That was a massively disappointing performance which leaves me wondering how we can come back now?
I can handle defeat if we’ve played ok or have been unlucky, but I struggle when we’ve played poorly and make no mistake about it, we did today. I’ll bet Dean Smith is fuming and rightly so.
I’m not sure if we got it tactically wrong or not, as there were so many poor performances that it was hard to tell.
When you have so many poor passes, it’s hard to tell what the team’s trying to do, but it often seemed that the idea was for Mings to hoof it long to Jack Grealish, possibly because the players didn’t trust our (lack of) midfield.
There was a stat that flashed up and it said our passing was actually more accurate than Bounemouth’s. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw it and it certainly didn’t seem like it.
And then there’s the fact that we lack creativity if you leave Grealish out of it.
He was head and shoulders our best player today, but even he can’t be relied on to carry a team through a whole game, although he did his best too.
The lack of movement was incredibly poor too, but what annoys me the most is that Bournemouth just looked much more up for it and did the basics right in pressuring us and working massively hard.
The good thing is that Samatta got his first goal, which was the first headed goal we’ve scored this season. I’m sure that tells me something, but I don’t know exactly what that is.
The goal apart, it was just depressing to see a team play so dysfunctionally and basically watch Grealish having to keep driving us forward. Where we’d be without him, I shudder to think and we’re in deep trouble as it is.
I’m off to drown my sorrows, as having to keep thinking about how poor we were is putting me on a proper downer.
We have an international break now and then it’s at home to Spurs on the 16th. Oh dear.
We’d better start getting some practice in, as it doesn’t seem like they’re doing much at Bodymoor Heath, does it?
If we continue to keep playing like that and let’s face it, we have been poor even during our recent victories, I currently see little chance of survival.
I really hope McGinn recovers quickly.
