and kept a clean sheet.

The first half was end to end football but a lot of action without actually anything coming out of it.

Tavernier and Cook in midfield both had good games, Tavernier looks a good player, lost his midfield action in the second half when he went back to defensive duties.

Wolves dominated but just couldn’t produce the finished article and were also thwarted by good defending from our team.

The stats also showed that, AFCB 5 shots, 2 on target. Wolves 17 shots, 4 on target.
 
I quite enjoyed that, possibly because I'd convinced myself we'd get beat one way or another so the fact they put in a shift and weren't second best for the most part was very pleasing.

I think the point is summed up by Christie, worked tirelessly knocking possession and closing down yet just doesn't have the quality to create goals.

That formation change was a dreadful decision. Almost cost us the game.
 
NWCherries98 said:
Is it me though or do we look a lot less fit than last season? Is this maybe the training and pre season being built around a low block and sitting back to absorb pressure? We looked very leggy from the 70th minute as a team. Being one of the fittest teams in the league has been a bit of a calling card for us.
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They were chasing the play all the time it takes its toll. much easier to have possesion.
 
I think I enjoyed that game as much as any the past two years. Neither team is a threat to qualify for Europe, but the heart was there today. It will take a bit for the fear of Parker's negativity to cleanse itself from the club, but the effort clearly was there. Dom has been out a bit, I'm expecting big things on Saturday. Give us a healthy Junior and Brooks, OK the first may require divine intervention, and creativity will appear. No, not the finished product but I just booked the train to Nottingham on Saturday and I was going to eat the ticket before the match. As long as we get effort and players who seem to know each other...I'm OK with what comes. Good job by the interim managers and credit to the players for working their asses off tonight.
 
NWCherries98 said:
Is it me though or do we look a lot less fit than last season? Is this maybe the training and pre season being built around a low block and sitting back to absorb pressure? We looked very leggy from the 70th minute as a team. Being one of the fittest teams in the league has been a bit of a calling card for us.
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Possibly, but we didn’t make our full range of subs, did we?. However, it was nice not concede early, and be dead in the water before half time.
 
KingKieffer said:
In terms of the result it’s not a bad point.

However when you consider we were hanging on for dear life against the worst side in the league on current form (over the last ten PL games) and never really came close to remotely troubling their goal, it is a bit worrying. Although the lads put in a defensive shift, on chances created we were lucky to nick a point if we’re being honest.

We have absolutely no quality or attacking creativity in the final third at all. We seem to want to play on the counter but we don’t have the pace to play on the break effectively.

Why did he switch to a three at the back with twenty to go against a desperately out of form side? I couldn’t even understand it if we were actually defensively better with a back three, as it happens we don’t even look comfortable defending with this system anyway! Pretty baffling.

We desperately need to somehow recruit some attacking creativity in the last day of the window, I just don’t see where the shots are going to come from at this moment let alone the goals. We can’t hope to keep it tight and nick some set piece goals all season.

Mepham and Cook were very good, Cook in particular. The effort level and application on show was much better but I just want to see a bit of attacking intent! It’s not particularly enjoyable watching us hang on desperately against a poor side.
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Well I enjoyed it
 
SlowDownDerek said:
I quite enjoyed that, possibly because I'd convinced myself we'd get beat one way or another so the fact they put in a shift and weren't second best for the most part was very pleasing.

I think the point is summed up by Christie, worked tirelessly knocking possession and closing down yet just doesn't have the quality to create goals.

That formation change was a dreadful decision. Almost cost us the game.
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I agree. Love the work rate from the likes of Christie and Tavernier but the quality to create just isn’t there (Christie more so than Tav.) You can’t fault the effort but we just don’t have either a player who can pick a creative pass in the final third or a skilful pacy attacker who can beat a man and open the game up. Without recruiting something that even vaguely fits either of those profiles tomorrow I just don’t see where the goals are going to come from. Feel for Solanke, he works so hard but we just didn’t provide him with any service.
 
KingKieffer said:
I agree. Love the work rate from the likes of Christie and Tavernier but the quality to create just isn’t there (Christie more so than Tav.) You can’t fault the effort but we just don’t have either a player who can pick a creative pass in the final third or a skilful pacy attacker who can beat a man and open the game up. Without recruiting something that even vaguely fits either of those profiles tomorrow I just don’t see where the goals are going to come from. Feel for Solanke, he works so hard but we just didn’t provide him with any service.
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Isn't this a job for Joe Rothwell? Don't really know much about him to be honest
 
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SlowDownDerek said:
That formation change was a dreadful decision. Almost cost us the game.
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Truly terrible for a whole host of reasons. Couldn’t press high up the pitch because of the wing backs, lost Adam Smith as an out let down the right and Tavernier all of a sudden is more of a left back of a five than an attacking outlet. We ended up deeper and invited us on to them.

