This article isn’t a witch hunt or a protracted moan about getting beaten 4-0 by Bournemouth. It’s meant to be a look at the factors that led to us suffering a heavy defeat against a team we may have beaten on a different day.
Key players were injured, suspended, on paternity leave, or jetlagged
Before talking about the specifics of the game, it’s worth noting we were missing some key players. Schindler has been our best player this season but was suspended following his red card in the West Brom game.
Hogg was unavailable because his wife gave birth the night before (this is a completely acceptable reason to miss a day’s work in my opinion, and I’m saddened by some of the comments I’ve seen about it).
While Mooy played 90 minutes, he probably shouldn’t have after travelling around the world and back in between playing two crucial internationals for Australia. He looked jaded at times.
Add to these key players the injured Hefele, Palmer, Billing, and Stankovic and it’s clear we were a bit thin on the ground for this game.
We started like a house on fire but didn’t score
Our first twenty minutes were close to sensational. Rather than sit back and soak up pressure we were on the front foot and playing attractive, attacking football. It wasn’t just tippy-tappy football in front of the opposition either, we were breaking them open and it seemed like chances were going to come our way.
Call it poor play or bad luck, but we weren’t able to convert this period of dominance into a goal. It’s a long-standing problem of Town’s, we should score more goals. However, the few goals we do score are often enough to get points because we are generally pretty tight at the back (apart from when we’re chasing a game).
The referee stitched us up for the first goal, the linesman for the second
There was an atrocious tackle on Hadergjonaj in the build-up to the first goal, which could have been a red card, but was definitely worth a yellow yet didn’t even get a foul. Because Flo needed treatment he was off the pitch for the corner that led to the first goal. OK, we should also have defended the cross better but with a different referee, we wouldn’t have been in that position.
The linesman missed a pretty obvious offside for the second goal. In fact, there were two offsides. One was about five yards, but the player was probably not interfering with play by the letter of the law. The other offside was a tighter call, but still fairly obvious. Town’s high defensive line when defending freekicks relies on the officials doing their job, unfortunately, the linesman let us down in this game.
I don’t like whinging about decisions from officials, but these were key moments and it was very hard for Town to come back from these goals.
We struggled to break Bournemouth down after they went down to 10 men
In our last game Town clung on to a narrower lead after Schindler was sent off, so we know that it’s possible to defend resolutely and win after a red card. Like West Brom against us, we didn’t do nearly enough to break down Bournemouth. Wagner was positive with his substitutions and his tactical changes, but you could see from his frustration with the players.
We tried to force things too quickly and didn’t break their defence down enough. We had a lot of possession but there was a lack of creativity in the final third and perhaps a lack of belief too. Nobody seemed to be able to get on the ball and play a killer pass or get off a decent shot.
It’s not nice to point the finger, but Ince, Sabiri, Kachunga, VLP, Mooy, and Quaner were all played in positions where they could have made a difference today and none of them had that bit of quality where it mattered. There’ll be other days when each of these players shine, but unfortunately, too many of our creative players had a bad day.
We left ourselves open to breakaway goals
One of the reasons Town tend to frequently lose games by large margins under David Wagner is that he likes us to chase after games. Throwing everything at the opposition leaves you open to them counter-attacking you. Unfortunately, Town were too open at times and invited Bournemouth to his us on the break.
This wasn’t the main reason we lost, but at 2-0 we were in the game still, but conceding when we did killed our momentum and made a difficult task almost impossible.
Bournemouth played well
Nathan Ake and Callum Wilson, in particular, had exceptional games. It’s easy to get too focussed on Town’s shortcomings, but we also have to acknowledge the opposition too. They were more clinical in front of goal than us and defended resolutely when we were piling on the pressure.
Our success in the Premier League so far this season has given us some confidence but we don’t have a right to go to places like Bournemouth and win. Away from home in the Premier League we have to play well and hope the opponent has an off-day.
The atmosphere at the John Smith’s Stadium makes a huge difference
Our away form is poor, but looking at it from the other side, our home form is brilliant. Our poor run of form on the road shows just how much the amazing atmosphere inside Town’s stadium is contributing to the results.
Had Town had 45 minutes against a 10-man Bournemouth team at home rather than away, the fans would have created a pressure-cooker atmosphere in the stadium and it would have pushed the lads on and we’d have been much more likely to get something.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have done better today against 10 men, but it’s clear from our performances that home advantage is a huge factor for Town at the moment. Hopefully, we can find a way to get results when we don’t have a vocal home crowd cheering us on.
But it’s not all bad news… why Town fans shouldn’t get too worried
Here are a few reasons this defeat isn’t a reason to start chucking your season card in the bin:
- Town will play better when their best players are available and fully fit
- Mooy doesn’t have any international games until spring, so he’ll not have the silly travelling and playing schedule he’s had lately
- Poor decisions from the officials swung the game away from Town. It’s likely we’ll have the opposite happen in games at other times this season
- Our away form is a bit crap, but our home form is awesome, so it levels out. Obviously, it’d be good to have decent home and away form, but we’re doing OK based just on our home results
- Swansea away was a similarly disappointing result, and we followed it by beating a previously unbeaten side from Manchester. It would be typical of Town to lose this game and then go and beat Man City next week. Look out Pep!