Bournemouth (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

[deegee33]

You’re @halfcenturyup in disguise and I claim my $5!

8-}

Get it from @halfcenturyup, I just did sober math and those zeros were water stains on my screen. I have $30 dollars in checking.

 

[nellyonthewing]

Like everyone else, I hope it’s a blip, but today it felt like a passing.

It exposed Gundo, it showed how old some players were, even though they’ve still got the occasional game in them, and it showed how the “modern approach” to the high speed counterattack…WHICH IS HOW THE REST OF THE WORLD IS PLAYING FOOTBALL NOW…is death to us.

I LITERALLY called for a loss today and even said it would come down our right side and be a cross in behind us. I can’t remember the last time I thought we would lose a game?!

It’s been coming and the injury situation has only exacerbated it. The Spurs game showed how frail we look and Bournemouth no-names went to town on us.

This is structural and strategic, not tactical. Structurally, we have not spent the money on, or the time to cultivate, the players we were clearly going to need to start filling holes that were developing.

You saw them developing, I’m sure, last season, and nothing was done to start addressing those issues. A free Gundo felt like a great little stop gap measure, but he’s currently being asked to be Prime Gundo and he just doesn’t have it in him anymore…and the flashes of it are getting fewer and further in between.

KDB certainly has brilliance in him, but for both club and country, we are seeing it less and less.

Phil Foden clearly has some personal demons/issues he’s trying to get over, because he’s a pale imitation of the POTY we saw last year. He could have won the game today, but his shots were wayward and he needed too many touches at other times.

Kova was always seen as a back up midfielder, yet has become pivotal (no pun intended) to us not being literally over run in every game. I thought he was superb today in a game where we got battered in midfield, so that felt like a big waste!

Bernardo? Love him to death! But, not only did he never have pace, but he’s lost a step, so if you’re a defender you just need to keep him in front of you because he’s going nowhere…yet he’s a WINGER for us, who steps into a second 6 role late in games to shore up the midfield when we take the old, tired fuckers off!

And then we have the likes of Grealish, who divides opinion worse than Trump, but seems to laugh off his own mediocrity. Or Walker, whose domestic woes are only bested by his on field woes, which tells you just how bad his season is going. His contribution to games was always “catch the rabbit that runs in behind” but that’s been laid to rest by multiple players this season, and it is not like his “positional sense” was ever going to get him out of a wet paper bag, let alone a football match where he’s getting toasted. If I see one more push or arse bump or bend when he’s supposed to go up for a ball or ease it out of play, I’ll scream!

So far this season, it’s looking like Gvardiol is our POTY. Think about that and what it says about who we are so far this season…

It was great while it lasted. No doubt the scum will now start a renaissance to emphasise we have slid into a period of instability.

 

[TheBlueCat]

Hmmm, anybody else a little worried about our immediate future?

 

[Mr. Shush]

Like everyone else, I hope it’s a blip, but today it felt like a passing.

It exposed Gundo, it showed how old some players were, even though they’ve still got the occasional game in them, and it showed how the “modern approach” to the high speed counterattack…WHICH IS HOW THE REST OF THE WORLD IS PLAYING FOOTBALL NOW…is death to us.

I LITERALLY called for a loss today and even said it would come down our right side and be a cross in behind us. I can’t remember the last time I thought we would lose a game?!

It’s been coming and the injury situation has only exacerbated it. The Spurs game showed how frail we look and Bournemouth no-names went to town on us.

This is structural and strategic, not tactical. Structurally, we have not spent the money on, or the time to cultivate, the players we were clearly going to need to start filling holes that were developing.

You saw them developing, I’m sure, last season, and nothing was done to start addressing those issues. A free Gundo felt like a great little stop gap measure, but he’s currently being asked to be Prime Gundo and he just doesn’t have it in him anymore…and the flashes of it are getting fewer and further in between.

KDB certainly has brilliance in him, but for both club and country, we are seeing it less and less.

