Bournemouth (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

[mancityscot]

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

Ever so slightly. This has been coming for a while let’s be honest.

 

[Joe Corrigan's legs]

Surprised at some of the pessimism on here after losing our first premiership game in 2024 .. we were outfought and outrun on the day and it happens ... poor defensively with Walker & Ake just back from injury and Akanji doesn't start if Stones & Dias are fit so there are mitigating factors ... their energy & intensity suffocated us today and we had no answers... defeats like these don't happen too often and we good at 'learning our lessons' ... confident we will bounce back especially after that final 15mins ... roll on Lisbon, a good win and this will be all forgotten going into a badly needed International break .....

 

[bondsman]

If senior members of the squad were not fully fit today, but still started, why did Pep not use a couple of the kids to provide more energy? Just seems very odd to me.

Rico and Foden have been the only regular starters from the academy over the last 8 years that have established themselves.

Pep's been brilliant in many ways, but not enough academy players have broken through to establish themselves as regular first teams.

With the current fitness, injury and burn out issues facing key players it is the perfect opportunity to use fresh legs from the EDS.

In fairness the only two who seem to have the ability to have done that are Latvia and palmer and both wanted to go. Bobb pre-injury looked good enough. O’Reilly doesn’t look top class to me and despite all the praise Pep doesn’t want give McAtee a real chance. Shame but maybe they aren’t good enough to make the step most of the academy talents.

 

[M Gaudino]

Surprised at some of the pessimism on here after losing our first premiership game in 2024 .. we were outfought and outrun on the day and it happens ... poor defensively with Walker & Ake just back from injury and Akanji doesn't start if Stones & Dias are fit so there are mitigating factors ... their energy & intensity suffocated us today and we had no answers... defeats like these don't happen too often and we good at 'learning our lessons' ... confident we will bounce back especially after that final 15mins ... roll on Lisbon, a good win and this will be all forgotten going into a badly needed International break .....

pedant point but it hasnt been called the premiership for 23 years

 

[Bez]

In fairness the only two who seem to have the ability to have done that are Latvia and palmer and both wanted to go. Bobb pre-injury looked good enough. O’Reilly doesn’t look top class to me and despite all the praise Pep doesn’t want give McAtee a real chance. Shame but maybe they aren’t good enough to make the step most of the academy talents.

Perhaps they are not good enough, but unless they are given a proper chance we'll never know. Right now, with all the injury issues, it is crying out for more energy, which the kids will have plenty of. The senior players that are potentially burned out or close to it need a break.

Pep said we were in trouble a few days ago, so why risk unfit players today.

 

[Johntaxi65]

First 80mins was the worst we've played since Pep's 1st season, outclassed and outfought.

Doku nearly salvaged us something. Lewis helped as well.

I love Pep but that game needed subs.

Is it not obvious that Gundo is missing something. He is nowhere near the player he was before his move....Pep may need to say enough is enough !

 

[ScottSinclair]

A lot of people have compared this season to 19/20 - losing such a key player early in the season and being vulnerable thereafter - but I am hopeful it is more like 20/21. If I remember rightly, we were actually indifferent that season and way off the pace until the turn of the year. We then clicked into gear at Stamford Bridge and never looked back.

We do have to remember that the lads are coming off the greatest feat in English football history - winning the biggest prize four times consecutively. We have had lots of players on international duty playing very late into the Copa America and Euros. It all seems to have just caught up with us at the moment. I don't think we can underestimate the loss of Rodri AND De Bruyne at the same time. I do feel we need a midfielder in January and to embrace the arrival of Echeverri.

We need bodies back and players to find form. But you'd be a fool to write off this team. The last ten minutes could have seen us go on to win the game in spite of all of the above and an inspired performance by Bournemouth. We were banging on the door. Lewis and Doku changed the game.

Hang in there, blues. Win the 115, watch Pep extend, watch us buy a cog in the midfield, and watch us motor on in 2025. You wouldn't be surprised, would you?

Yeah the start of 20/21 was actually the worst we have seen under Pep, and he looked totally done and mentally checked out on the sideline. Those first few months are the biggest reason why allthough Pep is not beyond criticism it is always silly to assume that he won't figure everything out. But man can his style be depressing in those months it's not flowing.

The start of 19/20 were actually pretty good despite how that season turned out. I remember us completely battering Tottenham in a way top teams rarely do to other top teams but only getting a draw out of it. We were playing fantastic football. Problem was that Liverpool kept getting jammy results while our defenders kept getting injured and the air just went totally out of the ballon in the league. But generally though, we were mint. I still think if it wasn't for covid we would have at least been the second best team in europe that year. We had just gone to Madrid and beat them at the Bernabeu, and all though Bayern were fantastic that year you never know how we would have fared against their suicidal high-line.

I'm rambling a bit but the point is that we at least looked good on the pitch that year. First few months of the 20/21 season was so awful to watch that people wanted Mancini back as interim. Despite us being fortunate with our points this season this is even worse on the pitch. But in may we might consider this the best side we have ever had, because Pep has done it before and he is a genius. But you do have to wonder how many more cycles with the same manager and same group of players are sustainable

 

[makinghistory]

Shocking that Bournemouth never scored 5. We were abysmal. Bernie/Gundo/Walker have now passed their sell by dates. Look back and they were different players. Foden is brilliant on his day but inconsistent. Grealish and Stones have glass legs. We currently are missing 2 world class players in KDB and Rodri. No real surprise how we are performing. The question is whether Pep continues to have the answers. Id like to think this result was one of those days but I fear it wasn't and we will have more.

 

[Mad_fer_it]

Surprised at some of the pessimism on here after losing our first premiership game in 2024 .. we were outfought and outrun on the day and it happens ... poor defensively with Walker & Ake just back from injury and Akanji doesn't start if Stones & Dias are fit so there are mitigating factors ... their energy & intensity suffocated us today and we had no answers... defeats like these don't happen too often and we good at 'learning our lessons' ... confident we will bounce back especially after that final 15mins ... roll on Lisbon, a good win and this will be all forgotten going into a badly needed International break .....

Gotta get past Brighton first as well, which has now become a must win.

 

[makinghistory]

First 80mins was the worst we've played since Pep's 1st season, outclassed and outfought.

Doku nearly salvaged us something. Lewis helped as well.

I love Pep but that game needed subs.

Why did he wait so late to bring on Doku when we needed 3 goals to win ?????