Match Report and MoM v Wolves

[The Flying Picket]

The line manager at my first job after leaving school, who like me went to every Boscombe home games and some away games, gave me one piece of valuable advice which was "do not give jobs to your mates".

Eddie is not following that advice, which suggests a certain insecurity complex, and along with his appalling failure in the transfer market to bring in decent full backs, and forwards who can score when Callum and Joshua are not available or off form, is ruining this side.

He stuffs his coaching stuff with mates who are out of their depths at this level. His decision to play Francis was called out by many years ago. If there is one AFCB player you can put your money on to get sent off it is Francis.

To think he transferred out Mings who then went on to get capped for England ahead of Steve Cook, and then replaces Mings with Francis, is totally clueless.

Most will say Eddie Howe should stay, but certainly not me. Everybody has their "best by" date, and for Eddie that has gone, I can't see he has the ability to take this team further, when he continually makes the same mistakes.

 

[Waz afcb]

The line manager at my first job after leaving school, who like me went to every Boscombe home games and some away games, gave me one piece of valuable advice which was "do not give jobs to your mates".

Eddie is not following that advice, which suggests a certain insecurity complex, and along with his appalling failure in the transfer market to bring in decent full backs, and forwards who can score when Callum and Joshua are not available or off form, is ruining this side.

He stuffs his coaching stuff with mates who are out of their depths at this level. His decision to play Francis was called out by many years ago. If there is one AFCB player you can put your money on to get sent off it is Francis.

To think he transferred out Mings who then went on to get capped for England ahead of Steve Cook, and then replaces Mings with Francis, is totally clueless.

Most will say Eddie Howe should stay, but certainly not me. Everybody has their "best by" date, and for Eddie that has gone, I can't see he has the ability to take this team further, when he continually makes the same mistakes.

He needs outside help for sure. The way we play has become very stale and imo it’s only a matter of time until we get relegated unless he changes something. I still wouldn’t advocate sacking him though.

 

[DJ]

The line manager at my first job after leaving school, who like me went to every Boscombe home games and some away games, gave me one piece of valuable advice which was "do not give jobs to your mates".

Eddie is not following that advice, which suggests a certain insecurity complex, and along with his appalling failure in the transfer market to bring in decent full backs, and forwards who can score when Callum and Joshua are not available or off form, is ruining this side.

So no credit for actually signing the likes of Adam Smith, Callum Wilson and Joshua King then? (Collective less than £5million)

Just criticism because Lloyd Kelly has been injured or Diego Rico has taken time to adapt?

Failed transfer policy also doubled our money on Lys Mousset despite being into his final year of his contract. That profit actually covered the outlay on the trio mentioned above.

He stuffs his coaching stuff with mates who are out of their depths at this level. His decision to play Francis was called out by many years ago. If there is one AFCB player you can put your money on to get sent off it is Francis.

To think he transferred out Mings who then went on to get capped for England ahead of Steve Cook, and then replaces Mings with Francis, is totally clueless.

Most will say Eddie Howe should stay, but certainly not me. Everybody has their "best by" date, and for Eddie that has gone, I can't see he has the ability to take this team further, when he continually makes the same mistakes.

Mings replacement isn’t Simon Francis, you can consider it as maybe Chris Mepham or again Lloyd Kelly but it’s not Francis.

Kelly an England Under 21 who can apparently play both left back and centre back with immense promise. Just right him off because he’s been injured and signing by Howe?

 

[RobTrent]

So no credit for actually signing the likes of Adam Smith, Callum Wilson and Joshua King then? (Collective less than £5million)

Just criticism because Lloyd Kelly has been injured or Diego Rico has taken time to adapt?

Failed transfer policy also doubled our money on Lys Mousset despite being into his final year of his contract. That profit actually covered the outlay on the trio mentioned above.



Mings replacement isn’t Simon Francis, you can consider it as maybe Chris Mepham or again Lloyd Kelly but it’s not Francis.

