Match Report and MOM v Palace

Totally agree with everything in your report Neil, spot on.
Just so disappointing that Eddie had 3 months to review the season and use these last 9 games to try something different and give us a chance of staying in this division.
Sadly he decided that our abject season was the way to keep going. It's so clear the system hasn't and isn't working and yet he remains stubborn and won't change.
There's not a chance in hell things will change in 3 days if he didn't change it after 3 months.
I don't like saying a game is ever a must win, but last night was it and we were let down big time.
 
Neil Dawson said:
Prime Time Crime Time

After thirty long years of waiting, doomed Spanish soap-opera Eldorado can finally justifiably state it is no longer the worst showing on BBC prime time tv. That honour now sits firmly with AFC Bournemouth who took us on a slow scenic railway journey from mediocrity to clueless in 96 minutes to forget on the Beeb tonight.
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Thanks for the report BTW Neil. I thought Lerma had a shocking game, worst I've seen him play. No more than a 4 for me.

Re. the King comment 'to his obvious frustration', how did he show that?
 
TCherry said:
Thanks for the report BTW Neil. I thought Lerma had a shocking game, worst I've seen him play. No more than a 4 for me.

Re. the King comment 'to his obvious frustration', how did he show that?
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To me he shows it by his lack of involvement in the game, his moaning at others and petulant show pony tricks in the wrong places. He has stated a number of times how he doesn’t like playing on the wing. He joined us as Eddie assured him he would be developed in his favourite position. When Eddie did this with him he looked immense at times and we had a 20 goal a season striker on our hands.

He is also the single best centre forward if you want to play on the break (as we unfortunately want to do). If you had to play him on a flank it would be the right one as his pace can take him behind people. We have got him wrong all year and this is a major reason why we have scored 15 goals from open play.

I am assuming it won’t matter now as he didn’t even get up to see if he could walk on that ankle, he self diagnosed, told the bench he was going off and I fear we won’t see him again.
 
I am assuming it won’t matter now as he didn’t even get up to see if he could walk on that ankle said:
To be fair to the boy, in slow motion that blow to his ankle looked like a bone breaker and I’d be a bit wary of getting up straight away. It’s his ‘tools of the trade’ and a long lay off would see him out of the market place when the clear out begins.
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Not making excuses the injuries didn’t help
We had just changed it at half time and then lost king who went to play through the middle and then we lose brooks.
 
Neil Dawson said:
To me he shows it by his lack of involvement in the game, his moaning at others and petulant show pony tricks in the wrong places. He has stated a number of times how he doesn’t like playing on the wing. He joined us as Eddie assured him he would be developed in his favourite position. When Eddie did this with him he looked immense at times and we had a 20 goal a season striker on our hands.

He is also the single best centre forward if you want to play on the break (as we unfortunately want to do). If you had to play him on a flank it would be the right one as his pace can take him behind people. We have got him wrong all year and this is a major reason why we have scored 15 goals from open play.

I am assuming it won’t matter now as he didn’t even get up to see if he could walk on that ankle, he self diagnosed, told the bench he was going off and I fear we won’t see him again.
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Last nights match encapsulated our entire season last night.
King and H. Wilson in the wrong positions.
Callum looking disinterested.
A weak or ineffective midfield.
Poor wing play.
The entire team either not playing as Eddie expects them to play or executing very poorly what Eddie thinks they should do.

I think a home crowd would have lifted them last night, would it have made any difference? I don't know.
 
Thing is to play two right footed players on the left means neither want to overlap and cross the ball. The wings are our strength not through the middle
King is a centre forward pure and simple . In my eyes you play him or Wilson as the lone striker . We had other players who are very good out wide so play them

We have to see a reaction against wolves and players have got minutes under their belt .
Take nothing away from palace they were very well organised
Brooks has got minutes and we saw glimpses of his class which is a positive along with Danjuma. Billing will come back in and he has been very good of late further forward
 
dragonm8 said:
Good report. Did you do it from the tv?

Was lacklustre and why Callum wasnt replaced in the second half I'll never know.

It has become boring to watch.
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Become boring?

I can't recall when it wasn't anything other than boring.
How have I become tired of watching a team play in the greatest league in the world?

Maybe a spell in the Championship is the kick up the backside Eddie, if he hangs around, and the club need.
 
