Match Report and Mom v Swansea..

Thanks for your reports Neil, as always an enjoyable read and much appreciated.
Missed my first home game yesterday for some years due to unforeseen circumstances so the report was much anticipated!
Here's to another season of discussion, agreement and disagreement!
Have a great summer.
 
USCherry said:
Can we all agree that Francis has had a pretty faultless couple of months? He was a bit of a whipping boy, but his performances lately have justified his selection. Well that and we really had no other options at CB or RB
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Agree, cant argue with that, done well these past couple of months. I just hope we can be less reliant on him next season.

On the formation front to me it flowed throughout the game from 5-2-3 and 4-4-2. Which is great, and demonstrates some understanding between players.

The best afcb sides in recent years have always had fluidity provided by players moving between lines, not rigidity as our 4-4-1-1 esq system too often results in.
 
This was our average positions during the game yesterday

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1...-Premier-League-2017-2018-Bournemouth-Swansea

It certainly looks like a back 3 with Daniels much further forward than the rest of the the defenders. I did notice King drifting over to the right many times during the game. So it might well have been a 3-4-2-1, but equally it might just have been just been how the game developed - ie King doubling up on a weak Swansea left side and Daniels able to get forward more now he’s back playing with his mate.

Either way I agree on the point of fluidity regardless of what the formation actually was. I still feel that greater fluidity came from the positional sense of Surman and Pugh, allowing the other players round them more freedom.
 
Toronto John said:
Some times that experience can go a long way. Couple of weeks ago, neither could get on the pitch.
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We often debate on here how long it takes to “learn the Bournemouth way”. However, when the opposition isn’t the best, that intelligence and experience of Surman and Pugh are so important.

It’s just little things really. Surman knows when to drop into defence to help playing from the back. Pugh is great and going narrow to allow Daniels to overlap, or to give Surman and Cook a forward passing option.

Another debate we have on here is playing a 2 man or 3 man central midfield. With Pugh you get both. You can tell we are trying to teach Ibe to do the same but so far he just hasn’t picked it up.
 
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