AFC Bournemouth v Luton Town - Wednesday 7.30 pm

red_house said:
The Ted Mac searching on saturday was ridiculous and intrusive, more so than usual.

There was a change of tact this time. The head 'security guy' took it upon himself to walk up and down the queue threatening that if we didn't queue in three lines he would 'cut it' - no idea what he meant.

He seemed to be blaming the queue for the fact that few people were going through the turnstiles, instead of looking at the three muppets hell bent on finding something under someones hat who were actually the cause of the massive slow moving queue.

I wonder if @Jim Frevola has any idea that the amateurs preventing timely spectator entry to the ground must be costing the club a fortune in food and drink sales inside.
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I switched seats for the game on Wednesday, so my usual routine was different, I didn’t get to the ground early and joined the queue for turnstile C at 7.10pm.

5e15514d-3934-4558-81d0-bbccd0c11116.jpeg
(And yes no awards for my photography skills)

Got in in time for Lockyer to walk off the pitch so about 15 minutes. There were plenty behind me back to the club shop, so many may not have got in before kick off.

The searches just seem so time consuming. I’m stood there everything in my hands, arms outstretched ready and yet the steward still takes a couple of seconds and then asks me am I ok to be searched.

First thing, obviously I am i don’t tend to walk around pretending to be an aeroplane. Second thing, if I’m not, what happens next? Do I just get refused entry?

Then I get searched, my hood double and triple checked, my coat pockets ignored infact most of me was, I could have hidden anything to be fair. But it still takes so much time. For every single person. I can’t help but think there are obvious improvements there to speed things up.
 
DJ said:
I switched seats for the game on Wednesday, so my usual routine was different, I didn’t get to the ground early and joined the queue for turnstile C at 7.10pm.

View attachment 13594
(And yes no awards for my photography skills)

Got in in time for Lockyer to walk off the pitch so about 15 minutes. There were plenty behind me back to the club shop, so many may not have got in before kick off.

The searches just seem so time consuming. I’m stood there everything in my hands, arms outstretched ready and yet the steward still takes a couple of seconds and then asks me am I ok to be searched.

First thing, obviously I am i don’t tend to walk around pretending to be an aeroplane. Second thing, if I’m not, what happens next? Do I just get refused entry?

Then I get searched, my hood double and triple checked, my coat pockets ignored infact most of me was, I could have hidden anything to be fair. But it still takes so much time. For every single person. I can’t help but think there are obvious improvements there to speed things up.
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All part of the welcoming service...
 
key said:
just watched this and thought it was really good, lots of stuff I didn't clock at all.


most notably our two centre backs switching
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Finally got around to watching this, really appreciate his point on how the CBs switching impacted Cook's struggles in the first half since I hadn't picked up on its significance before. For those not watching, in short, the formations had Cook in the 1st half pulled between covering Chong and Barkley, thus exposing him, but by having Zabarnyi as the right CB behind Cook in the 2nd half, Zabarnyi pushes forward more than Mepham does, thus better covering Chong and allowing Cook to push forward into Barkley's area of the pitch, no longer being exposed trying to cover multiple players. (it didn't show up in this video, but when pressing there'll usually be a player left having multiple players to mark [technically a hybrid press, this being the zonal player while others are man marking], often a pressing scheme has this be a winger or number 10, where them being exposed doesn't hurt you much, but if a defensive midfielder like Cook is the player left in this situation, it can be much more dangerous as we saw)

So, for the person or two here that love to scapegoat Cook...there's a concise tactical explanation for him being a weak point in the first half, not just him being crap: the formations left him covering two men. And Iraola brilliantly solved it in the second half by tweaking our formation.
 
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dragonm8 said:
Playing Barkley onside for their third had nothing to do with the centre back pairing.
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Its so black and white in your world of Cook bashing isnt it Dragon?

When the break was on down the wing Barkley had a free run on goal having run past Zab who was too high. If Lewis had not tracked to cover the cross could have been made at the point below and he would have been free. Lewis cannot both cover Zab being too far up the pitch and step for the offside trap.

