Bournemouth (H) 7:30pm Thursday 1st February 2024

MIAHammer

We have been dire in time added on.

Lukerz

That was a shambles

buffybegood

Another dreadful pass by Zouma gives the ball away.

Lukerz

Last few games:

0-0 Brighton
1-1 Bristol City
1-0 Bristol City
2-2 Sheffield United
1-1 Bournemouth

buffybegood

Another poor performance, 6 points dropped in 3 games in 2024.

Lukerz

Positives:
Phillips can’t be worse than that
We were awful yet got a point
No injuries
Game closer to Paqueta, Antonio, Aguerd, Coufal returning

BerlinHammer

What was even the point of bringing cornet on for 3 minutes?
Terrible game to watch. Our midfield doesnt really have any creativity without Paqueta. Unless its from a setpiece of course.

ScotHammer

Disappointing game, and I had to listen to McManaman for 90+ minutes.

thornburyiron

We can’t be lower than 7th after Sunday.

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Games like tonight make me wonder if we play some of the worst football in the league. Bournemouth were more interesting to watch than us honestly.

MrsGrey

Lukerz said:

Last few games:

0-0 Brighton
1-1 Bristol City
1-0 Bristol City
2-2 Sheffield United
1-1 Bournemouth

So, we haven't lost?

Not sure if your scores are accurately showing home/away fixtures

EXETERHAMMER

We play hard to beat. But boy, that was boring.

thornburyiron

Yes we have. Bristol City 1-0 in the cup. Another 3rd minute gift.

Brother_Sledge

I thought Phillips grew into the game and showed a little of his quality. Ings went back to his pre-MOTM ineffectiveness. Overall Bournemouth pressed us much harder and collected most of the loose balls, we made them look good by dropping off and allowing them space to play. We certainly aren't playing anything like a top 6 team should be.
And Tony Gale would definitely have saved that penalty

MrsGrey

thornburyiron said:

Yes we have. Bristol City 1-0 in the cup. Another 3rd minute gift.

Sorry - I edited my post as you were writing.

claretandbluesky

So poor.. so many unpressed errors and the ball given away easily. We create so little without Paquetta, I am not sure we had a goal scoring opportunity in 98 minutes.

The bench is a real problem at present as we were playing badly and yet had only Ings and Cornet to try and change the game. I don't think we can sell Benni and Fornals unless we are getting someone new in.

MIAHammer

MIAHammer said:

.........
Although in our weakened state, I fear the worst. Andoni Iraola has his team playing an aggressive, high press game and we can expect them to come at us straight out of the blocks.

My heart says 2-2 draw but my head says 1-3 loss. But they surprised me last time so there's always hope.

I guess I'll respect the point. It was better than I feared.

Lukerz

The draw itself is not a bad result. Bournemouth have been flying recently. It’s the performance.

EXETERHAMMER

I still don't like McTominey

Lukerz

Johnson looked like a player who’d barely played.
Alvarez looked like he’d had a period of time off injured.
Phillips looked like a guy with no starts in 18 months.

BubblesNeverDies

Re. Zouma, I've never been able to understand how highly he's rated. He looks so clumsy, ungainly, slow, unimaginative, lacking in footballing brains plus a few other failings. I actually rate him below Dawson.
All IMO of course;)

Lukerz

I think he’s a good defender but is more comfortable on the right & Aguerd compliments him better than Mavropanos (as does Ogbonna).

Soucek was really poor tonight & I was surprised to not see him come off earlier.

Whitehorsehammer

I switched over after that very dull game to Wolves Man U and what a difference, brilliant last 30 minutes, fast attacking football from both sides.

claretandbluesky

I think Zouma is a very good centre back and like the best of them reads the game so well that he ends up appearing to do less than is visible. I do think he is permanently compromised now regard his fitness and would not be surprised if he has not got more than a couple of years left in his knees. He had a poor game this evening but generally speaking for me he is the best of our centre backs and the most missed when absent.

I think it's a position we may need spend big on in the summer as for me Zouma's fitness cannot be relied upon much longer, Ogbonna is class but too old now, Mavropanos is not a first choice pairing in my view, leaving Aguerd who I think has great potential but has been rumoured to want away.

buffybegood

claretandbluesky said:

I think Zouma is a very good centre back and like the best of them reads the game so well that he ends up appearing to do less than is visible. I do think he is permanently compromised now regard his fitness and would not be surprised if he has not got more than a couple of years left in his knees. He had a poor game this evening but generally speaking for me he is the best of our centre backs and the most missed when absent.

I think it's a position we may need spend big on in the summer as for me Zouma's fitness cannot be relied upon much longer, Ogbonna is class but too old now, Mavropanos is not a first choice pairing in my view, leaving Aguerd who I think has great potential but has been rumoured to want away.

The last few games have me really worried as to whether Zouma will make it through the season playing at a remotely acceptable standard. He looks shot to me, he's getting worse game by game atm.

chicagohammer

Well that was a hot mess, respect the point but we were lucky to get away with that, our first 30mins were particularly poor and we could easily have been two or three down during that period.

We picked up a bit and showed some flashes but looking at the overall performance, you would be hard pressed to correctly figure out which team is sitting fairly comfortably in sixth.

HainaultHammer

Grinding out a point when things aren't clicking is a promising sign. Onwards.

Kuchinghammer

BubblesNeverDies said:

Re. Zouma, I've never been able to understand how highly he's rated. He looks so clumsy, ungainly, slow, unimaginative, lacking in footballing brains plus a few other failings. I actually rate him below Dawson.
All IMO of course;)

Over the last few years, I would rate most of our cbs below Dawson....but most of them were semi-permanently injured like Zouma. 😉

carsonroadboy

Obviously we missed Paqueta, but we looked poor down the right without Coufal as well. However you look at it, we dropped two points in a match that, on paper, we should have won.

ASLEFshrugged

We drew away so a draw at home doesn't feel so bad, They had a dreadful start to the season but have improved since then

20 games before last night

First ten games P10 W1 D3 L6 17th, first win was match 10 v Burnley
Next ten games P10 W6 D1 L3 12th, lost to City, Spurs and Liverpool