Phil Foden clearly has some personal demons/issues he’s trying to get over, because he’s a pale imitation of the POTY we saw last year. He could have won the game today, but his shots were wayward and he needed too many touches at other times.

Kova was always seen as a back up midfielder, yet has become pivotal (no pun intended) to us not being literally over run in every game. I thought he was superb today in a game where we got battered in midfield, so that felt like a big waste!

Bernardo? Love him to death! But, not only did he never have pace, but he’s lost a step, so if you’re a defender you just need to keep him in front of you because he’s going nowhere…yet he’s a WINGER for us, who steps into a second 6 role late in games to shore up the midfield when we take the old, tired fuckers off!

And then we have the likes of Grealish, who divides opinion worse than Trump, but seems to laugh off his own mediocrity. Or Walker, whose domestic woes are only bested by his on field woes, which tells you just how bad his season is going. His contribution to games was always “catch the rabbit that runs in behind” but that’s been laid to rest by multiple players this season, and it is not like his “positional sense” was ever going to get him out of a wet paper bag, let alone a football match where he’s getting toasted. If I see one more push or arse bump or bend when he’s supposed to go up for a ball or ease it out of play, I’ll scream!

So far this season, it’s looking like Gvardiol is our POTY. Think about that and what it says about who we are so far this season…

Mostly agree with this but...

Gundogan looked completely lost today because I don't think he understood the role he had to play. Was he a 8 or a 10? I don't think he's past it. I just don't think he understood where he was supposed to be.

If we can learn anything from the Euros, we know that putting Foden on the right doesn't work. It just doesn't. It takes away from his game of cutting inside. Instead of that cut to the middle he was doling it out to Bernardo. That didn't work.

As far as Bernardo. Either put him out on the right or put him as the 10 or 8 and let him roam. That's what he does best. I still think he has an incredible workrate.

You're spot on with how teams seem to have "innovated" past us. Teams know we put so many people forward that once we lose possession, here comes a blistering counterattack.

I think our problems are structural (no replacement for Rodri) and strategic. We never counterattack. Never. And its so frustrating. We have the skill and talent to do it. If we're in our own final third defending and get possession, we plod up the field because Pep does not want us to lose possession on a counterattack. And teams are keen to us now. They will just drop and say, "come and solve the puzzle". We rarely see any team play us straight up. We have to adapt to this.

 

[leighton]

It wasn't the greatest of games tricky team our team was no where near the level needed today. Players looked out of sorts. I thought once we got 1 back we might get a point we need another striker and a midfielder with legs. Rodri is a loss and KDB too but they will find the right players and we will see the team evolve again and again.

 

[xmusampa]

This is a strange season. We have not played well but neither have Arsenal or Liverpool. It could be like the year Leicester won it with someone coming out of the pack. A lot of players look knackered not just City. Also some of the mid table teams look stronger and may take points of the top three. Chelsea look the freshest team in terms of fitness.

Should be with number and age profile of squad

 

[Gray]

Hmmm, anybody else a little worried about our immediate future?

Yes after watching at first hand our home league performances this season. You would have to be blind to fail to see how far our standards have slipped.

 

[nellyonthewing]

Ironically despite us looking like conceding every attack we had loads of possession in good areas but were as is now the norm feckin clueless in penetrating a defence .

 

[blue b4 the moon]

A lot of fitness issues all over the pitch is some sort of excuse but, a shit slow central 2 who never looked like they could link together/move as a pair and overall fucking dreadful passing I can't excuse.

Ake no speed, Walker apparently hadn't even trained....Lewis, Akanji, Pusey & Gvardiol should have been the starting back 4. Thank fuck Eddie was in great form like Ortega was in midweek.

We could very easily have been pasted these last 2 games and have got away lightly losing just by an odd goal.

 

[chickaroon]

He looked like he could of surely done another 10 mins though.

Probably, yes.