scapegoating individuals in our team

A

Allen

First Team
Chris Mepham - our player of the season so far this season, was trolled and abused online and had his confidence shot to pieces for 2 seasons.

Lloyd Kelly - probably regarded as our most valuable player at the start of last season and tipped to play for England, made captain at a young age - came on against Burnley and had a positive impact, helped us get back in the game, individually booed for playing a safe pass and then in the same game a few minutes later played the wrong pass because fans would have booed him for not hitting it forwards - has looked a shadow of himself since. I, myself also moaned and found it incredibly frustrating how ponderous the defenders were in possession and playing about at the back with nothing good ever coming from it, but said during the Burnley game "WTF are they booing Kelly for?", was completely bemused.

Solanke - please don't make him next - he was the scapegoat the season we went down, scored a brace against Leicester and his confidence came back, he became the main man and he looks good enough to play for England, I rate him higher than Wilson - (just my opinion). Against Leeds, until we fell apart, Dom gave the best performance I have ever seen from a Bournemouth player in the last 30+ years and I was there when Steve Jones scored 4 etc (again another opinion).
Even when our team is playing :poop:, I don't worry when Dom is in possession, he is so good on the ball, so skillful and so clever. When he was through against Wolves he was just shattered having ran his b0ll0x off for 90 odd minutes and just come back from injury, you could see he ran out of steam.


The point of this post is to say it is fine to have opinions on forums like this, but in the ground during the matches, we should be shouting "COME ON BOURNEMOUTH" instead of "FFS" or "SHOOOOT FFS!"
Any points from our next 3 games is a bonus, they are the 3 best teams in the league.
 
It was ever thus. Never going to change, it's human nature for people to look for an outlet for their frustration if we are losing. It's an emotional game and we all get wrapped up in it. Broadly I think our fan base, while a bit whingy at times is far better than a lot of others and relatively forgiving.
 
Good points in the OP... Dom is one of our better players and does the best he can on the scraps he gets... People that look purely at his goals scored don't understand the game of football... Give Dom service, which he lacks in abundance, and he'll score a decent percentage of his opportunities...

People that look at just his missed opportunities don't understand that if he scored all his chances, he would not be here playing for us, he'd have been lapped up by a top 6 side and bench warming...

I think the best we can hope for for Dom this season is circa 10 - 12 goals... Given his absence for some time, even that figure now looks unlikely...

Hoping that with better service now and him edging closer to match sharpness, we'll start seeing a few more go in from him...

Lowest chances created in PL history remember folks... and we expect Dom to be banging them in week on week...?!?!
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
Good points in the OP... Dom is one of our better players and does the best he can on the scraps he gets... People that look purely at his goals scored don't understand the game of football... Give Dom service, which he lacks in abundance, and he'll score a decent percentage of his opportunities...

People that look at just his missed opportunities don't understand that if he scored all his chances, he would not be here playing for us, he'd have been lapped up by a top 6 side and bench warming...

I think the best we can hope for for Dom this season is circa 10 - 12 goals... Given his absence for some time, even that figure now looks unlikely...

Hoping that with better service now and him edging closer to match sharpness, we'll start seeing a few more go in from him...

Lowest chances created in PL history remember folks... and we expect Dom to be banging them in week on week...?!?!
Click to expand...
I think this is people's point. You say that if he took his chances he would be snapped up by other Premier league clubs. That would be because he would be a Premier League quality striker.

As we all know you get less chances in the Premier League. Dom scored alot in the Championship due to more time on the ball and more chances. He does not get those in the PL and has not scored many goals, therefore some would argue for this reason he is not a PL quaity striker. If we are to create less and play against better opponents then we may need a more prolific striker at this level.

I am playing devils advocate purely because I have seen the whole 'if you don't rate Solanke then you don't know anything about football' a few times on this forum. Which to me is extremely arrogant, because everyone has different opinions on the game.
 
CherriesOnTop said:
I think this is people's point. You say that if he took his chances he would be snapped up by other Premier league clubs. That would be because he would be a Premier League quality striker.

As we all know you get less chances in the Premier League. Dom scored alot in the Championship due to more time on the ball and more chances. He does not get those in the PL and has not scored many goals, therefore some would argue for this reason he is not a PL quaity striker. If we are to create less and play against better opponents then we may need a more prolific striker at this level.

I am playing devils advocate purely because I have seen the whole 'if you don't rate Solanke then you don't know anything about football' a few times on this forum. Which to me is extremely arrogant, because everyone has different opinions on the game.
Click to expand...

Here we go again with this bizaree argument. We moan that the media only care about the top 6 and we have our own fans suggesting that there are only 6 Premier league teams.

You don't need to sign for a top 6 side to be premier league quality. If you play every week for any side in the Prem, you are, by definition, premier league. There are 20 teams in the league. Dom does a great job for us and we are a weaker team without him. He is, by every metric, a premier league striker. Does he score as many Rashford? No. Does that mean hes Championship at best? Of course not.
 
