United 1 Bournemouth 3 - Report

[Jacopo]

We started with Norwood and the new James Harper and ended with Norwood, Fleck and Osborn. In the Premier League. Go figure.

Club, and the manager especially, so far out of their depth. Completely embarrassing.

I was pretty numb to the performance yesterday. I have stopped getting angry at the abject performances and accepted we are shit and at this rate, going down on single figure points.

The key highlight for me yesterday as confirmation of my theory is seeing Fleck getting instructions to come on. I love the guy what he has done for us over the years but my god, he is no longer a PL player, not even sure a top half championship player anymore. Utterly depressing seeing him come on (again, nothing against the bloke!)

 

[Chilttheblade]

Great report as usual DB , hope your frustration doesn’t stop you writing future match reports ?

Like you I gave up before the end and didn’t know we had scored until much later!

Weird

 

[Benjy]

How you summon the motivation to write these reports every week is beyond me, kudos to you.

 

[Bergen Blade]

GoalWatch

0-1: United can't keep up as Bournemouth's Semenyo powers past Thomas on the inside.

Our midfield: There is little rescue plan. Souza and Hamer man marks different men. Personally I don't like this. Especially Souza seems trained to play a man marking system and he routinely follows his man, even if he goes to the kiosk to buy a hot dog; rather than staying in the defensive midfield zone to sweep up in front of the centre halves. Or is the management asking him to play this way?? Its' so messy! Hamer was man marking, but then lets go of him and it's his man that ends up scoring. Norwood is too slow to get across.

Our defence. They're too high up! As soon as Semenyo gets away from Thomas they've got to drop deeper to prevent a through ball and a run in behind them:


The defence are too slow to react to the situation which arises when a) Thomas can't stop Semenyo and b) the midfield have other priorities than to rescue poor Thomas. The through ball is played, maybe Solanke was the intention, but it is Tavernier who gets a touch which takes him past Trusty and JR is not in a position to sweep up.

0-2. Wes error.

0-3. It looks bad with AA losing his man at the back post. It is a little more difficult for AA than it looks. Like with the first goal we the man on the ball is not closed down well. The zonal marking instruction book says drop deep, to keep control of the space in behind. But again, the defence remains pretty high up. JR focuses on Solanke, Baldock decides to try playing Semenyo offside (even got his arm up). AA can't drop deeper than the others, because he'd be ruining Baldock's Semenyo-offside trap. But the ball is aimed to the back post, where Tavernier can attack the ball, thus stealing a yard on the hesitant AA.

IF Baldock had decided the man on the ball is not closed down well enough, looked up in the zonal defending manual, he'd drop deeper himself, goalside of Semenyo. Then AA could also have dropped deeper, and got himself in a better position to defend the cross.


Such a shame the cross is perfect too though! It's things like this you get away with at most levels. Not so in the PL...

 

[Booker4]

I can't bring myself to read the report Deadbat . The reports are depressing enough at the best of times let alone after that shower!

 

[Booker4]

GoalWatch

0-1: United can't keep up as Bournemouth's Semenyo powers past Thomas on the inside.

Our midfield: There is little rescue plan. Souza and Hamer man marks different men. Personally I don't like this. Especially Souza seems trained to play a man marking system and he routinely follows his man, even if he goes to the kiosk to buy a hot dog; rather than staying in the defensive midfield zone to sweep up in front of the centre halves. Or is the management asking him to play this way?? Its' so messy! Hamer was man marking, but then lets go of him and it's his man that ends up scoring. Norwood is too slow to get across.

Our defence. They're too high up! As soon as Semenyo gets away from Thomas they've got to drop deeper to prevent a through ball and a run in behind them:

View attachment 175373
The defence are too slow to react to the situation which arises when a) Thomas can't stop Semenyo and b) the midfield have other priorities than to rescue poor Thomas. The through ball is played, maybe Solanke was the intention, but it is Tavernier who gets a touch which takes him past Trusty and JR is not in a position to sweep up.

