MDF Bournemouth v Luton Town 13/03/24

[shatter2]

It will be a moving and emotional evening when the Town meet the Cherries on the South Coast later today.
I've missed Tommy's spirit and fight in our defence and his ability to show up with a goal or two. Let's hope our depleted first team can show the same spirit and get a positive result. COYH!!

Thanks to the Bournemouth fans for raising the money so that those traveling on the Bobbers Coach don't have to pay for the trip. 👍.

[8two]

Didn't know that regarding the coach. Proper Club with Proper Fans.

Over 750,000 ice creams are served along the Bournemouth sea front every year.

The first ever recorded mention of Bournemouth was in 1406 when an 18ft fish washed up on its shores, although at the time, the area was called ‘La Bournemowthe’.

Amanda Holden once rode a scooter around Bournemouth. Stark naked, for a £20 bet.

[8two]

[8two]

Elation to despair, or transposed if you are disposed towards the Championship. I think the manager should be doing some self analysis this morning as apparently we are now one of three(?) who have lost after a 3 goal halftime lead at this level.

Some wonderful performances in the first 45 followed by some kamikaze performances in the second half.

Anyway, keep replaying the first half highlights, it may take away the memories and pain of the second.

[maggiechow]

The second half was dreadful.
Why didn't we park the bus?

[bms]

Was watching Rob’s face - even after our third goal, he looked very uneasy as if he had a good idea of how long we might ‘last’ as the game wore on. I texted my son to say I thought we needed a fourth goal to be safe - even that proved to be an underestimation. Interesting comments from Forest fans at HT too - they weren’t looking fwd to Saturday but were now ‘dreading it’.
Suspect they are feeling differently now.
Inquest? I’d suggest players out on their feet, Amari’s injury proving the final nail etc. and of course some individual errors, all of which were gobbled up by the superb Semenyo etc.
I don’t think ‘parking the bus’ would have made any difference as I can’t recall that tactic ever working successfully for us.
Bournemouth fans and staff deserve our thanks again for the reception they gave Tommy - last night highlighted what a massive impact his illness and absence alone have had too. Just have to hope the players can rally and somehow get an unlikely win on Saturday, and that we some of our missing impact players can be back in time for the few winnable games the other side of the break COYH!

[proudhattersince74]

BMS: "I don’t think ‘parking the bus’ would have made any difference as I can’t recall that tactic ever working successfully for us."

Whilst I agree to a certain extent that 'parking the bus' isn't suited to most our remaining players, especially in this league (see Villa away and Brentford away where we sat deep and invited trouble), I disagree that it wouldn't have made any difference last night. Parking the bus with a 3 goal advantage should have seen us towards at least one point.

Forgetting the HT talk and decision not to sit deep and compact (as Sheffield United did to us at KR) for the first 15-20 minutes of the second half, the most frustrating tactical decision for me came AFTER they scored their first goal: we continued with our 'expansive' Angeball approach and tried build back the 3 goal advantage instead of introducing strict defensive disciplines that allowed no room whatsoever for Bournemouth to create clear chances.

Unfortunately, some of the available personnel with two functioning legs on the pitch at that point are not blessed with defensive noses and cannot sniff trouble before it is too late. As soon as the first goal was allowed to stand, I turned to my mate and said 5-3 as the first goal in the second half was going to be crucial. As was the 4th goal vs Brighton - another game where 3-0 at HT didn't feel like it was enough given the way that our defending has been since Sheffield United away.

The second half at Bournemouth could have been replicated at Palace but we just about managed to ride our luck until Woodrow's equaliser from one of 3 realistic chances in 90+ minutes. But we cannot expect to keep 'only just hanging on' in each and every match. Bournemouth had us on the ropes in the first half with multiple corners (that we struggled to clear with any distance) and waves of attacks. Yet, somehow, we managed to break away 4 times and scored from 3 of them. If it was a boxing match then AFCB were winning on points but we landed some hefty blows and made them take one knee.

Rewind to the Lockyer game down there in December - we dominated them in the first half but only had an Eli headed goal to show for our efforts. HT whistle interrupted our flow/momentum - their manager changed personnel at HT and they ran us ragged up to the point where the game was abandoned. Last night was simply deja vu so why was anyone surprised that AFCB came out swinging after HT, especially as they introduced fresh legs against our tiring gaggle? We should have predicted that from the December match! Even more bizarrely, we chose not to make any freshening-up substitutions when some players were utterly dead on their feet and ineffectual through fatigue (probably mental as well as physical). Once again a sub (Townsend) was stripped off and standing on the touchline for a few minutes whilst they scored another goal - how many times have we seen that now?

We had a guilt-edged double chance at 3-3 to go 4-3 up (Morris header and Barkley lunge) but, even if we had scored then, I would have had zero confidence that we would come away with a point such were our ongoing defensive frailties.

For me, last night's match simply highlighted just how valuable Lokonga and Nakamba are operating in front of a soft-centred defence. Chong and Clark tend to make their runs parallel to the sides of the pitch so any opposition players running across them are, effectively, hot-potatoed onto a team-mate to look after - not a problem if your team mate is there and available! Too often the wing backs are much further up the pitch so there isn't a team mate to pick up the marking duties. Lokonga, in particular, makes most of his runs on a diagonal - whether gathering passes from defence to move the ball forward or, out of possession, following an opposition runner with the ball across the pitch. Chong and Clark, purely because of their positions on the pitch, tend to funnel any opposition runners towards our central defenders - Lokonga pushes them wide and that allows our wing backs to become active in the play.

All of that noted, WTF were we doing by leaving Hashioka in one-on-ones with their most influential playmaker? This man-marking tactic is killing us IMO - Mengi is clearly an outstanding defender but was left on his own to deal with Haaland and then Watkins in recent matches. For his sins, Haskioka got Semenyo last night. Osho got Archer vs Sheffield United. Sorry, but that system simply doesn't stack up for me at this level with the more limited technical ability of the players at our disposal. We need to defend in numbers ... as a team! We will get massacred at Spurs and Arsenal if we go man-for-man as their midfield runners will simply break into the gaps/chasms we leave when defenders chase their designated man around the pitch.

Just a thought here with zero no evidence to back it up: have our central defenders picked up so many injuries because the relatively recently introduced man-to-man marking means that they are being pulled around the pitch much more than previously required and then have to run at full tilt to try and defend? Mengi injured himself at Palace sprinting back to make a tackle - if he was holding a slightly deeper line across the pitch with fellow defenders, he may not have needed to chase back at full pace to make the tackle. Bell, sprinting back to try to block Watkins vs Villa. As I say, no empirical evidence so it may just be a coincidence!


COYH
LTID