Thoughts on the season so far.

Druss_the_Legend

UTC Legend
Great to be in the position we are, not going to argue with that, but some concerns.

Billing - Should have everything to be a great midfielder in this league. Why has he not shown it so far?

Kelly - Whats happened? Hailed as the Ake replacement at the end of the season, this season he is lucky to be starting matches. Does not seem to recognise danger. Turns into players rather than away and plays with a confidence level that currently is exceeding his ability.

Begovic - Hands up here. Thought Travers would be number one this season. So far, the best goalkeeping performances in a Cherries shirt for many a year. I blame the coach...

Brooks - Can we play him more central? How we missed him last year.

Solanke - Im one of those who always thought he would do well this season. Hes getting there and you can see there is more to come but very happy with him so far.

The Cooks - If either is out of the side we are simply not as good.

Danjuma - Scares the living daylights out of defenders when hes on the ball. As predicted pre season, he is one of the best players in the league.

Lerma - Amazed he stayed with us, very happy he did.

Stanislas - Ok so this goes back to his comments 6 years ago when he said he was more a Premier League player. He pulls out of tackles, plays for himself and generally seems to lack the team player mentality that I will mention more of in a moment. If he was less selfish at times and rolled his sleeves up he would earn the right to get back up to the Prem.

The Team - We still dont seem like one. I know thats pretty crazy as we have had a great start results wise, we just dont seem the play for each other, the badge or the manager. There is none of the cohesion that Eddies sides had, even during last season. We have so far relied on individuals to win us games. The trouble with that is, like today, when you havent got them then you lose the edge. We played today as if we assumed we would win. Its not the first time and JT has admitted it. Thats shocking from a manager, he should be making sure that we play like every game is a cup final. We have the best players in this league, but if they dont play as a team then while we might still be in the playoffs we miss out on the automatic promotion these players should be attaining.

Whats missing? What does JT have to do to make a "team".

Im still hopeful of a great season. Despite not playing well apart from spells in games, we are still up there. Imagine if we gelled and played with a passion and effort level like the Rotherham players did today. We have to earn wins not expect them to happen.
 
Whats missing? What does JT have to do to make a "team".

I think show a couple more the exit door (King being one) and bring in a couple of new faces that puts his mark on the side rather than being Eddie’s squad under JT.

Bit of a strange season all round given the circumstances but I’m happy with where we are now (was genuinely concerned before a ball was kicked we might struggle to reverse the negative vibes from last season, not adapt to the new division and be one of the sides down the bottom). Way more positives then negatives.

May not be blowing sides out of the water but we are battling away, if things click there’s no stopping us
 
Happy so far this is not an easy league to negotiate and in most games we have looked class above but still that defensive demon is with us and our slow starting is apparent in most games...going 1-0 up early today and we should have pushed on and got the win but we seem to go missing in periods and concede weak goals.... but will take being around the top six during the season
 
Great to be in the position we are, not going to argue with that, but some concerns.

Billing - Should have everything to be a great midfielder in this league. Why has he not shown it so far?

Kelly - Whats happened? Hailed as the Ake replacement at the end of the season, this season he is lucky to be starting matches. Does not seem to recognise danger. Turns into players rather than away and plays with a confidence level that currently is exceeding his ability.

Begovic - Hands up here. Thought Travers would be number one this season. So far, the best goalkeeping performances in a Cherries shirt for many a year. I blame the coach...

Brooks - Can we play him more central? How we missed him last year.

Solanke - Im one of those who always thought he would do well this season. Hes getting there and you can see there is more to come but very happy with him so far.

The Cooks - If either is out of the side we are simply not as good.

Danjuma - Scares the living daylights out of defenders when hes on the ball. As predicted pre season, he is one of the best players in the league.

Lerma - Amazed he stayed with us, very happy he did.

Stanislas - Ok so this goes back to his comments 6 years ago when he said he was more a Premier League player. He pulls out of tackles, plays for himself and generally seems to lack the team player mentality that I will mention more of in a moment. If he was less selfish at times and rolled his sleeves up he would earn the right to get back up to the Prem.

The Team - We still dont seem like one. I know thats pretty crazy as we have had a great start results wise, we just dont seem the play for each other, the badge or the manager. There is none of the cohesion that Eddies sides had, even during last season. We have so far relied on individuals to win us games. The trouble with that is, like today, when you havent got them then you lose the edge. We played today as if we assumed we would win. Its not the first time and JT has admitted it. Thats shocking from a manager, he should be making sure that we play like every game is a cup final. We have the best players in this league, but if they dont play as a team then while we might still be in the playoffs we miss out on the automatic promotion these players should be attaining.

Whats missing? What does JT have to do to make a "team".