0-2. Wes error.

0-3. It looks bad with AA losing his man at the back post. It is a little more difficult for AA than it looks. Like with the first goal we the man on the ball is not closed down well. The zonal marking instruction book says drop deep, to keep control of the space in behind. But again, the defence remains pretty high up. JR focuses on Solanke, Baldock decides to try playing Semenyo offside (even got his arm up). AA can't drop deeper than the others, because he'd be ruining Baldock's Semenyo-offside trap. But the ball is aimed to the back post, where Tavernier can attack the ball, thus stealing a yard on the hesitant AA.

IF Baldock had decided the man on the ball is not closed down well enough, looked up in the zonal defending manual, he'd drop deeper himself, goalside of Semenyo. Then AA could also have dropped deeper, and got himself in a better position to defend the cross.

View attachment 175374
Such a shame the cross is perfect too though! It's things like this you get away with at most levels. Not so in the PL...

Thomas allowed the opposing attacker so much space virtually every time they attacked him. Doing that backwards running tracking metres away thing does my head in, it doesn't achieve anything but allowing the attacker to keep attacking and then when the attacker is in the box (if he's not already crossed) you've got to make a clean tackle or block and that's not happened enough this season to stop crosses. First goal the ball was there to be won just before Semenyo passes it but Thomas instead elects to just dangle a leg out, misses the ball and they score seconds later. It's all just too easy.

 

[Rudders]

GoalWatch

0-1: United can't keep up as Bournemouth's Semenyo powers past Thomas on the inside.

Our midfield: There is little rescue plan. Souza and Hamer man marks different men. Personally I don't like this. Especially Souza seems trained to play a man marking system and he routinely follows his man, even if he goes to the kiosk to buy a hot dog; rather than staying in the defensive midfield zone to sweep up in front of the centre halves. Or is the management asking him to play this way?? Its' so messy! Hamer was man marking, but then lets go of him and it's his man that ends up scoring. Norwood is too slow to get across.

Our defence. They're too high up! As soon as Semenyo gets away from Thomas they've got to drop deeper to prevent a through ball and a run in behind them:

View attachment 175373
The defence are too slow to react to the situation which arises when a) Thomas can't stop Semenyo and b) the midfield have other priorities than to rescue poor Thomas. The through ball is played, maybe Solanke was the intention, but it is Tavernier who gets a touch which takes him past Trusty and JR is not in a position to sweep up.

0-2. Wes error.

0-3. It looks bad with AA losing his man at the back post. It is a little more difficult for AA than it looks. Like with the first goal we the man on the ball is not closed down well. The zonal marking instruction book says drop deep, to keep control of the space in behind. But again, the defence remains pretty high up. JR focuses on Solanke, Baldock decides to try playing Semenyo offside (even got his arm up). AA can't drop deeper than the others, because he'd be ruining Baldock's Semenyo-offside trap. But the ball is aimed to the back post, where Tavernier can attack the ball, thus stealing a yard on the hesitant AA.

IF Baldock had decided the man on the ball is not closed down well enough, looked up in the zonal defending manual, he'd drop deeper himself, goalside of Semenyo. Then AA could also have dropped deeper, and got himself in a better position to defend the cross.

View attachment 175374
Such a shame the cross is perfect too though! It's things like this you get away with at most levels. Not so in the PL...

Most of this is really basic. We need to sack Hudson ASAP. Also I think a decent goalie saves the third

 

[Bergen Blade]

Most of this is really basic. We need to sack Hudson ASAP. Also I think a decent goalie saves the third

I don't know how Hudson works, difficult to say how much blame should be put on him.

Is it him who makes us man mark so much? Does he think Souza and Norwood are mobile enough in midfield? What are his views on the back six (may as well include Wes tbh) being poor-ish on the ball, combined with the midfield being static and how this affects both our attacking AND defending?

I do agree we have issues in defence, even the structural/organisational, but they're also being put under more pressure than they're individually and collectively able to cope with.