“The Bournemouth Way”

NWCherries98

NWCherries98

Fans' Favourite
A lot has been made of our style of play over the last decade or so, with the vast majority of our tactics being some form of an attempt at attacking first and defending second. Slick passing, electric wing play, possession based football etc.

Our style under Parker has retained the possession-based build-up play of the last few years, but with an added focus on our defensive nous; easily seen in these clean sheet records being set by the team. It’s not always as vibrant as has been in recent times, and we’re hardly the “goal robots” we were in the 14/15 season.

But...maybe it’s just me, but I’m loving it. I do enjoy smashing teams obviously, and we could be a smidge more adventurous, but I get this almost vindictive joy out of knowing once we score, we probably won’t lose. I haven’t really feared conceding in a long time. Corners and set plays? No goals conceded. Maybe we should try playing it through the channels? You’re offside. Just lump it in there then! Kelly or Cahill easily clears.

To have this much confidence in our defence is testament to SPs work and is something that I’m thoroughly enjoying. There’s something incredibly satisfying about putting these teams through the wringer, choking the life out of them when we’re in control, and then hearing from their manager after the game that it was their toughest game of the season. No sh1t! I wouldn’t want to play us either.
 
Waz afcb said:
For me the ‘Bournemouth way’ is just as much about what the team does off the ball as what they do on it. Constant non stop work rate while trying to play the ball on the deck.
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Totally, and last night was the biggest show of that to date. To watch Christie, Solanke and Anthony in the very late stages, sprinting and closing, was actually beyond belief, after the considerable shifts they had all put in.It was the whole team, of course,, but that just really impressed me.

Pressing like that from the front, back, just makes it so hard for other teams to get any momentum.
 
GaryRB said:
Cahill
Always organising and directing, irrespective of where the ball is, or who has it
His signing was a master stroke
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This. In the highlights of the Bristol City there is a clip from the away stand as Stacey breaks forward to cross for Lowe’s goal. In the centre of the shot Cahill is busy pointing Kelly and Zemura to where they should be.
 
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We lost our way for a while last year under Tindal and Woodgate, and you could actually argue under Howe for the last 6-8 months...

I think it's clear to see and say that we've found our way again... Pressing, energy, composed passing and attacking with venom... and for once, being able to defend.

Parker is turning us into a complete team... we're not there yet but good god we're on our way. If this is what Parkerball is like then I'm sold. No Fulham fans on here anymore given us the woes of appointing Parker and driving him to DC...

Re Cahill, I was sceptical of him coming here and us spunking a wage on him but you can't argue with the stats and how we've looked since his arrival. I hate the fact that Cook has been ousted because of it, but there is little I can do about that... I just hope he gets some game time to say his farewell before January...

My 'only' concern is that other clubs will be noticing what Parker is doing here at DC... Him buying into our 'project' could be tested quite strongly as the season moves along...
 
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Bournemouth team work so hard off the ball, especially the last 4 or 5 games.
In the end it pays dividends as we seem to win more second balls and so called 50/50’s.
Having said that I think man to man on average we have better players.
I would like to see the distance covered per game by our team, it’s got to be near the furthest.
 
Cook has been great for us. I would have loved him being in the team keeping clean sheets, but we have always shipped goals in recent years, even when we were doing well. Cahill has made the difference. Vision and influence. He has a great long pass.

Our squad is now one of the best in the division, probably with West Brom and Fulham.

Good times.
 
Interesting thread on the Fulham forum right now.

https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?topic=83569.0

They are using the argument that weve had easy games, which makes no sense since the teams we've played have all lost points by playing us. Also, they haven't played us or West Brom yet so you could argue that out of the 3 strongest teams in the division, they've have the easier matches.

I think they are very good have a shout as favourites as they can really put teams to the sword, but being defensively solid is just as important, if not more so, than scoring 5 instead of 2. Although not as enjoyable to watch obviously.
 
At our best under Parker (such as Brizzle City, and at times against Barnsley and Blackpool) it's right up there with Howe's title winning style.

However the point of Parker is that we don't need to be at our best and we don't need to blow teams away. The team are organised such that any old scrappy goal can win us a game.

It might not be the no holds barred thrill ride of football of Eddie, but it's effective without being ugly. Still pretty damn good on the eye as well as being hard as nails.
 
Druss_the_Legend said:
Interesting thread on the Fulham forum right now.

https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?topic=83569.0

They are using the argument that weve had easy games, which makes no sense since the teams we've played have all lost points by playing us. Also, they haven't played us or West Brom yet so you could argue that out of the 3 strongest teams in the division, they've have the easier matches.

I think they are very good have a shout as favourites as they can really put teams to the sword, but being defensively solid is just as important, if not more so, than scoring 5 instead of 2. Although not as enjoyable to watch obviously.
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They also seem to forget that we had a team of kids out for the first 4 or 5 games and could hardly name a full load of subs. Those first games we didn't make any subs apart from injuries, there was no one available
 
Druss_the_Legend said:
Interesting thread on the Fulham forum right now.

https://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?topic=83569.0

They are using the argument that weve had easy games, which makes no sense since the teams we've played have all lost points by playing us. Also, they haven't played us or West Brom yet so you could argue that out of the 3 strongest teams in the division, they've have the easier matches.

I think they are very good have a shout as favourites as they can really put teams to the sword, but being defensively solid is just as important, if not more so, than scoring 5 instead of 2. Although not as enjoyable to watch obviously.
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Agreed, And whilst it's not possible to be a one-man team in this league I wouldn't be too worried if any of our guys were out injured save perhaps for Trav and Cahill.

But if Fulham lose Mitrovic...
 
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