Match Report and MOM v West Ham

Just a comment on Cresswell's 'goal' yesterday.

This is no criticism of Cook whatsoever, but it actually went in off him.

I've lost count of how many times the poor sod has got the last touch over the past few years.
Yep it took a deflection - Ramsdale had it covered. It was a little unlucky.
 
Great report Neil. I am still President of your fan club. Your intelligent writing and observations help me see the the beautiful game in more depth. One observation from me - IMO the subs were brought on too late to be given enough time to influence the game again
 
West Ham are a good side. We player really well. Yes, it was a draw, but they were the ones trying to waste time, kill the game, and "steal a point" from Bournemouth over the last few minutes.
And for the xGeeks, yes we should have won easily.
BmouthvWestHam.png
 
I wasn’t able to be there today but have just caught the highlights, so, to add to the Harry Wilson debate, he played at least 2 delightful, perfectly weighted passes to put Callum in. Unfortunately he was denied the second by a good save.
Watched the Sky highlights and they DIDNT include Callum's big chance just before their equaliser. Weird as highlights much longer than those of MOTD
 
Holding is the only foul which can "continue" into the penalty area guys. All other contact fouls are punished at the point of contact, either inside or outside the penalty area. Holding, even though it might start outside is treated as though it is a foul inside.
This is to try and reduce the clutching & grabbing which impacts goal-scoring opportunities. FIFA wants to make the game more entertaining and appealing to spectators... so we want to see skilled players have more opportunities to score.
 
I have no idea what this means. The predicted goals thing.

Basically it's a measure of the quality of chances created. C Wilson's miss will have been a relatively high score because you'd expect a player to score. A Matt Ritchie volley from outside the box would be a low score even if it goes in.
 
Nice report thanks Neil.

What Fritter said about AFCB 2.0. I would make one further point.

Quite often you see discussion here, in the press and on other message boards asking what is the point of being a mid table Premier League side. You know the kind of thing: you’ll never win the league, you’re just fodder for the Big Six, having to endure endless patronising drivel from Jamie Carragher, the Championship is far more unpredictable and exciting etc etc.

Well, for me, Saturday was a great example of the point of being where we are. It was a top notch game, both in terms of skill and of the uncertainty of outcome. Some of our football was sublime and it is so pleasing to see the development and progress of Rico, Stacey and Solanke. I don’t go to games in order to watch opposing players but I can admire what I see and I thought both Yarmalenko and Lanzini, when he came on, were top quality.

All this adds up to something like football heaven. I feel lucky and privileged to be at these sorts of games and my disappointment at not winning dilutes that feeling only a little.
 
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Nice report thanks Neil.

What Fritter said about AFCB 2.0. I would make one further point.

Quite often you see discussion here, in the press and on other message boards asking what is the point of being a mid table Premier League side. You know the kind of thing: you’ll never win the league, you’re just fodder for the Big Six, having to endure endless patronising drivel from Jamie Carragher, the Championship is far more unpredictable and exciting etc etc.

Well, for me, Saturday was a great example of the point of being where we are. It was a top notch game, both in terms of skill and of the uncertainty of outcome. Some of our football was sublime and it is so pleasing to see the development and progress of Rico, Stacey and Solanke. I don’t go to games in order to watch opposing players but I can admire what I see and I thought both Yarmalenko and Lanzini, when he came on, were top quality.
All this adds up to something like football heaven. I feel lucky and privileged to be at these sorts of games and my disappointment at not winning dilutes that feeling only a little.
Excellent post
 
Nice report thanks Neil.

What Fritter said about AFCB 2.0. I would make one further point.

Quite often you see discussion here, in the press and on other message boards asking what is the point of being a mid table Premier League side. You know the kind of thing: you’ll never win the league, you’re just fodder for the Big Six, having to endure endless patronising drivel from Jamie Carragher, the Championship is far more unpredictable and exciting etc etc.

Well, for me, Saturday was a great example of the point of being where we are. It was a top notch game, both in terms of skill and of the uncertainty of outcome. Some of our football was sublime and it is so pleasing to see the development and progress of Rico, Stacey and Solanke. I don’t go to games in order to watch opposing players but I can admire what I see and I thought both Yarmalenko and Lanzini, when he came on, were top quality.

All this adds up to something like football heaven. I feel lucky and privileged to be at these sorts of games and my disappointment at not winning dilutes that feeling only a little.

Whilst I don't fear relegation and do miss some aspects of the lower leagues I think there's a lot of truth in this. I can't recall many early season games with not a great deal on the line that were as entertaining as the West Ham game in the lower leagues. There's loads of similar examples too. There's been games we've lost where I've walked away thinking that I've been entertained and I'm an extremely bad loser.
 
I have no idea what this means. The predicted goals thing.

It's a predicted goal thing Fritter.

It predicts the goals after the event.

Or something...............................


It's nowhere near as accurate as the KBG Predictive Goals Calculator which I fired up after lunch.

After a couple of hours of computations it's come up with AFC Bournemouth 2 West Ham 2.

It also predicts that Wilson and King will score for us.
 
Whilst I don't fear relegation and do miss some aspects of the lower leagues I think there's a lot of truth in this. I can't recall many early season games with not a great deal on the line that were as entertaining as the West Ham game in the lower leagues. There's loads of similar examples too. There's been games we've lost where I've walked away thinking that I've been entertained and I'm an extremely bad loser.
Even this year's Man City loss was one of those for me (though I wasn't in the ground). You do walk away thinking, man, we can go up against any team in the world and have a chance.
 

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