Kelly an England Under 21 who can apparently play both left back and centre back with immense promise. Just right him off because he’s been injured and signing by Howe?

Good response.

This is when the binary internet meltdown starts! Everythings sh17. Boo hoo...

 

[Druss_the_Legend]

I’m not saying they can’t coach them because they weren’t good players I’m saying they can’t coach them because they are not good enough coaches collectively. Since the old guard has retired we have gone backwards with better players playing old fashioned formations.

Have we though? Have we really?

 

[Neil Dawson]

Have we though? Have we really?

I think so yes. We have much less possession, are less entertaining and play to our potential less frequently than the side that came up and stayed up. We do have better players than it though.

 

[afcb.czech]

I was wondering for some weeks whether we have a fitness issue, which is the reason why we don't press teams any more, but yesterday we seemed to keep huffing and puffing to the end despite being a player down.

So for some reason, we are no longer comfortable pressing other teams, getting our full backs into advanced positions. We have players 10 times better on paper now, but still no left sided pairing more effective than Daniels and Pugh were.

Also, can anyone put their finger on what Fraser is doing differently to have become so ineffective?

 

[Topfarrier]

Of course I don’t mind you not reading it... it’s quite a tome, particularly if you’ve already made up your mind what is in it like you say.

We were outnumbered playing the same system because they pushed the fullbacks into midfield and pressed high and we kept ours back and didn’t press. A system is only as good as your understanding and execution of it.

Lol moutinio and Nerves were just a lot better than Cook and Billing....nothing whatsoever to do with being out numbered....you didn't excuse Billings poor showing on being out numbered....Lerma certainly wasn't.... neither was Dan Gosliny....is this something that only happens to Lewis Cook iyo ?

 

[Neil Dawson]

Lol moutinio and Nerves were just a lot better than Cook and Billing....nothing whatsoever to do with being out numbered....you didn't excuse Billings poor showing on being out numbered....Lerma certainly wasn't.... neither was Dan Gosliny....is this something that only happens to Lewis Cook iyo ?

Is Dan Gosliny our new Polish midfielder?

Look we all know your hatred of Cook is only matched on here by Druss with Ibe or me with Rantie but in my opinion,while not playing well ( hence his average 6 mark) he was better than Billing yesterday. He got on the ball, tried to make things happen, tried to play forward passes.

They were all outnumbered. Our midfield is always outnumbered in every game we play except Burnley, the only other team to line up like us. Coincidentally also managed by solid League one type people. They are more effective with 4-4-2 though because they play percentage long ball football and get in your face on the second ball. We are the only side that thinks 4-4-2 is a system where you can knock it around the back and try and play through an outnumbered midfield.

 

[Topfarrier]

Is Dan Gosliny our new Polish midfielder?

Look we all know your hatred of Cook is only matched on here by Druss with Ibe or me with Rantie but in my opinion,while not playing well ( hence his average 6 mark) he was better than Billing yesterday. He got on the ball, tried to make things happen, tried to play forward passes.

They were all outnumbered. Our midfield is always outnumbered in every game we play except Burnley, the only other team to line up like us. Coincidentally also managed by solid League one type people. They are more effective with 4-4-2 though because they play percentage long ball football and get in your face on the second ball. We are the only side that thinks 4-4-2 is a system where you can knock it around the back and try and play through an outnumbered midfield.

No Neil...Lerma is the best player on the pitch most weeks....he came on when Wolves actually had an extra player and procided to doninate the midfield.... this outnumbered thing is a poor excuse .....quality midfielders can adapt to play in any system.
In actual up fact you'll find that both Fraser and Harry Wilson played a lot more centrally than either Tractor or Jota....something even the commentator picked up on.

Btw Dan Gosliny sounds a lot more exiting imo.