Druss_the_Legend said:
Here we go again with this bizaree argument. We moan that the media only care about the top 6 and we have our own fans suggesting that there are only 6 Premier league teams.

You don't need to sign for a top 6 side to be premier league quality. If you play every week for any side in the Prem, you are, by definition, premier league. There are 20 teams in the league. Dom does a great job for us and we are a weaker team without him. He is, by every metric, a premier league striker. Does he score as many Rashford? No. Does that mean hes Championship at best? Of course not.
Click to expand...

I don't necessarily agree with these people on Dom but it's not a complicated argument to understand. He's so far struggled to score goals at premier league level. He hasn't at other levels therefore they are saying he's not a premier league level goalscorer. It's a very simple point.
 
There are extenuating circumstances both seasons he's played for us in the Premier League, I don't know why that's a complicated argument to understand.

SlowDownDerek said:
I don't necessarily agree with these people on Dom but it's not a complicated argument to understand. He's so far struggled to score goals at premier league level. He hasn't at other levels therefore they are saying he's not a premier league level goalscorer. It's a very simple point.
Click to expand...
 
Not for the first time, I've wondered at the point of debates like this. "Premier League level" is either an provable fact (so if you're playing in the Premier League then you're premier league level) or it's a matter of opinion. If it's the latter, who fixes the parameters? Who decides how many successful shots on goal makes someone "Premier League level"? What's the point of challenging someone's subjective view as to what does or doesn't meet their expectations of PL level - and anyway is their own opinion more or less valid than your own. This shouldn't affect the way you support the club anyway, we have no control over it.

What's the point indeed of me questioning this anyway, and sending in this post? Probably none, it's only that I'm between mouthfulls of Fruit n' Fibre, the benefit of which in terms of filling a hole are undeniable.
 
Firstly, whatever Solanke's qualities he's the best we're going to get in the current circumstances.

That aside, if you look at the top scorers in the PL there's not actually that many centre forwards that've scored a whole lot more than him and plenty who haven't. Nketiah at Arsenal has scored 4 in 21, Alvarez at Man City 4 in 16, Iheanacho at Leicester 3 in 17, Antonio at W Ham 2 in 22. These are all players fans would be only to glad to have in the team if we could afford them and they wanted to comer here.

If he has an upturn in form and a bit of luck he might score 10-12, which is about what I expected, but he might score less. Either way it's obvious that the rest of the team need to be contributing more than they have been. Tav has obviously made the main contribution and Anthony's done well considering how little game time GON has given him, Billing too and even Moore despite the fact that we never seem to play to his strengths but after that it's slim pickings.
 
Johnny Comelately said:
Firstly, whatever Solanke's qualities he's the best we're going to get in the current circumstances.

That aside, if you look at the top scorers in the PL there's not actually that many centre forwards that've scored a whole lot more than him and plenty who haven't. Nketiah at Arsenal has scored 4 in 21, Alvarez at Man City 4 in 16, Iheanacho at Leicester 3 in 17, Antonio at W Ham 2 in 22. These are all players fans would be only to glad to have in the team if we could afford them and they wanted to comer here.

If he has an upturn in form and a bit of luck he might score 10-12, which is about what I expected, but he might score less. Either way it's obvious that the rest of the team need to be contributing more than they have been. Tav has obviously made the main contribution and Anthony's done well considering how little game time GON has given him, Billing too and even Moore despite the fact that we never seem to play to his strengths but after that it's slim pickings.
Click to expand...
Also factor in that we seem unable to even purchase a penalty, so Dom is not getting some of those "cheap" goals, of which other strikers can hoover up four or five per season.
He's doing fine and should definitely score more once we start giving him more service. I'm hoping that some of the pacy new lads develop a telepathic relationship with Dom before the end of the season. With the right balls played into him he will put away a fair few of them and start moving up the scorers' table, I'm sure.
 
Rob151060 said:
Not for the first time, I've wondered at the point of debates like this. "Premier League level" is either an provable fact (so if you're playing in the Premier League then you're premier league level) or it's a matter of opinion. If it's the latter, who fixes the parameters? Who decides how many successful shots on goal makes someone "Premier League level"? What's the point of challenging someone's subjective view as to what does or doesn't meet their expectations of PL level - and anyway is their own opinion more or less valid than your own. This shouldn't affect the way you support the club anyway, we have no control over it.

What's the point indeed of me questioning this anyway, and sending in this post? Probably none, it's only that I'm between mouthfulls of Fruit n' Fibre, the benefit of which in terms of filling a hole are undeniable.
Click to expand...

I think it's just a term people use to mean they don't think X player is good enough for this level. Not sure the semantics of the term itself is important.
 
Dominic Solanke works extremely hard during a game, but lack of goals he gets criticised.

