AFC Bournemouth’s EFL Cup campaign began and ended on Tuesday night as the Cherries hosted Brentford in the second round.
AFC Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola made a number of changes following the win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League.
Many of the Dean Court faithful would have been excited to have their first real competitive glimpses of new signings Ben Gannon Doak, Eli Junior Kroupi and Amine Adli.
However, so many changes, as is often the case, saw a disjointed performance from the Cherries, who struggled to raise the tempo or energy levels during the game and were knocked out of the competition with a whimper.
Neil Dawson wrote…
Cup games have always been thus unless we play a first team. Shame to go out and be dull, but let’s be honest, I’m only blaming myself, though, as I don’t normally go unless it’s a new ground or a team we’ve not played for a while, until the later stages when I know we will take it seriously.
Hill’s error for the first goal would be enough for me – get shot, more deadwood. You either learn from mistakes or you repeat them. Twice in three games, he has stood still. Scott’s error for the second one collapsed like a spoiled child in a supermarket denied sweets. Embarrassing – £25m? seriously?
Too many new players trying to get to know each other, and I can’t remember the last time we played well and beat Brentford…. hate playing them and Wolves. Glad they are out of the way for a bit!
Final moan – fans clapping a player who asked to leave us. That’s about as tinpot as you will get. Hopefully, a new stadium will bring new fans who want to create a cauldron of passion and not a welcome home party at a geriatric home.
AFCB.Czech said…
Well, I didn’t have high hopes for tonight since it’s a cup game, but I took a look at the team sheet and foolishly got my hopes up a little.
Now I have to try to sleep tonight, knowing I wasted 2 hours watching turgid football. That really was an awful game of football – not only from our side, but Brentford were pants too. I hate this feeling, I used to get it all the time watching England, can’t believe it’s us and Brentford after the football, both teams consistently played last season.
I don’t want to draw too many conclusions about the newbies based on that. After all, even the likes of Kluivert and Christie were terrible. I don’t think a single player played well.
But I’m a bit concerned about Araujo – because that’s been his level of performance every time I’ve seen him. Smith isn’t getting any younger and he is a long way ahead of Araujo. We need to do something about the RB position, unless AI is fixed on Cook (IMO our best CM) being RB, which in itself would create another problem.
555-6162 posted…
I hope that Scott’s current form is due to him feeling tired because he was involved in a summer tournament for England. It would be interesting to see how the others who played in that tournament have started the season.
Picked by his country in a very competitive age group, and is the type of player we would want to sign.
He has had time, but he keeps getting picked (as Tavs was last season) so the manager trusts and rates him.
unbelievable_coconut responded…
We are nearly always terrible in cup games. But added to this was some extra disjointedness: new signings, Christie is really rusty, and Scott and Araujo are going through their death spirals as Bournemouth players.
AND, we are playing Brentford, who are a nightmare to play against for obvious reasons that everyone can see. They were really good, playing a sort of sexy version of Gary O’Neil football.
Nothing like thoughts of relegation as there’s FAR too much quality in there, but a little concerning how rusty Christie looked.
Silver lining is the club are more likely to get the chequebook out and get a classy CM and RB (after they secure a CB). – To join the conversation, please click here.