AFC Bournemouth v Preston

Waz afcb said:
That’s on Parker that one. Stupid decision to play Mepham left back of a four. Then he finally moves it to three at the back and he takes him off. I’m afraid we simply can’t afford to drop points like this if we want automatic promotion. Fulham and West Brom will be beating Preston at home. I can take dropping points, of course we are going to drop points, but how on earth could anybody believe that playing Chris bloody Mepham at left back could work? Thus far we’ve been functional and effective, against sides like that who will drop every man behind the ball we just don’t have enough about us. Maybe people are starting to realise what I was saying now re Fulham….
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This is the perfect example of why people give you the bedwetter tag. 1 poor game, 1 poor tactical decision and so quick to turn negative. Now we have just been 'functional' in our 15 match unbeaten run where we have played many top half sides off the park. Now Fulham and West Brom are unbeatable again. I know football fans are notoriously fickle but it's just so over the top. Another loss on Saturday and you will be saying that our promotion hopes are over. It's like you just have to be the first to get on the "everything is s***" bandwagon.

Mepham LB was an error. Live and learn. Move on.
 
Waz afcb said:
Fulham and West Brom will be beating Preston at home.
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Fulham lost to Reading and drew with Middlesbrough at home, West Brom drew with Derby and Milwall at home, and we've now lost to Preston and drawn with West Brom and Blackpool at home. If we want to look at points dropped against teams that one "should" win against (since we're the clear top 3, any team that isn't us, West Brom, or Fulham: so remove the game for us vs West Brom), then Fulham has dropped 5 points, West Brom has dropped 4 points, and we've dropped 5 points. Point being, no matter how much a team "should" win a match, things won't always go according to plan and they're going to drop points, and on the balance of the season so far we were the best of the top 3 today at getting those "should" points at home until today, at which point we dropped to being right with the other two.

For away games, it's even better for us (that's why we're still in the top spot).

While I agree that Parker's decisions today cost us (though, being optimistic, I hope it's something he can learn from and improve - for instance, our attack was much more balanced in the 2nd half, particularly after subbing Anthony for Pearson) and also that Fulham and West Brom "should" be better than the rest of the Championship, there's no need to fetishize and lionize them as laudable examples (okay, I'll step away from the thesaurus), they're just as mortal as we discovered ourselves to be today.
 
AFCB_Liam said:
This is the perfect example of why people give you the bedwetter tag. 1 poor game, 1 poor tactical decision and so quick to turn negative. Now we have just been 'functional' in our 15 match unbeaten run where we have played many top half sides off the park. Now Fulham and West Brom are unbeatable again. I know football fans are notoriously fickle but it's just so over the top. Another loss on Saturday and you will be saying that our promotion hopes are over. It's like you just have to be the first to get on the "everything is s***" bandwagon.

Mepham LB was an error. Live and learn. Move on.
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All is not lost but it was pretty disappointing. I'm pretty pissed off with Parker's decisions tonight. One positive though is that Billing got another goal after a few games without so that's good for his confidence.
 
Keep faith, its a blip, we will bounce back! We are still top after 16 games! Would anyone seriously have said we would be 2 points clear after 16 games and 6 on 3rd? Honestly I wouldn't have..
I always expected us to challenge the top 6 and maybe top 2.. This has been a hell of a start.. And as Parker often says its just the start of the process.. Utciad.
 
I thought Preston defended well against us, I don’t think on Wedensday night’s performance we deserved anything from the game.

How many times did we really test their keeper?

Parker being criticised for his substitutions, but before tonight he has made good decisions re subs.
 
AFCB_Liam said:
This is the perfect example of why people give you the bedwetter tag. 1 poor game, 1 poor tactical decision and so quick to turn negative. Now we have just been 'functional' in our 15 match unbeaten run where we have played many top half sides off the park. Now Fulham and West Brom are unbeatable again. I know football fans are notoriously fickle but it's just so over the top. Another loss on Saturday and you will be saying that our promotion hopes are over. It's like you just have to be the first to get on the "everything is s***" bandwagon.

