Recent content by abts

The ridiculous deadline day hype plays a large part in this. Watching Sky Sports News yesterday it felt like everyone apart from us was signing a whole new team. In the end, I think barely half the teams signed anyone at all.

That's a completely outdated view of the scouting and recruitment process, though. Recruitment is largely data driven now. Players aren't identified by men in flat caps watching Bulgarian second division games, they're identified by punching numbers into a computer database — the same one that...

That no Premier League club was interested says a lot about his standing in the game right now.

The fact that we don't have anyone good to take set pieces is probably part of the reason why we're so bad at defending them. This is what they're practicing against in training.

Defoe worked really hard, but I'm not convinced that at his age he's got the energy to play how we want him to play. He comes alive when the ball's near the box, but pressing and chasing weren't really his thing when he was younger, and even less so now. You can't fault his effort, but I can't...

Hasn't it previously been reported that he has a £22m release clause?

Francis has got his second hamstring injury in six months, which is not a good sign considering his age. We made excellent use of the loan system last season, and we've still got plenty of space in the squad, so hopefully we'll be able to find someone (especially if we don't keep restricting...

Lots of detailed data here: https://understat.com/team/Bournemouth/ Our average xG per game last season was 1.35. Shows just how poor we've been so far this year (not that we need data for that!).

I do find it strange that he didn't sign a new contract over the summer, and I can't believe they didn't discuss it at all. The sooner the window closes the better.

He did have a shorter pre-season than everyone else because of the world cup, so there may be legitimate fitness reasons why he isn't in the squad. I'm sure it won't be long before he gets his chance, though.

I think Eddie's obsession with signing pacy wingers is evidence that he does want to play a different formation. We tend to switch back to 442 (or whatever) when Marc Pugh came into the team, as a result of Stanislas getting injured, Ibe being dropped and Gradel being out of favour. Given how...

When you look at the chart showing the best shot positions (like this: https://i2.wp.com/statsbomb.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/feet_crosses_vs_not.png) our whole style of play becomes clear. All those times a player has the chance to shoot from 15 yards and chooses to pass instead, it...

The thing is, we cannot play an attacking central midfielder in a 4-4-2. The reason our centre midfielders don't create anything is because they're instructed to play deep, to allow us to have two wingers and two forwards. Sticking a more attacking player in there would just leave our centre...

Arter plays deeper than he used to, and I don't think it suits his game. It's one of the reasons we'd probably be better off with three in midfield, to free him up a bit more.

We always seem to be prone to low tempo and over-passing after an extended training period, like pre-season or international breaks. It's like the players have the passing ethos drilled into them so heavily that it takes them a couple of games to adapt it to a proper match situation.