The Bournemouth way...

Neil Dawson

Neil Dawson

UTC Legend
I thought Souness made some interesting points yesterday (maybe because they mirror what I think) about where we choose to play football.

There seems to be quite a bit of the need to defend our style of play with Eddie, Fraser and Cook all coming out in recent weeks to say how we won’t change. That’s on top of Francis ridiculous comments about us being dragged into playing Burnley’s style of football when we played them (if only)... seems there is an arrogance creeping in that may explain this seasons results so far.

Souness was saying there is nothing wrong with playing football out from the back but you need to make sure you are doing it at the right moments. Cook was a centre back giving the ball away in the right back position v Everton and therefore the middle was left exposed for the goal. Yesterday Franno was in the right wing back position when he gave it away so Cook had to go to the runner leaving Murray free. If you are a ball playing centre half and that’s the team style...fair enough....but play it from your position.

Whenever people criticise our style of play people fall over themselves to make grandstand statements of ‘never’ without thinking about what it really means. Souness played for one of the best teams ever at playing out from the back but you rarely saw centre backs doing it on the right wing.

Time for the team to pull their heads out of the sand and really look at how to play football from the back properly.
 
agree often when I am watching I just want us to get the ball away, rather than trying to pass it around the oppositions forwards.

He is spot on regarding a central defender moving out with the ball and getting caught in possession or losing it from a poor pass. Only the very top quality players can get away with it with their pace and skill, the likes of Francis and Cook don't possess that, so Eddie should be ensuring that they do the simple things and not try to be clever going forward. I know that this is supposed to be our style of play, but without the players we can't do it effectively. Percentage wise I would hazard a guess that on balance this season we have been far worse at conceding silly and avoidable goals than in the last two seasons?
 
Thin line between being positive and being safe. If you always play safe then you lose the element of surprise whereas beating a man creates extra space. It is very successful usually but when doesn’t suceeed then becomes a very high profile downside. Surman often de-risks this style by taking the ball in tight situations so defenders don’t need to play long or try to beat an opponent.

Can’t help feeling as a defender you have to think whether losing possession will create a big problem. If so, just launch it. Franno’s error yesterday was high risk. Personally think that the worst culprit is Ibe, just wouldn’t have him wide right but central with a full license to attack. Would build the team around his strengths while Defoe, king and Stan are out. If he loses the ball in advanced positions then less risky than losing it with a full back overlapping ahead of him.
 
...agree Ibe should play in a central role where his tendency to give the ball away would hurt us less, as well as the fact that he can't defend anyway and has no defensive positioning awareness as far as I have seen this season...certainly not compared to Fraser or Pugh anyway?
 
I really want to defend our style of play. Generally, playing from the back is a good way of playing. It does annoy me when half the North Stand start shouting "get rid, get rid" the moment any of our defenders get the ball. That nervous energy probably isn't helpful.

However, the fact is, we have given 4 goals away in 4 games from over playing. Its simply not good enough and unless these errors stop there is only one way our season is going.

Its all about decision making. Watching as I fan I can usually tell when a player doesn't really want the ball. I find it odd that Begovic seemingly can't. I know they are encouraged to play like this but the players need to be honest with themselves and also with Eddie too. Francis, Cook etc must be aware of the errors they are making and maybe need to speak up and say they aren't comfortable playing like this?

The point to realise is if a team commits 3 or 4 players to stop us playing out from the back then they are making a mistake. They must be leaving gaps elsewhere on the pitch so we need to take advantage. Even if we only play long a few times, the less predictable we become the more effective playing out will be in the times we choose to do so.
 
It is also why Surman is such an important player to the way we play. He is very good at dropping back to cover players when they move forward out of their defensive position - none of our other midfielders do this as well as him.

Trouble is his pace is fading and so he often can not match the quicker forwards these days when he has to cover.

 
Eddie will be drilling our defenders into patterns of play that involve playing the ball around from expected, repeatable positions.

And whilst Eddie encourages defenders to take on passes and take on the odd risk - I'm sure Eddie doesn't really want his centre backs to be trying risky passes from the right wing with little or no cover back in our final third.

It's common sense. Nowhere on any of Eddie's training ground drills I'm sure, will a centre back intentionally pop up on the right wing looking to play a pass inside.

Sometimes our players just seem to lack common sense. And in Franno's case he isn't as quick as Ake is to make up for any error. Or as good as Ake is.

Also with Francis he is known to at times drift into his old right back positional habits even when playing centre back, usually when he does that we're well on the front foot and so it doesn't really harm us. Yesterday we got caught out. It's a quirk of the way Franno's career has progressed and the fact that crossing is still one of his main strengths, it makes a jolly up the right quite tempting.

