Written by kirsikka
Trickle, trickle… that’s the way our bench has been slowly improving in recent weeks. Today saw the much-needed addition of the fit again Brooks, whilst Rayan made his full debut on the right wing with Jiminez moving to his more familiar full back role and Smith dropping to the subs.
Man of the Match against Aston Villa
Rayan
Rayan
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Hill
Hill
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Petrovic
Petrovic
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Cook
Cook
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Adli
Adli
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Senesi
Senesi
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Evanilson
Evanilson
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Someone else
Someone else
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For them, Mings rocked up in Bournemouth in a Villa shirt. No news on whether he arrived on the train wearing it.
There was plenty of action out there today. However, let’s start with a problem/opportunity, depending on how you want to see it. Attacking set pieces.
There was the good. We’ve recognised that Kroupi has a shot like a cannon and so twice worked clever dead balls to set him up, once from a corner and one excellent free kick routine. They didn’t come off, but that’s something I hope to see us use more.
There was the bad. Some of the deliveries were shocking. Corners overhit to the back post, where there was nobody wearing a red and black shirt, were a feature. This kind of inconsistency might be something we have to accept since Adli and Cook are the men taking them, and I don’t think either could be called dead-ball specialists, even by the most ardent AFCB fan.
Then there was the ugly. I’m not sure how many attacking free kicks we had, but we had 11 corners today. And some of them were delivered into a really good zone. And, of those, we got a head to precisely one. Villa dominated them. There was even one set piece where they had two men try to head the ball together, with not an AFCB player in sight.
This season, we’ve scored three goals from 140+ corners in the league. That’s a shocking conversion rate. Not a surprise when you see how we’ve struggled to compete in the air with most PL teams this season.
Has it got to the point where we need to accept that, even if we nail the delivery, it probably isn’t going to work out, so perhaps we should start working the %s in a different way? I don’t know, but the rate at which we concede from set pieces is almost unmatched, and the rate at which we score from them is hugely unimpressive. If we could crack those in addition to everything else we do, we’d be in dreamland.
Then there was the match.
We took control of proceedings almost from the off, had multiple efforts on goal, the closest being a rebound header that Evansilon couldn’t get power behind to get past the keeper, were in the ascendancy for 20 minutes, and then conceded from their first effort.
If I’m honest, they benefited from a huge slice of good fortune to set their move up. Thanks, wind. We played a high ball up our left-hand side, but it was held up by a gust of wind and fell kindly for them near the halfway line.
Truffert had made one of his lung-busting runs to try and get up with the move and was now out of position as they played it forward down our left. Senesi shuffled across to cover and Scott tried to help him out, but it never looked safe. A simple ball in between them found Rogers in the area and he hammered into the roof of the net.
Great finish, but without the wind interfering at the start to strand Truffert, that whole situation never develops. Rotten luck.
Also, it was an assist for Sancho. One of those PL players who does nothing for the whole season except when he plays against us. Like his goal for Chelsea last season. Urgh.
The rest of the half was a little basketball, back and forth, with neither team on top, but nobody able to score. The closest effort came when their player shanked a clearance from a corner, sending it straight back into the danger zone, where Rayan reacted quickly to get a head on it only to see it bounce off the bar. Not sure he had time to do much else.
Half time and it was by no means a bad performance, and not a game where we deserved to be behind. That’s how your luck breaks sometimes. Over to AI to see what he could do.
Whatever it was, it should be studied by scientists for proof that magic exists because the second half was one-way traffic. And that wasn’t Villa sitting back and trying to pick us off on the break; this was AFCB snarling in their face and winning the battles across the whole pitch almost entirely for the 45 minutes.
There was still something missing, though. A flourish. A finish.
Enter the starlet.
Rayan picked up the ball with chalk dust on his boots halfway inside their half and then he simply ran at them. He ghosted past their fullback as though he were… well… a ghost, got into the area and then poked it with his right foot low inside the near post.
I’m not religious, but the way he went past his man and finished was like something from a deity-adjacent manifestation. A beautiful Madonna. A Rayan of light.
With the score level, Villa had their only slight flurry of the second half when Petrovic pulled off a brilliant save to keep out a shot hit powerfully across his goal, flicking it past the post.
Apart from that, it was all AFCB as we pushed them back and refused to let them settle. There were good moves that lacked a final ball, there were crosses that didn’t get a finish and there were shots on goal that were kept out with excellent saves from their keeper.
It could have been. It should have been. It wasn’t to be.
1-1 the final score. Some performance, though, capped by a marker from our new signing of beautiful things to come.