Mepham LB was an error. Live and learn. Move on.
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Well said.
 
billythekid said:
I thought Preston defended well against us, I don’t think on Wedensday night’s performance we deserved anything from the game.

How many times did we really test their keeper?

Parker being criticised for his substitutions, but before tonight he has made good decisions re subs.
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Yes, he has but last night was his off night. He seems very reluctant to change the Cahill-Kelly partnership, but Kelly was a left back in the past, and Meps has done well at centre back this season when called upon, so that would have been a more logical switch. Lowe would have then had more expert attacking support going forward and we would have been able to be less predictable going forward and most of our effort on involved trying to create attacks on the right.

I also think it is almost inevitable that we will be without either Cahill or Kelly at some point, so why not give Meps some centre back game time? He needs it. Scott's decision was just BIZARRE. I found it odd on Saturday too but figured it was okay as we were just protecting a lead but last night we needed to get forward on both sides. Unless Meps has been brilliant going forward on the left in training, and we've just not seen that, Scott's decision was way off.
 
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RobTrent said:
Well said.
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Yep I agree Rob, but how many more times do I have to say that Mepham is too slow and a liability and can't be trusted, for me he should be dropped and moved on asap. He has his supporters of course, and a nice personality but that doesn't help our goal difference in any good way.
I was criticised on here, maybe yourself, I can't remember, for saying the penalty he gave away against Watford last season put paid to our promotion chances, but it is a fact and I stand by my thoughts.
UTC
 
charlian said:
Yep I agree Rob, but how many more times do I have to say that Mepham is too slow and a liability and can't be trusted, for me he should be dropped and moved on asap. He has his supporters of course, and a nice personality but that doesn't help our goal difference in any good way.
I was criticised on here, maybe yourself, I can't remember, for saying the penalty he gave away against Watford last season put paid to our promotion chances, but it is a fact and I stand by my thoughts.
UTC
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Which penalty V Watford? Was that early in the season at their ground? Or was that where he equalised?

Either way, putting the whole blame on him is daft
 
You don't start Mepham at left back and expect that flank to be creative. Parker won't have been expecting to see Mepham bombing up and down, over-lapping and under-lapping with Lowe. Parker would have wanted Mepham to keep it steady, which for the most part he did.

Mepham has scared the life out of me at times, and I wouldn't want him to be a regular CB, but I actually feel ok with him at full back, because it simplifies his job and gives him less to think about and get wrong.

Last night was not Mepham's fault, he did the job he was asked to do.
 
charlian said:
Yep I agree Rob, but how many more times do I have to say that Mepham is too slow and a liability and can't be trusted, for me he should be dropped and moved on asap. He has his supporters of course, and a nice personality but that doesn't help our goal difference in any good way.
I was criticised on here, maybe yourself, I can't remember, for saying the penalty he gave away against Watford last season put paid to our promotion chances, but it is a fact and I stand by my thoughts.
UTC
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FFS Mepham DID NOT GIVE AWAY A PENALTY AGAINST WATFORD. Go sit in a dark room and repeat it to yourself until you are able to process this. You are criticised because you keep stating an event that never even happened to support your argument. Jesus.
 
I don't think last night was as much a tactical error as a result of the massive efforts the lads have been putting in over the last few weeks.
At the end of the game on Saturday they looked absolutely spent and tonight from the off there was no zip in their play.

They just couldn't get it together and credit to PNE they had a game plan that worked.

I don't accept that Mepham was an error, I don't think that Parker had much choice. Davis had a sickness bug, Brady can't be match fit after a couple of weeks and won't be totally comfortable playing in our team yet although I would have liked to see him for the last 20 at least.

The only alternative then was to stick Kelly at LB and put Meps in the middle, so you are changing two positions from a winning team rather than one. SP may have thought that with JZ missing and presumably JA not in good enough shape to do a full 90 that it was a change too far.
 
Football as with other things in life is all about opinions and people are entitled to say what they want (within reason), but we don’t necessary have to agree with them.
 
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