 

[Neil Dawson]

No Neil...Lerma is the best player on the pitch most weeks....he came on when Wolves actually had an extra player and procided to doninate the midfield.... this outnumbered is poor excuse .....quality midfielders can adapt to play in any system.
In actual fact you'll find that both Fraser and Harry Wilson played a lot more centrally than either Tractor or Jota....something even the commentator picked up on.

Btw Dan Gosliny sounds a lot more exiting imo.

Lerma is the best player on the pitch in wrestling back possession, holding people off and playing the simple ball. He is not the best player on the pitch for vision. Twice yesterday he had a great opportunity to release Fraser and Danjuma but he hasn’t got the pass in his locker. Not a criticism of him, not his job, and he does his job brilliantly.
The other team having the ball suits his game but a midfield has two jobs and the other is creation. He doesn’t have someone ahead of him to give the ball too who can turn and set people up.

 

[Topfarrier]

Lerma is the best player on the pitch in wrestling back possession, holding people off and playing the simple ball. He is not the best player on the pitch for vision. Twice yesterday he had a great opportunity to release Fraser and Danjuma but he hasn’t got the pass in his locker. Not a criticism of him, not his job, and he does his job brilliantly.
The other team having the ball suits his game but a midfield has two jobs and the other is creation. He doesn’t have someone ahead of him to give the ball too who can turn and set people up.

We all know that we don't have a creative midfielder Neil....whats that got to do with being out numbered against a team who also play a 2 man midfield?

 

[RobTrent]

Lerma is the best player on the pitch in wrestling back possession, holding people off and playing the simple ball. He is not the best player on the pitch for vision. Twice yesterday he had a great opportunity to release Fraser and Danjuma but he hasn’t got the pass in his locker. Not a criticism of him, not his job, and he does his job brilliantly.
The other team having the ball suits his game but a midfield has two jobs and the other is creation. He doesn’t have someone ahead of him to give the ball too who can turn and set people up.

What I did notice was how he tracked back to help cover Rico. Great player.

 

[tedisking]

What I did notice was how he tracked back to help cover Rico. Great player.

Which makes the point he should be on the pitch for 90 minutes, and Eddie dropped a b@ll@ck by not playing him and including Francis

 

[Neil Dawson]

We all know that we don't have a creative midfielder Neil....whats that got to do with being out numbered against a team who also play a 2 man midfield?

They don’t technically though, we have been through this, they overload the midfield to gain an advantage. It’s how they make the system work for them.

I will give you two quick examples (don’t want to bore everyone to tears ) Rico’s man yesterday first half was actually not Traore (which it became because we got pushed back) it was Doherty their wing back. Trouble was at a signal from the skipper Doherty regularly went and stood somewhere else (once even up by Jiminez) but mainly into central midfield.
What was Rico supposed to do here, I don’t have the answer to this btw, some managers would say follow him others would say keep shape. Doherty became the extra man in central midfield where he proceeded to then pass the ball to Traore three times in a row for him to run at Ake with the team all screaming at Rico. Had Rico been given instructions on this? We don’t know... but he won’t have seen anything like it... I haven’t. Occasionally he followed Doherty in and then got screamed at to get back on the wing.

The second scenario was that Doherty would push right up on Ake and Traore would drop right into the middle or even left of the pitch. If you watch the MOTD highlights Cook brings him down in this position having been beat for pace and Billing was also booked bringing him down in a central position. That’s the outnumbered piece I mean because on both those occasions Moutinho and Neves were still in central midfield creating the extra man. Our full backs and Fraser and Wilson stayed much wider.

 

[redharry]

They don’t technically though, we have been through this, they overload the midfield to gain an advantage. It’s how they make the system work for them.

I will give you two quick examples (don’t want to bore everyone to tears ) Rico’s man yesterday first half was actually not Traore (which it became because we got pushed back) it was Doherty their wing back. Trouble was at a signal from the skipper Doherty regularly went and stood somewhere else (once even up by Jiminez) but mainly into central midfield.
What was Rico supposed to do here, I don’t have the answer to this btw, some managers would say follow him others would say keep shape. Doherty became the extra man in central midfield where he proceeded to then pass the ball to Traore three times in a row for him to run at Ake with the team all screaming at Rico. Had Rico been given instructions on this? We don’t know... but he won’t have seen anything like it... I haven’t. Occasionally he followed Doherty in and then got screamed at to get back on the wing.

