Chris Mepham

we need to keep Cook and Ake as a regular CB pairing and better to play Stacey/Mepham and Smith as right and left backs?

thing is I thought,wrongly, that having Lerma and Billing in CM we would be better defensively? So far they have amassed too many yellow cards and we will be missing them some point before November through suspension!

But yes I do wish that we would stop 'scapegoating' individual players as it achieves nothing positive for us...
 
What doesn’t always get understood is having more defensive players on the pitch doesn’t necessarily make your defence any stronger as with throwing more and more attackers on when chasing a goal.

How many times do we take off a midfielder, put King out wide to get Solanke on, only to find we completely lose our shape, create nothing and almost certainly concede further goals.

It’s the same defensively. Good teams defend by controlling the game in midfield. To do that you need ball playing midfielders. I’m not saying Lerma and Billing are bad on the ball, but they aren’t going to be playing triangles in midfield. Hopefully when players return we’ll get the balance right at both ends of the pitch.
 
Tinpot Club said:
What doesn’t always get understood is having more defensive players on the pitch doesn’t necessarily make your defence any stronger as with throwing more and more attackers on when chasing a goal.

How many times do we take off a midfielder, put King out wide to get Solanke on, only to find we completely lose our shape, create nothing and almost certainly concede further goals.

It’s the same defensively. Good teams defend by controlling the game in midfield. To do that you need ball playing midfielders. I’m not saying Lerma and Billing are bad on the ball, but they aren’t going to be playing triangles in midfield. Hopefully when players return we’ll get the balance right at both ends of the pitch.
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100% right... great post.

Our championship team are a prime example of this. Dominate possession up the pitch and box everyone in. Man City full backs play as wingers most of the time and they have dominance up the pitch.

We tried that and after three years of playing the Bournemouth way and conceding plenty of goals we made a very deliberate switch to sitting deep letting other teams have the ball and playing on the break. If you tuned in in October last year you would say this was our best move ever. We caught teams by surprise. They then figured it out and realised they could throw more players forward against us and press our back four higher. We then went on our worst run in PL history saved from relegation by our great start.

This year we had a choice to make. Stick with it or go back to Bournemouth football and pick the possession stats back up. I think we have stuck with it and carried on in the same vein of disjointed form. I’d go back to what we do best personally.
 
Ive certainly been accused on this board of singling out individuals who in my opinion aren’t Premier League quality. Rantie, Afobie, and more recently Surman and Rico. I realise that sitting in your front room venting your disappointment and frustration with performances of individuals can get tiresome for other users who disagree with you.
For me Mepham is one of those players who’s 100% committed to the cause but lacks that bit extra of what’s needed to succeed in the worlds Top league.
Arsenal away (i realise they don’t come much tougher) stood out for me where he was totally out of his depth, not in fitness or athleticism but awareness, positional play and touch. Other games since he’s improved marginally but never enough to make me feel that he will be one of our best ever defenders. I’m not sure either that its experience alone.
It’s great that we can all have an opinion I suppose.............
 
Only saw MOTD and listened to the first half on the radio.

First goal is equally Cook and Mepham's fault, really unfair to blame just Meps when they're both in a bad position.

As for the third goal, it looks to me like he was off balance following making a block and just couldn't get in a position to hoof it clear. It's VERY unfair of whoever it was (it might even be on Al's me me me post match thread) that said he was trying to dribble out. Where would he be dribbling to exactly?!
 
Neil Dawson said:
100% right... great post.

Our championship team are a prime example of this. Dominate possession up the pitch and box everyone in. Man City full backs play as wingers most of the time and they have dominance up the pitch.

We tried that and after three years of playing the Bournemouth way and conceding plenty of goals we made a very deliberate switch to sitting deep letting other teams have the ball and playing on the break. If you tuned in in October last year you would say this was our best move ever. We caught teams by surprise. They then figured it out and realised they could throw more players forward against us and press our back four higher. We then went on our worst run in PL history saved from relegation by our great start.

