Obstructed View - Reflections on the Bournemouth (A) Game

It had to come to an end at some stage, and you could bet your bottom dollar, it would be against Bournemouth, struggling in and around the relegation berth, and to a faintly unlucky goal to boot. The only crumb of comfort was a sweet goal for our favourite Senegalese, favourite unless it's the other one.



A curious selection by Allardyce had defeat written all over it frankly. It's Bournemouth Sam, look at the table, press them, get some creativity on the park, maybe two or even three strikers, who knows, but a triumvirate of Schneiderlin, McCarthy and Gueye was just setting up as if the say, "Come on, have a go at us". At best we'd have escaped with a point. At Bournemouth. 

This may be the game that marked the turn of the average fan against the tactical plan being worked on by Allardyce, draw every game and we'll be fine. But given United and Spurs just around the corner, we surely had to go all out for a win. 

Against Bournemouth.

But no, we set up almost as if it was Chelsea, or City, or anyone in the Top 6, but it was against a team languishing in the bottom reaches, and we couldn't select a team worthy of having a crack - surely Ramirez, Klaassen, Vladic and co were worthy of starts to try and unlock a fairly ordinary defence. Bournemouth. 

Admittedly this is always written in hindsight, but anyone with even a hint of foresight could have seen it coming. I make no apology for not being a fan of Allardyce, and although I'll support him whilst I can based on him being our Manager, and having taken us up to a lofty 9th instead of fighting around the dead men as we looked like inevitable we'd soon be doing, I'm not going to praise an obviously deficient selection and mode of play. The players, and the tactics they were asked to perform, were wrong, pure and simple. 

Enough said.

On to United. 

Ross Crombie