Don't get why Surridge wasn't even on the bench, yet two left backs were? Amazing job that he has done, Eddie has lost the plot. With the off field news, I think he'll go at the end of the season anyway, even in the unlikely event that we stay up.
 
the Harry Wilson loan has screwed our season accommodating him has pushed players to position which doesn't suit them, he has to be played in 10 role or not at all, in our system (which is sh1t or we just can't play it) our wingers need to double as full backs instead of our old system where full backs doubled up as wingers.
the only positives from last night in my eyes
Brooks looked very good
danjuma tried to make things happen instead of just pass back and sideways
whether they just stopped trying as much but they didn't create as much as I thought they would
even though lemma had a poor game he was still OK by the team standards
Lewis Cook has some good passes and tackles
negatives
both wilsons need to go
King was shocking with his passing and fancy flicks
Smithy isn't a left back 1 good game there doesn't make it so
main negative is why can't we hit the target when shooting i am sure or at least hope they practice that at training if they don't then they need extra sessions on shooting, the amount of time player should of shot around d the area is unreal the first shot may not go in but keeper can spill it for a tap in its a tactic we need to try ( just maybe not lemma taking the shots)
 
rikki39 said:
the Harry Wilson loan has screwed our season accommodating him has pushed players to position which doesn't suit them, he has to be played in 10 role or not at all, in our system (which is sh1t or we just can't play it) our wingers need to double as full backs instead of our old system where full backs doubled up as wingers.
the only positives from last night in my eyes
Brooks looked very good
danjuma tried to make things happen instead of just pass back and sideways
whether they just stopped trying as much but they didn't create as much as I thought they would
even though lemma had a poor game he was still OK by the team standards
Lewis Cook has some good passes and tackles
negatives
both wilsons need to go
King was shocking with his passing and fancy flicks
Smithy isn't a left back 1 good game there doesn't make it so
main negative is why can't we hit the target when shooting i am sure or at least hope they practice that at training if they don't then they need extra sessions on shooting, the amount of time player should of shot around d the area is unreal the first shot may not go in but keeper can spill it for a tap in its a tactic we need to try ( just maybe not lemma taking the shots)
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Agree with what you say especially about Harry Wilson. I don’t get why we play him on the right time after time . Surely EH must have seen this .
See this takes me back to gradel. We get him back where we scored a lot of goals in France and stick him on the left . We are not managers but come on , surely even the proper managers can see this.
King before his injury did offer nothing . Square pegs in round holes. Play him up top or don’t play him, once again shoehorning players on
 
For me... I don’t understand why we reverted to a 4-2-3-1 / 4-2-2-1-1 (or something that is/was supposed to be a fluid variation of 4-4-2) which is exactly what we played (badly) for most of the season. I know it shouldn’t matter (players should be able to move about within a system) but it basically looked like King stuck wide left, H Wilson stuck wide right, two in the middle and Brooks with a free role behind Callum.

1 Feb onwards, we had a narrower 4-3-3 with Lerma sitting a little deeper than two other “central” midfielders. That’s what suddenly gave Billing a new lease of life. And we looked reasonably decent despite results.

I assume that the 4-3-3 system is only preferred for games when we’re not expected to have much possession. And I guess it’s benefit of hindsight saying we’d have been better grinding out a 0-0 v palace by sitting back as much as they did.
 
Neil Dawson said:
Prime Time Crime Time

After thirty long years of waiting, doomed Spanish soap-opera Eldorado can finally justifiably state it is no longer the worst showing on BBC prime time tv. That honour now sits firmly with AFC Bournemouth who took us on a slow scenic railway journey from mediocrity to clueless in 96 minutes to forget on the Beeb tonight.

So much had changed, the strange sites of hasmats in the 'crowd', drinks breaks, piped crowd noise, black lives matters protests - it was a surreal experience and the watching fans craved normality. Thankfully the players had that covered and rolled the clock back to pre-covid days with a clueless, dispassionate, limp performance that took us back to the halcyon early 2020 days of Bush fires and floods. For 96 reassuring minutes it was like this bug had never happened........

Eddie started with Brooks back playing off Callum with King relegated wide again to his obvious frustration and Harry on the other flank where he has looked so lost for most of the year. The rest of the side was as expected with maybe the exception of Cook ahead of Gosling.

The game lacked energy and zip from the off aside from the odd nice touch from Brooks and some comfortable play from Lerma. From pretty early on you could see that we were still set up to counter-attack and any hopes Eddie would have used the extended break to commit more men forwards was quickly ruled out. He was sticking to the game-plan of the last two years. Palace are a similar counter attacking side (just with a better defence) and Zaha cut in and shot just over on their first break.

The early goal we didn't want to conceded came when Brooks nudged Zaha on the edge of the area. MILIVOJEVIC is a renowned free-kick taker and his execution with his right foot was superb catching Ramsdale slightly on his back foot as the ball bent and dipped into the top corner. Bournemouth looked shell-shocked - no other side can fall behind so often to a first shot on target. Its a real sucker punch and it showed as the team settled into a pattern of awful passing and lack of movement.

The worst thing that could have happenned was a crushing second blow but it came. Harry Wilson's inability to track an overlap is so well documented it was probably in the Doomsday book and he reverted to type to allow an intricate move to completely catch him out down the left and AYEW to score with ease on Van Aaholts pull back. It was game-over really, we knew it, the players knew it - only Crystal Palace and the watching millions had hope of a come-back.