To score goals forwards need service and a lot of goals come from low crosses into the box, something we were not doing on a regular basis.

Wood scored at the far post against Manchester City from a low cross into the box as did Surridge at Dean Court for Forest.

The same with Anthony with a cross from Ouattara.

Solanke did the same with a cross for Tavernier at Wolves.

Against Newcastle U, a low cross from Traore found Solanke who so nearly scored with a back heel.

Over the years I always have liked having two wingers, because with a good cross into the box it can cause problems in a defence and forwards coming in can capitalise.

The Big Man used to get criticism for lack of goals, but the work he did, his strike partnerships did the rest.

So basically feed your strikers and then hopefully they will do the business.
 
billythekid said:
Dominic Solanke works extremely hard during a game, but lack of goals he gets criticised.

To score goals forwards need service and a lot of goals come from low crosses into the box, something we were not doing on a regular basis.

Wood scored at the far post against Manchester City from a low cross into the box as did Surridge at Dean Court for Forest.

The same with Anthony with a cross from Ouattara.

Solanke did the same with a cross for Tavernier at Wolves.

Against Newcastle U, a low cross from Traore found Solanke who so nearly scored with a back heel.

Over the years I always have liked having two wingers, because with a good cross into the box it can cause problems in a defence and forwards coming in can capitalise.

The Big Man used to get criticism for lack of goals, but the work he did, his strike partnerships did the rest.

So basically feed your strikers and then hopefully they will do the business.
Click to expand...
Wasn’t just that though. Solanke’s overall use of the ball on Saturday was very poor, a couple of times he had the chance to set up a teammate with a very simple pass but completely fudged it. He also got completely bullied and marked out of the game by the two Wolves centre halves, he needs to hold the ball up better than that. Running around a lot isn’t enough at this level. Thankfully the one thing he did right all game was a game winning contribution.
 
Druss_the_Legend said:
Here we go again with this bizaree argument. We moan that the media only care about the top 6 and we have our own fans suggesting that there are only 6 Premier league teams.

You don't need to sign for a top 6 side to be premier league quality. If you play every week for any side in the Prem, you are, by definition, premier league. There are 20 teams in the league. Dom does a great job for us and we are a weaker team without him. He is, by every metric, a premier league striker. Does he score as many Rashford? No. Does that mean hes Championship at best? Of course not.
Click to expand...
Here we go again with people jumping down others throats. I'm playing devils advocate, I like Dom, but I can understand people thinking he isn't good enough for this level. With the ball at his feet he does not have enough impact in the PL.
 
Rob151060 said:
Not for the first time, I've wondered at the point of debates like this. "Premier League level" is either an provable fact (so if you're playing in the Premier League then you're premier league level) or it's a matter of opinion. If it's the latter, who fixes the parameters? Who decides how many successful shots on goal makes someone "Premier League level"? What's the point of challenging someone's subjective view as to what does or doesn't meet their expectations of PL level - and anyway is their own opinion more or less valid than your own. This shouldn't affect the way you support the club anyway, we have no control over it.

What's the point indeed of me questioning this anyway, and sending in this post? Probably none, it's only that I'm between mouthfulls of Fruit n' Fibre, the benefit of which in terms of filling a hole are undeniable.
Click to expand...
For me a Premier League striker is someone who is good enough to have an effect on a teams performance. That of course is subjective as we are finding with Dom. I guess it's the same as the term 'world class.' Everyone seems to have a different idea or opinion as to what a world class player is.

A simpler way to think about it might be; if other Premier League teams are keen on signing a player to be their first choice. How many teams in the Premier League would want to sign Dom and have him as their number 9? I think maybe a few down our end of the table would so for me he just about qualifies as a PL striker.
 
KingKieffer said:
Wasn’t just that though. Solanke’s overall use of the ball on Saturday was very poor, a couple of times he had the chance to set up a teammate with a very simple pass but completely fudged it. He also got completely bullied and marked out of the game by the two Wolves centre halves, he needs to hold the ball up better than that. Running around a lot isn’t enough at this level. Thankfully the one thing he did right all game was a game winning contribution.
Click to expand...
Fair comment, I think. He's often seems at his best when he's in the box and doesn't have time to think but we do seem to use him more like an attacking midfielder and expect him to beat a few defenders before he gets a shot off.
 
CherriesOnTop said:
For me a Premier League striker is someone who is good enough to have an effect on a teams performance. That of course is subjective as we are finding with Dom. I guess it's the same as the term 'world class.' Everyone seems to have a different idea or opinion as to what a world class player is.

A simpler way to think about it might be; if other Premier League teams are keen on signing a player to be their first choice. How many teams in the Premier League would want to sign Dom and have him as their number 9? I think maybe a few down our end of the table would so for me he just about qualifies as a PL striker.
Click to expand...
Tbh you might be surprised. Other managers might look at him and think they could find a way for him to score more, other teams might have players who could give him better service.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

;