The second scenario was that Doherty would push right up on Ake and Traore would drop right into the middle or even left of the pitch. If you watch the MOTD highlights Cook brings him down in this position having been beat for pace and Billing was also booked bringing him down in a central position. That’s the outnumbered piece I mean because on both those occasions Moutinho and Neves were still in central midfield creating the extra man. Our full backs and Fraser and Wilson stayed much wider.

Your point about wide players coming into more central positions is well made. Last season we excelled when Brooks did that. Think games against Fulham and Brighton for example where he came inside and ran at the heart of the defence. Frightened the life out of the opposition. Fraser does do it at times, he is often fouled when coming inside to run at the heart of a defence.
I really think Brooks is so sorely missed. I fear if he is not fully fit for the second half of the season we will struggle and we may not be singing "mind the gap" to the scummers.

 

[Neil Dawson]

Your point about wide players coming into more central positions is well made. Last season we excelled when Brooks did that. Think games against Fulham and Brighton for example where he came inside and ran at the heart of the defence. Frightened the life out of the opposition. Fraser does do it at times, he is often fouled when coming inside to run at the heart of a defence.
I really think Brooks is so sorely missed. I fear if he is not fully fit for the second half of the season we will struggle and we may not be singing "mind the gap" to the scummers.

Agreed. We always end up discussing formations but really any formation works if you understand it and use it wisely and players and coaches create things not expected. It’s just some systems are easier to break lines up in than others.

I worked in Wolves for years so know more about them than most clubs as I speak to a lot of their fans. They always say they have no idea where their players are going to turn up, it’s really exciting to watch and it bewilders opposing teams. Clearly it is well drilled though... what my old boss used to call organised spontaneity!

Talking to them after the game they said that looked nothing like any Bournemouth team they remembered seeing... ‘where’s your old gung ho gone’ they said. Couldn’t put it better myself.

 

[DannyHollandspockets]

Absolutely agree 100% with all this Neil. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I know we can't win this league, so I look to be entertained and hope the squad plays to it's potential. This is not happening and hasn't happened for a year now. I'd rather get relegated playing attractive football than just survive serving up dross and hoping to scrape enough points to maintain another dull season creaming in TV money.

However, we are here and need to up our game. I want Eddie to adapt and learn. He's not proving this by picking a 34 year old that hasn't started since Boxing Day and continuing to bench a Dutch international with Champions League experience!

 

[DannyHollandspockets]

Honestly Neil.....sorry to say but sometimes I get the feeling you yearn for first halves like today, so you can trot out the negative stuff again.

I'm curious Dave. Was this a another game you didn't watch, but defend the players and staff regardless?

 

[Neil Dawson]

Absolutely agree 100% with all this Neil. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I know we can't win this league, so I look to be entertained and hope the squad plays to it's potential. This is not happening and hasn't happened for a year now. I'd rather get relegated playing attractive football than just survive serving up dross and hoping to scrape enough points to maintain another dull season creaming in TV money.

However, we are here and need to up our game. I want Eddie to adapt and learn. He's not proving this by picking a 34 year old that hasn't started since Boxing Day and continuing to bench a Dutch international with Champions League experience!

Same as! If you want to concede possession you have to have a rock solid defence. But really, who wants to concede possession. We started off madly attacking everyone. Eddie tailored that, probably correctly, to madly attacking everyone we could beat. Now we play counter attacking against everyone. We have become really boring. One goal in open play against five teams that included Norwich, Watford and Newcastle. This is not what we were ever about. Couple this with no cup runs and we have just become Pulis without the rock solid defence.