The first half played out in a predictable pattern (bored writing this hope you are not bored reading it) with nothing to report. No shots on target once again in a first half.

HT Bournemouth 0 Palace 2

The second half saw Harry give way for Danjuma and he looked lively to be fair in places. Unfortunately Palace had absolutely no reason to attack having found themselves in the rare position of scoring twice. That gave us a lot of possession against a deep sitting team - guaranteed Bournemouth frustration.

The players came and went - King limped off probably never to be seen again, which brought the goal machine Solanke to the touch-line, bouncing up and down like a horse racing jockey and with all the same aerial ability. He was soon on and had one moment where the goal loomed, his moment beckoned - that prime time TV thunderbolt he had dreamed of since a kid. The nation shuffled towards the edge of its sofas.... Bournemouth fans picked up the newspaper......Dom made his usual mangled foot connection with the ball that just about made the touch-line somewhere between the corner flag and the goal-post.

The only threat, Brooks, dropped with cramp and was replaced with Stan enjoying an injury free spell since March.

That left one question. Would Bournemouth complete another game without a shot on target? There's been a few and its always an impressive stat for a home side. It was looking likely then Ake ruined it, rising above Cahill to cushion a soft header straight into the hands of the keeper.

After that Palace spent the game running into the corner flag and Bournemouth spent the game passing to them. Zaha and Cahill missed good chances to make it worse - thankfully they didn't. That brought an end to a game so bad that even though i've had my refund and didn't use petrol I still feel cheated.

FT Bournemouth 0 Palace 2

Ramsdale 6 - Maybe could have got a better hand to the first goal - not much else to do.

Stacey 5 - Never comfortable against Zaha and no cover from Harry
Cook 6 - Pretty intimidated by Benteke but held firm
Ake 6 - Good football playing out from the back
Smith 5 - Too often cutting in and not great for the second goal.

Harry Wilson 4 - Obviously has to play.... there can be no other reason.
Lerma 6 - Battled hard and looks like he wants to win at least. Misplaced passing.
Cook 5 - some nice plays but he didn't dominate the game.
King 4 - just not interested that wide and deep - and wasted.

Brooks 7 - Some nice touches but tired early.

C. Wilson 4 - Poor touch, uninvolved - game play does not suit him.

(Danjuma 6 nice touches, Solanke 5, Stan 5)

MOM - I am going to give it to Brooks - he wasn't great but he showed some entertainment.

Verdict

I was struggling to get enthusiasm for this game. I've been so bored watching us this year but was hoping that it would have changed. The problem was - deep down - I knew it wouldn't have. Once Eddie gets on a thing it is so difficult for him to change it. I hoped that he would go back to the high pitch possession, overlapping risk taking football that made him God here but I feared that he would persevere with sitting deep and trying to play on the break. Surely he had the mind-break and the time to try something different. He didn't. Clearly the players don't get it either which means for the first time in Eddie's reigns we have players playing below their ability and not above it as so often before. That's sad to watch and it clearly bewilders him which is also sad to watch.

So what went wrong. A few things - which seem obvious to me and worries me why they are not obvious to our coaching team.
1) If you want to play on the break pace is key. Having only one player in your front four with pace and playing him deep means this will never work - and it didn't.
2) Playing two right footed players on your left flank will mean the play will continually come in field and compress. We were absymal on that flank all game - but Smith and King are two of our best players - they are just being wasted tactically. Meanwhile £20m of left-backs sat in the stand.
3) Harry Wilson has shown time and time again he is not a wide player in the PL both offensively and defensively. Why have we not spotted this? Lampard had him sussed and sat him behind the forwards where his slide-rule passing and thunderbolt shots come to the fore. We have wasted his loan all season.
4) Callum Wilson has contributed nothing much this season. King is a much more lively centre-forward if you want to play on the break....we could have gone with King up top and Danjuma and Brooks in a three, Lerma, Cook and Gosling behind them. Now it looks like we may be without Josh anyway - kicked off the pitch in a wide midfield role.
5) If you want to play defensively you need a strong defence as you will be inviting people on. We have never had a good defensive record so for us to do it means we concede the same amount of goals as when we were gung-ho just without scoring any at the other end. It is also mind-numbingly boring. I don't even like watching my football team anymore!

Three months of thought, planning - an opportunity to turn it all around and nothing changed. All the same mistakes, nothing picked up by the analysts or the coaches no partnerships just eleven players playing a system that doesn't suit them and they clearly don't like.

Thats the recipe for relegation. I keep hoping for change but if we didn't get it after three months of reflection I can't see it coming for Wednesday. Our only hope, and I'm determined to leave this report on a hope is that at least after a performance this bad we might rip up the book. A hard fought unlucky defeat and we wouldn't have. Come on Eddie - go back to your roots man.
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I think you sum it up nicely and the key point is that Eddie’s biggest crime is the way in which he persists with the same ideas even though they are quite blatantly not working.
 
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