Davefevs

Nutshell.

I think Bakinson needs to decide if he’s up for it or not. Can really see his career drifting. Couple of occasions yesterday when others are running their nuts off (as we had 10 men) and he’s strolling, letting men run off him. Unacceptable. Needs a little word from Nige. Suspect he might struggle to make the 18 on Tuesday if Atkinson and Massengo fit, even w/o Williams and King. Vyner can come in, Bell maybe too.

Not sure there is a love-in for Jay, but we actually try to pass the ball when he’s on the pitch. He has some defensive weaknesses, but if you work on partnerships and spacing with your LCB and LM these can be overcome. I thought his second half was a small bright spot yesterday.

Good post. As you say, Tanner and Dasilva gave us something second half. O’Dowda hasn’t played in centre midfield for Ireland for some time. And then it tended to be a 352 (CM in a 3). By my reckoning it was 2018 v Denmark under Martin O’Neill. Tuesdays team selection will be very interesting.

Commitment is missing when you fail to lay a finger on the opposition. Only takes a few players and the system breaks down. Yesterday was the day for a “George Tanner tackle” to get players going like against Fulham. We never got close to Billing or Kilkenny, Stacey and Lowe had easy afternoons. Exactly. The number of people who proclaim ignorance of FFP still, astounds me.

Think it will be interesting to see if the current manager continues to pick him when others are available.

Got as good a chance of starting on Tuesday as a few others.

Well put RedM. He’s a very likeable lad off the pitch (bit like Taylor Moore), and has forged a career than many of us can only dream of. But he can’t turn it on where it matters. We are lauding tracking his man against Peterborough as “goal saving”. We are lauding a break from his box with the ball at his feet into space, then fouled. That should be a regular occurrence during the match. He gets debate on here because some posters are at the extremes, either over-praising or over-criticising “average”. I guess I will wait to see how many minutes Nige continues to give him, but I was hugely disappointed with his effort today, especially in his partnership with Pring.

Not sure tactics were off….execution and commitment definitely were. we played 442, 352, 3412, 343, 451 at various spells today, and neither of them stopped Bournemouth. They carved us open at will second half, although we had a 1 minute spell ???

Problem is we needed a few Psycho Killers out there today.

No, I’ve said the same….can’t blame them for every injury but then not this regime when a player gets one.

Well played TK. Battled hard today.

For info, we swapped formation several times second half, trying to get a balance.

Pring poor….totally agree….they failed to work as a pair today. Stacey too much time to get his head up because O’Dowda doesn’t ever engage him. Pring fearful of going too tight to Lowe, as 1) Stacey has a no pressure pass, so if he gets sucked too tight, 2) Lowe spins him in behind. If O’Dowda presses Stacey with intent, then Stacey can’t pick a pass. Pring can go tight. Worse still when he comes short and plays a one-two with Stacey who’s motored past O’Dowda and is breaking the lines, dragging King or James out. Etc, etc. It needs one or both of them to clatter their man, take a yellow and change the dynamic. No chance of O’Dowda ever doing that though. Both bloody poor today. Both deserve equal criticism. Big learning curve for Cam….playing only his 2nd Champ match at LB…..against Lowe.

Why didn’t he do that with the eleven that ended the half then? He had the personnel to do so? Just play Callum and George as WBs? Having made one sub already, surely he wouldn’t have wasted another when he could’ve made the system change with the eleven on at that point? The fact Nige pulled him off, tells me he wasn’t happy with him.

Yep, Tanner stuck to his task though, I though Pring was too naive with his defending. He’s used to having that yard of pace to get him out of trouble….today Lowe had the yard on him.

Exactly, you can’t judge a player as “arguably our best player first half” if you take a full view of what the expectation of his role is. And then to say Weimann and Martin rarely get criticised….this forum is full of their critics. As you say, others poor today, e.g. Matty James, but nobody has come on here to say he was good, so there is no debate about him.

Funnily enough, I fancied us today, thought there were match-ups that might suit us and if we played like against Fulham we could get something. Then you start hearing Massengo and Williams out, then as kickoff approaches you find out Atkinson is out, and you start to re-think. Then again nothing could’ve prepared me for a performance as inept as that.

That was a small positive for me. If he’d really torn it he wouldn’t have attempted it. Will have to wait and see now. Fingers crossed for him. My biggest fear, voiced in the past, is whether previous regime did permanent damage?

Yes, not an injury, Nige confirmed a “tactical change”……you’d think he (Nige) could’ve gone 352 with the personnel that ended the half. The fact that he didn’t just play Pring LCB3 with Callum and George as WBs, tells me he wasn’t happy with O’Dowda. Because he used Dasilva, meant 10 men when King went off too. @Silvio Danteagree, he did a couple of decent things….but his lack of tracking back (a basic part of his game - Gary Owers) far outweighed any positive bits. I think people like me will always pick up on players who don’t appear to put enough effort in, or only put it in going one way (going forward). I can’t comprehend that, unless they come with so much talent that you can sort of let them off (e.g. Tomlin…..at times, not when he was being a nob). He wasn’t the only player not earning his corn today though.

At the end of the end, he’s got some talent, but he’s not my type of player and that talent doesn’t come to the fore anywhere near enough….and when the traits I don’t like, come out like they did today it seriously gets my goat. Dont get me wrong, it was a poor team performance, but some players still dig-in, even though it wasn’t coming off for them. Injuries might get him a reprieve on Tuesday….he’s got some making up to do.

Tend to agree. Bournemouth we’re good, but we were bad, not just because they were good. We would’ve struggled against anyone today.

He had a couple of promising bits with the ball granted….but his support of Pring, and tracking back of Stacey was very, very poor. The number of times he’s still venturing towards Stacey after he’s popped it off to Lowe, and then Stacey runs off of him is indefensible (Owers just said the same on Radio Bristol). On one throw-in he just let his man run past him, little dangled legs in with no commitment. Allowed himself to be pushed off the ball when tracking. He left Pring out too dry today, although Pring pretty awful too. Not getting a good feeling about Pring at LB at this level (yet….it’s a huge step up for him). He has had his good games playing LM/LW. Never got close to Lowe today. Our left side was ripped apart first half. Others were poor too….James looked like he was treading water first half, but he keeps trying to get his foot in. But I just can’t get past what looks like a lack heart for a battle for Callum. It’s a shame. Others will disagree I’m sure. Thank god for Kalas and Baker for getting blocks in or it would’ve been 6,7 or 8. Tanner tried hard, got forward, created our best chances.

Suspect it’s the same 442 with Williams playing the Brownhill RM role.