That said, I quite like having that flexibility and change of system, sometimes it does come off.

Found the amount of tactical notes coming on quite funny towards the end. Lewis Cook had enough paper stuffed down his sock to rival any office recycling bin.
 
The crux of the problem is probably how to give Solanke more support, whilst keeping the midfield shape. Billing wasn't great today and I was calling for Solanke to have some help, but the Moore for Billing swap made us worse not better.

Anthony looked alright when he came on though.
 
Toronto John said:
4 is better than most thought ........

https://bournemouth-forum.vitalfootball.co.uk/threads/august-expectations-tough-month.16200/
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whoa, never been this close to a prediction

USCherry said:
Got to get something out of the home games, and play without pressure in the away games. I think we could sneak 4 points. The opener is always a bit of a toss up - so I am banking 3 points on that....but we'll see

AFC Bournemouth vs Aston Villa
Man City vs AFC Bournemouth
AFC Bournemouth vs Arsenal
Liverpool vs AFC Bournemouth
AFC Bournemouth vs Wolverhampton Wanderers

I have a feeling we could be well into the negative GD by the end of August though
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DJ said:
Truly terrible for a whole host of reasons. Couldn’t press high up the pitch because of the wing backs, lost Adam Smith as an out let down the right and Tavernier all of a sudden is more of a left back of a five than an attacking outlet. We ended up deeper and invited us on to them.

That said, I quite like having that flexibility and change of system, sometimes it does come off.

Found the amount of tactical notes coming on quite funny towards the end. Lewis Cook had enough paper stuffed down his sock to rival any office recycling bin.
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They also seemed to get in each other's way and not know where to be half the time.
 
A game that lacked in quality but was quite enjoyable with edge of the seat moments , especially I the second half. You can see why they have only scored 2 goals aswell this season and had they had a decent striker they probably would have won. That said , we were in the game all the way and what we lacked in quality we made for in spirit and effort. Standout performer for me was Lewis Cook with good performances from Christie, tavernier.
Solanke looked half a yard short and didn't read the game at times and Zemura doesn't look PL level. Both him and Kelly need to improve their passing in dangerous areas.
I think the most important thing tonight was to react to the goings on in the last 5 days and we did that. With a clean sheet to boot
Onwards and upwards from here !
 
NWCherries98 said:
Is it me though or do we look a lot less fit than last season? Is this maybe the training and pre season being built around a low block and sitting back to absorb pressure? We looked very leggy from the 70th minute as a team. Being one of the fittest teams in the league has been a bit of a calling card for us.
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I think when you play without the ball you will always look less fit because by the 70th min you will have ran far more than the opposition. It’s why I don’t like that way of playing. We looked less fit under Eddie in his last two seasons than any of his previous but we wouldn’t have been. We just switched from c60% plus possession to c35% and legs rather than the ball doing the work.

Like others have said that was a good shift and felt more like a Bournemouth team. You could see they wanted to avenge the weekend and the main thing today was to not lose and arguably to keep a clean sheet.

Neto had excellent distribution and held the ball well. I thought Mepham and Kelly were excellent apart from the latters once a game suicide moment. Cook was my MOM for really leading and moving the ball brilliantly. Solanke looked like he was maybe 90% fit but did some excellent spins and turns. Tavernier had a great first half and looks and excellent acqusition.

Negatives. We have to play differently. You can’t play counter attacking football with no pace up front. It’s weird! We break like a tortoise race. Or we need to sign a quick forward, or keep Dembele. Players wise, Christie works hard but so would we if we could play, his quality in key moments costs us time after time. Anthony has to start we have no goals in the team other than the two centre forwards, one of whom didn’t start. We can’t let teams have 90 mins in our half and expect to get anything, although the off form Wolves forwards proved me wrong I guess.

So, a key day on the signings front tomorrow and looking forward to Forest and hoping the new management team are working on ways to get us up the pitch.
 
I think the switch to a back five was due to them starting to get in around us and finding some crosses. The extra man stopped that, but, like you say, the inevitable 'let's sit back' happened.

I think by that time O'Neill was probably thinking 'do not lose' no matter what, so was happy to be a little negative and get over the line. Just.
 
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