Im still hopeful of a great season. Despite not playing well apart from spells in games, we are still up there. Imagine if we gelled and played with a passion and effort level like the Rotherham players did today. We have to earn wins not expect them to happen.

I totally disagree with the Stanislas comments .
When he doesn’t play we miss him . A player who like brooks can open up defences with his passes .
He is always looking to play the little one twos on the edge of the box, and yeah probably suits the premier league more but he works his **************** off the for team
 
It takes a while for a side to become a team. Although several players have been at the club for a while, they’ve not played many minutes together to form the partnerships great teams do have.

Lewis Cook is obviously the one who makes us tick. I like the movement from Dom to drop deep to create space for Danjuma on the left. Lerma and Stacey also seemed to have a good understanding so it’s a shame we won’t see that for a while.
 
I totally disagree with the Stanislas comments .
When he doesn’t play we miss him . A player who like brooks can open up defences with his passes .
He is always looking to play the little one twos on the edge of the box, and yeah probably suits the premier league more but he works his **************** off the for team

Why would he suit the premier League more? A good player should be a good player. I agree he can open up defences. He should do it more but plays for himself too much. If he was less selfish he would improve the team more than he does. Just as he took the ball off Solanke who was clearly the named penalty taker the other day. Several players went over to tell him to give the ball to Dom but he didn't and Dom didn't celebrate the goal. That's bad for the idea we are a team.
 
Why would he suit the premier League more? A good player should be a good player. I agree he can open up defences. He should do it more but plays for himself too much. If he was less selfish he would improve the team more than he does. Just as he took the ball off Solanke who was clearly the named penalty taker the other day. Several players went over to tell him to give the ball to Dom but he didn't and Dom didn't celebrate the goal. That's bad for the idea we are a team.
Stan said after the game he was the named penalty taker...
 
Why would he suit the premier League more? A good player should be a good player. I agree he can open up defences. He should do it more but plays for himself too much. If he was less selfish he would improve the team more than he does. Just as he took the ball off Solanke who was clearly the named penalty taker the other day. Several players went over to tell him to give the ball to Dom but he didn't and Dom didn't celebrate the goal. That's bad for the idea we are a team.
He would suit the premier league more are he clearly likes to play football on the ground and that is more suited to the premier league. The championship is a bit more long ball stuff .

apart from that penalty he took off solanke the other day, I don’t really see how he is selfish and not playing for the team ?
 
He would suit the premier league more are he clearly likes to play football on the ground and that is more suited to the premier league. The championship is a bit more long ball stuff .

apart from that penalty he took off solanke the other day, I don’t really see how he is selfish and not playing for the team ?
The football we play is on the ground though and since we are playing a lower stand of opposition we see more of the ball and get more time and space on it. That should suit him more as with any player in our squad.
 
The football we play is on the ground though and since we are playing a lower stand of opposition we see more of the ball and get more time and space on it. That should suit him more as with any player in our squad.

no what I am saying is with the league in general . The premier league teams play a lot less long ball so in theory the premier league does suit Stanislas.

he is vital to our team
 
Stan has taken pens anytime King is not on the pitch for quite a while now and has never looked like missing one ....why would anyone else take one?......i'd imagine that JT meant that it was King...Stan and then Solanke in that order although i'd have Stan taking all of them whether Kingy is on the pitch or not.....it's an absolute no-brainer tbf.
 
Stan has taken pens anytime King is not on the pitch for quite a while now and has never looked like missing one ....why would anyone else take one?......i'd imagine that JT meant that it was King...Stan and then Solanke in that order although i'd have Stan taking all of them whether Kingy is on the pitch or not.....it's an absolute no-brainer tbf.

But then you would have sold L.Cook a year ago as well ;)
 
Stan has taken pens anytime King is not on the pitch for quite a while now and has never looked like missing one ....why would anyone else take one?......i'd imagine that JT meant that it was King...Stan and then Solanke in that order although i'd have Stan taking all of them whether Kingy is on the pitch or not.....it's an absolute no-brainer tbf.
Actually I was glad when Stan overruled Dom for the previous penalty because I thought that just as Solanke was reaching top form and confidence, the last thing we needed was him missing a penalty which could have knocked his confidence back for several games. I think Stan should take them until he misses one and then maybe give Dom his chance ( although I’m still not totally convinced that hitting the ball cleanly and putting it exactly where he wants to is one of his greater attributes ).

Stan really is a ruthless penalty taker so egos should be put aside for the good of the team. In the end it’s the team result that matters !
 
I'm quite pleased with this season so far. The biggest worry was whether JT could sort out the confidence and motivation issues that got us relegated last season and he has in the main.

I also worried that he may lack authority and respect among the players but he clearly is able to have an impact on them at half time.

Not perfect though - He needs to sort out our weak starts.
 

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