Ultimately the better players we are able to field in defence, the fewer mistakes in Eddie's system they will make. Perhaps we should encourage Francis to take fewer risks being demonstrably one of our weaker starting 11 players these days. Maybe we just need to focus on signing a better right sided Centre Back, who can form a long term partnership with Ake. Maybe pigs will fly across Dean Court.
 
Have never had a lot of time for Souness, but have to say agreed with most of what he had to say, I know it is unlikely to happen, but as he lives locally Eddie could do a lot worse than to invite him to a few training sessions re the defence......because if the error's carry on like this it is going to cost us bigtime.......sorry for stating the obvious.
 
Souness is a dinosaur, modern football is about having possession rather than lumping it long to Toshack to knock down for Keegan, he would be better sorting out Stoke and WBA, the champions of pragmatic football.

Mixing playing from the back with a few balls into the channels for quick forwards has worked well for AFCB, players need to take individual responsibility for using the ball well in defence, midfield and attack. Some better decision making and passing in the final third would make the goals conceded mere consolations.
 
I saw Eddie lose his rag when both Cook and Begovic hoofed it instead of attempting to play out. I think they are stuck between a rock and hard place as players, sometimes they really need to just use their initiative and clear the lines as Souness says.The problem is this is now becoming a bit of an issue and you can almost sense the panic in the players and crowd when teams press us.
 
Jiminina do you see there is a different between asking the players to play football in the correct positions and hoofing it long which nobody is asking for.

You also have a selective memory of the Liverpool team of the 80s. Hansen, Lawrensen didnt hoof it at anyone.
 
I heard the full piece and thought he was incredibly supportive on the back of his constructive criticism... live there, build a statue to Eddie, incredible achievement etc etc. I like Souness and respect his views and got the feeling that he'd love us to continue to do well and was offering his view very genuinely.

For me... we'll always have to live with the risk of misplaced passes because as we all know our game is based on that risk/reward equation but it's the ones in and around our own box that freak me out because the risk is so much higher and the reward so diminished.

Secondly, central defenders bringing the ball out - again part and parcel of our style but surely it can be tempered a little. Bringing it out and picking a pass is one thing but attempting the take people on down blind alleys is another - it cost us a goal yesterday for all the reasons outlined above and if I remember rightly Steve Cook got caught in possession nearer the centre circle on another occasion.

Of course we shouldn't change the Bournemouth way, nobody is saying hoof it, just look at decision making in certain situations where the risk so overwhelmingly outweighs the reward.

 
Absolutely nothing wrong with players publicly defending our style of play as long as privately they and EH resolve to correct the individual mistakes.
we seemed to have corrected our errors earlier this season at the expense of not scoring at the other end. The situation has reversed back to the norm.
 
redharry - 2/1/2018 12:49

Absolutely nothing wrong with players publicly defending our style of play as long as privately they and EH resolve to correct the individual mistakes.
we seemed to have corrected our errors earlier this season at the expense of not scoring at the other end. The situation has reversed back to the norm.
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The thing is...is it really an either or situation? I agree our attacking has improved but if you look at the goals conceded recently, its not down to us attacking more, its basic errors which we should be able to cut out without affecting the attack
 
We’ve seen this and had this conversation in previous seasons. ‘Have to cut out the mistakes as it’s costing us’
Making mistakes is healthy in some respects showing that you are trying to play out of the comfort zone and progress to higher levels, the down side is making it easier for the opposition when it goes wrong.
Stupid mistakes are the ones that are hard to take . Otherwise as long as we learn from previous mistakes then it will help us become a better footballing team in the future.
 
I've had a weird dream again - Next season Eddies in charge of Everton!...and Harry or Souey or both at Afcb. Its not that far- fetched with both of them sniffing around Dean Court. Think I'll stop sleeping!
 
Neil Dawson - 2/1/2018 12:41

Jiminina do you see there is a different between asking the players to play football in the correct positions and hoofing it long which nobody is asking for.

You also have a selective memory of the Liverpool team of the 80s. Hansen, Lawrensen didnt hoof it at anyone.
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No you're right Neil.. why Hoof it when you can simply pass it back for the keeper to pick up.....the back pass rule destroyed Liverpool... Well that and the fact sourness took over managing them.
 
Good God Stan what a thought!.......although watching that Liverpool team in Europe against the likes of Juventus really was mind numbing.......completely different game now....defending nowadays just isn't comparable.
 
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