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But I am sure world class defensive midfielders like Busquets would have managed to do both. Oh yes, I forgot, Busquets wasnt world class becuase he didnt score goals.
 
dragonm8 said:
Playing Barkley onside for their third had nothing to do with the centre back pairing.
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Cook has been great this season, I’ve not been his biggest fan previously but I have been converted now. He’s a brilliant number six in this team. His appreciation of space and positional awareness have contributed to winning us many points this season. He’s even started adding a few assists to his game. It really isn’t his job to score goals so I’m not sure why you use this as a stick to beat him with.
 
And I’m fairly sure that Mepham was playing him onside anyway, that was Zabarnyi’s error for stepping up and not tracking the run of Barkley. Cook was partly to blame for the first goal but he more than made up for this with his second half performance.
 
Waz afcb said:
Cook has been great this season, I’ve not been his biggest fan previously but I have been converted now. He’s a brilliant number six in this team. His appreciation of space and positional awareness have contributed to winning us many points this season. He’s even started adding a few assists to his game. It really isn’t his job to score goals so I’m not sure why you use this as a stick to beat him with.
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Exactly my thoughts on Lewis. Prior to this season I thought he was not much better than Rothwell or Pearlo but I'm really impressed by him this year
 
Cook was playing Barkley onside for their 3rd Mepham didn't do much wrong the pass to Barkley was so obvious I could see it before it happened.
Luton's first could've been closed down better on flank by Scott and Dango but Barkley's cross was good and accurately high enough to loop over both CB's to Chong.
And their 2nd goal Smith presses high and then so does Cook so they feed in clever pass through middle quick that takes them two out and then the cross alludes Dango because he's not a LB that can sense the rival player behind him.
 
Waz afcb said:
And I’m fairly sure that Mepham was playing him onside anyway, that was Zabarnyi’s error for stepping up and not tracking the run of Barkley. Cook was partly to blame for the first goal but he more than made up for this with his second half performance.
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Had Cook stepped up, Barkley wouldn't have scored as he would have been offside.

It was obvious that was Zabarnyis intent, but Cook, despite having the perfect view didn't read the situation.

He was also culpable for the first.

He makes an average of an error every other game that leads to a goal.

I understand some are massive fans of his, and that's fine. Everyone is entitled to opinions.

My opinion is different to that of his fanboys, who see no wrong in his defensive capabilities.

Adam's will displace him next season.

Neto gets absolute pelters for his errors, as it's easy to blame the keeper.

Every time Cook makes errors leading to goals conceded the fanboys try and blame everyone else, bar Cook.

He is doing OK, but really he isn't as great as his fanboys make out.
 
dragonm8 said:
Had Cook stepped up, Barkley wouldn't have scored as he would have been offside.

It was obvious that was Zabarnyis intent, but Cook, despite having the perfect view didn't read the situation.

He was also culpable for the first.

He makes an average of an error every other game that leads to a goal.

I understand some are massive fans of his, and that's fine. Everyone is entitled to opinions.

My opinion is different to that of his fanboys, who see no wrong in his defensive capabilities.

Adam's will displace him next season.

Neto gets absolute pelters for his errors, as it's easy to blame the keeper.

Every time Cook makes errors leading to goals conceded the fanboys try and blame everyone else, bar Cook.

He is doing OK, but really he isn't as great as his fanboys make out.
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OMG Dragon....sorry but watch 1st and 2nd goals back and the various phases and surely you will see if Scott goes with his man then there is no cross to defend. Fact that Cook loses Chong then becomes secondary/incidental.
2nd goal is Smith chasing his man into midfield and Cook tries in vain to cover the gap.....football isn't one dimensional you have to see the phases but you are just looking at the end play to fuel a quite frankly ludicrous anti Cook agenda.

By the way feel free to send me another PM saying I am a **** and accusing me of being another moniker for that Forest loving poster for just disagreeing with you like you did before!
I may disagree with your view (you may be right even though I disagree) but this is not personal...just my view
 
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