Bournemouth (a) Sorry Seamus...
Did I expect us to win? In some respects yes I did.
To show the battling qualities that got us passed Wolves you could sense a change in attitude and character, but maybe between the international break and rank amateur defending we’ve seemed to have forgotten about that.
I’m not a big fan of hanging players out to dry, they play for my club, doing the job I’d give anything to do, but you have to call it when you see it if you’re going to be honest with yourself. Today Seamus Coleman was horrific, he’s been on and off poor for two seasons. He’s our captain... he only cost £60 grand....Bill loves him.... Don’t care, he isn’t good enough for this team. He can’t cross the ball, whether under pressure or with the freedom of the park, and he gets caught up the pitch so often that Keane has to over compensate so much that Mina and Digne have to come across so far we have a back 3, which exposes the opposite side of the pitch. I’ve just seen enough of it now. Am I on my own with this? If am fair enough, but I know we have enough knowledgeable supporters to know when you can a player is gone at this level.
Keane, Mina, Delph didn’t cover themselves in glory either, it’s not difficult to imagine that both Sheff Wed & Sheff Utd will play long and put the under pressure as much and as early as possible, but again, as above, if you look where Keane and Mina are for Wilson’s second goal, they are so far over with no Coleman in sight.
Between both penalty areas, as we have all season we looked decent. With no striker running behind or passed the Bournemouth centre halves, that’s where it stopped. Against Lincoln and Wolves Moise Kean didn’t score, but what he did was terrorise defenders with his pace, and makes our players look forward, not sideways or backwards. DCL got a goal today, great, that’s what he’s in the team to do, but the three behind were certainly not as cohesive a unit as the Lincoln and Wolves games, and that tells anyone that those players need a runner, not a blocker.
Tiredness, rustiness, no Gomes, these are excuses, they are not reasons. Wolves and Leicester left the door open yesterday and once again we have failed to grasp the opportunity. To me that falls on the manager and the captain. The manager should not have changed a winning team (Gomes withstanding) against a team with a suspect defence, a mounting injury list that that hasn’t won at home this season. Also a captain that can’t lead by example, that sets no tempo and does nothing to steer his team out of adversity.
Fabian Delph was barking orders, directing, questioning and committing, he didn’t have a great game, but he never went into hiding, and that puts Coleman to shame.
Listen, 7 points out 15 is a par at best return if I’m being generous and I’m truly searching for the positive. Our only crumb of comfort today is that everyone else deemed to be top 6 contenders seem to be in the same mindset as us.
Chins up, keep the faith. UTFT