This year we had a choice to make. Stick with it or go back to Bournemouth football and pick the possession stats back up. I think we have stuck with it and carried on in the same vein of disjointed form. I’d go back to what we do best personally.
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Think we may get more joy against the big boys on the counter but wont do so well against teams in and around us We cant let these teams have more possession against us which is why i like the 3-2-4-1 Widemen will be busy but guess the 4 could be flexible and take turns to get back
 
Neil Dawson said:
100% right... great post.

Our championship team are a prime example of this. Dominate possession up the pitch and box everyone in. Man City full backs play as wingers most of the time and they have dominance up the pitch.

We tried that and after three years of playing the Bournemouth way and conceding plenty of goals we made a very deliberate switch to sitting deep letting other teams have the ball and playing on the break. If you tuned in in October last year you would say this was our best move ever. We caught teams by surprise. They then figured it out and realised they could throw more players forward against us and press our back four higher. We then went on our worst run in PL history saved from relegation by our great start.

This year we had a choice to make. Stick with it or go back to Bournemouth football and pick the possession stats back up. I think we have stuck with it and carried on in the same vein of disjointed form. I’d go back to what we do best personally.
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Wouldn’t have been found out but for the chronic injury list to be fair
 
AFCBade said:
Wouldn’t have been found out but for the chronic injury list to be fair
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I know our injury list is shocking but how many of them players walk into our starting 11?

Brooks only for me..?

Lewis Cook away to Leicester may not have a place and we have no idea who the best left back is so to say Daniels or Kelly would be helped Saturday wouldn’t be quite right.

Is our injury list to blame for some players making the same mistakes week in week out and our defending being as bad, if not worse, than 4 years ago...?! This is despite arguably more help from the midfield in Lerma and Billing!
 
wimborne cherries said:
I know our injury list is shocking but how many of them players walk into our starting 11?

Brooks only for me..?

Lewis Cook away to Leicester may not have a place and we have no idea who the best left back is so to say Daniels or Kelly would be helped Saturday wouldn’t be quite right.

Is our injury list to blame for some players making the same mistakes week in week out and our defending being as bad, if not worse, than 4 years ago...?! This is despite arguably more help from the midfield in Lerma and Billing!
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Even if we don't know who the 'best' left-back is, playing a left-back would likely have helped
 
wimborne cherries said:
I know our injury list is shocking but how many of them players walk into our starting 11?

Brooks only for me..?

Lewis Cook away to Leicester may not have a place and we have no idea who the best left back is so to say Daniels or Kelly would be helped Saturday wouldn’t be quite right.

Is our injury list to blame for some players making the same mistakes week in week out and our defending being as bad, if not worse, than 4 years ago...?! This is despite arguably more help from the midfield in Lerma and Billing!
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I was talking about last season when we were flying high and then dipped
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
Given this thread, it does make us look a bit silly that we sold an apparently rather good CB just this summer, that has earned an England call-up... Albeit for a very good price, that enabled us to spend elsewhere...
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But Mings plays the left side of CB, same as Ake. Would you rather have Mings or Ake?
 
pedro3187 said:
But Mings plays the left side of CB, same as Ake. Would you rather have Mings or Ake?
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We have played a back three half this season. I’d rather have Mings, Ake and Cook without being bothered who played left out of the two left footers than Ake, Cook and Mepham which has two right footers.
 
Neil Dawson said:
We have played a back three half this season. I’d rather have Mings, Ake and Cook without being bothered who played left out of the two left footers than Ake, Cook and Mepham which has two right footers.
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The latter however does have 26.5million other reasons why it’s a good idea though.
 
...you know where you are with a back four....two full backs and two big CB's who can boot and head the ball miles!

not three defenders who try and play football from the back and give the ball away constantly...whilst the wing backs are up field somewhere as we try and stop the opposition scoring! :)
 
Garbo said:
...you know where you are with a back four....two full backs and two big CB's who can boot and head the ball miles!

not three defenders who try and play football from the back and give the ball away constantly...whilst the wing backs are up field somewhere as we try and stop the opposition scoring! :)
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Is Mike Bassett available?
 
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