Selected Player Watch
—– Rayan —–
Showed a few nice touches but wasn’t involved that much in the game until his big moment. Superb run and finish. The potential is clearly immense. Drifted out of things after scoring and I think he should have been subbed sooner. Still very early days for him, all things considered, it was a big positive.
—– Scott —–
Ran the midfield. We dominated the second half because he dominated; defensively, carrying the ball forward and spreading the play. If next weekend were an international break, he’d be getting minutes for England. As it is, it’s on him to keep that level going for another six weeks. And beyond, hopefully.
—– Jiminez —–
The potential link-up between him and Rayan is mouthwatering. When he’s getting involved with another player, I sometimes wonder if he’s a volcano about the bubble over, but he always keeps it in check, which makes me think he’s on a deliberate wind-up. Ran out of steam again after giving everything.
—– Evanilson —–
A couple of half-chances but nothing huge opened up for him. Yet, his work brings so much to the team and we created more than enough to win the game without him, and on the back of his contribution.
—– Cook —–
We know that when he gets matches under his belt, he becomes more and more influential. Further signs of that today, which should have Adams worried. If LC continues on his current trajectory, he’ll be hard to displace.
—– Petrovic —–
Probably not the player who caught the eye of many, but again made a crucial and very high-quality save when the game was in the balance. A continuation of his recent form.
https://x.com/afcbournemouth/status/2020203406342901930?s=20
AI and Tactics Watch
There are games where you deserve to win but get nothing. Many times, today would have ended up like that except for a moment of magic from a player who looks to be a special talent. I don’t think there’s much to say about that; we can all see it.
Instead, look at the way we approached the match. We dominated for 20 minutes, got hit by a sucker punch, after which it was back and forth until half time and then dominated the second period. The only thing that kept them in it was a series of excellent saves from their keeper.
I don’t know if we have some kind of blood curse against us when faced by teams who normally wear claret shirts, but it shares huge similarities to the West Ham game. You could even include the Burnley game, except we couldn’t shoot straight that day, so they didn’t need any saves. Frustrating.
That said, we have to praise our approach and performance. We have to recognise the halftime tactical reset that turned it into a game where we pinned them back. And we have to say, keep doing that and the rewards will come.
I understand many aren’t fans of it, but as a measure of things, the xG tells you there should only have been one winner out there. And that’s against a team that thinks they’re in with a chance of the title this season. We totally bossed them off the pitch.
I know they have injuries, but let’s be fair, so do we. And ours are to players just as key to our play as theirs are to theirs. So don’t let anyone downplay how outstanding today’s performance was.
Bloody brilliant.
I think the return of some players and the recent signings also impacted how we played that second period. We’ve seen so many matches of late where we couldn’t risk going for the throat in the second half because we didn’t have any subs. Today we had some cover and so went for it. And the outcome was total AFCB.
It’s a shame we couldn’t get the wanted and requested extra forward player deal over the line. I thought that’s what we were missing today. Another option from the bench to swap out Adli, who had another terrier-like game that lacked a little composure at key moments. I also understand how greedy that sounds, but let’s not pretend we weren’t in the market and fairly close to something coming off.
Hopefully, Tavs and Gannon Doak are approaching fitness because I think we’re into a groove now and if we can keep hitting teams for full 90 minutes, which needs a full complement of subs, then things are going to get tasty.
It’s a result that keeps the momentum going, helps with the points accumulation and gives us an opening to go at Everton on Tuesday night. Three points there and the season really opens up.
I don’t have expectations. I do have huge amounts of hope, though. And excited anticipation. As AFCB fans, can we ever ask for more?
Roll on the next match.
Your say…
Druss wrote…
Many positives today. Disappointed with a couple of sub decisions…but that’s why I am not the manager. Hill was class today. Crazy our attempts to sign a Premier League CB and he was here all along.
The best thing about Rayan’s goal and other goals like it is that you can celebrate it with almost no chance of VAR being used.
Quick point about the VAR check for the clear foul on Scott. The ref surely saw it? Did he wave it away and assume VAR would check? If he did and they decided it was outside the box, then nothing happens. If he didn’t blow because he didn’t think it was a foul, then surely, being that close, he needs to hang his whistle up? Either way very poor by the officials there, who could have cost us 3 points. – To join the conversation, click here.
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DJ
I have been a writer and website administrator on the largest AFC Bournemouth fan website for almost 25 years. Previously on a now defunct fan network and since 2005 on vitalfootball.co.uk We have been nominated for various fan website awards down the years, however we have always been the bridesmaid…