Bournemouth v Derby County Matchday Thread

[Ramarena]

2 hours ago, The Scarlet Pimpernel said:

First half we defended in shape beautifully, our starting point was the three forwards pressing from the half way line. Second half we dropped further and further back until our front three were 30 yards back in our own half. This  wasn't tactics. 

Agreed. Although I think he got the sub's wrong. We knew the front 3 were lacking fitness and would be struggling as the second half wore on. He actually got the timing of the Rooney sub about right, but bought on Holmes who is badly out of sorts instead of Sibley who would have been a much better option to keep the press going and add some quality. 

After that sub we needed to replace both Lawrence and Wags with Kaz and Holmes on before the 70 mins mark as both Lawrence and Wags were ducked! Kind of like Mac used to do in the good old days rotating our forward options to keep them playing at a high tempo. 

But instead he switched Wiz and MTW and bought Sibley on when it didn't matter anyways. 

It was sad to watch and a shame given all the good work in the first half!

[sage]

3 minutes ago, Ramarena said:

Agreed. Although I think he got the sub's wrong. We knew the front 3 were lacking fitness and would be struggling as the second half wore on. He actually got the timing of the Rooney sub about right, but bought on Holmes who is badly out of sorts instead of Sibley who would have been a much better option to keep the press going and add some quality. 

After that sub we needed to replace both Lawrence and Wags with Kaz and Holmes on before the 70 mins mark as both Lawrence and Wags were ducked! Kind of like Mac used to do in the good old days rotating our forward options to keep them playing at a high tempo. 

But instead he switched Wiz and MTW and bought Sibley on when it didn't matter anyways. 

It was sad to watch and a shame given all the good work in the first half!

I don't imagine this was a tactical switch. 

[Ramarena]

43 minutes ago, sage said:

I don't imagine this was a tactical switch. 

No unless MTW was injured it was a wasted sub when there were more important priorities!

[sage]

2 minutes ago, Ramarena said:

No unless MTW was injured it was a wasted sub when there were more important priorities!

So you do think he was injured/had cramp but are still angry about it?

[GB SPORTS]

23 hours ago, Rampage said:

I predict that if the club is sold by the end of the international break then Cocu will very quickly be gone and replaced by a manager who has managed a club in the Premiership.

kin 'ell Pardew incoming.

[Ramarena]

1 hour ago, sage said:

So you do think he was injured/had cramp but are still angry about it?

Who's angry?

[sage]

17 minutes ago, Ramarena said:

Who's angry?

!

[Ambitious]

I didn't watch the game, but I said after we went 1-0 that even a point would be a good result. Bournemouth are on another stratosphere to us in terms of spending (and on paper, quality), so it wasn't surprising. Bournemouth have the best squad in the league by an absolute country mile IMO - a lot better than Watford and Norwich. 

I was surprised that Cocu came under more scrutiny after the game, but I guess it's another game without a win. I saw that we played well early doors, obviously got the goal, but then didn't really follow much after that and just saw the end result. I wasn't surprised, albeit I guess throwing away two points after leading for such a long time stings. 

The QPR game really is do-or-die for this team. The likelihood is our new overlord will be in the hot seat (or at least trying the hot seat out) by then so will be thinking about what he can change. A win is absolutely vital, otherwise... well... we start again. 

[DavesaRam]

Is it true that Britney Spears is to become the new Rams Mascot, so she can lead the team on to the pitch singing "Whoops we did it again"?

Because Whoops, we did it again! I had actually expected Rooney to be playing deeper, as I don't think he has the legs to play up front anymore, and as such would tend to slow the pay down again. Thankfully Cocu kept Shinnie and Knight as the midfield powerhouse, and they were brilliant. And I was delighted that we played a quick tempo with a high press. What more could a Ram fan want? It made Bournemouth look quite ordinary as they didn't seen to know what had hit them for the opening passages of play, and the goal duly arrived. I was also impressed that the ref clamped down on heavy challenges very early with the yellow card for Shinnie. It was a bit harsh, but understandable. What a shame that the ref against Cardiff (or should I describe him as for Cardiff?) didn't do the same. Instead we went through the match with a litany of heavy fouls with little done for most of the time.

Sadly my hopes were almost immediately dashed because Bournemouth seemed to be getting preferential treatment because they are a bunch of southern softies and had to have  free kick every time a Derby player got near, with the priviledge not being extended to Derby. But apart from not booking their winger for persistent diving, he wasn't that bad, which is quite good for a Derby game!

Once we had scored it seemed that Bournemouth started to push us back, but in reality we had already given up on the press that got us our goal, and started settling back into our own half. And the pattern continued, emphasised by Bournemouth's tactical adjustments, and at times we had our entire team buzzing around our own penalty area, which meant there was no outlet for us, and the ball just kept coming back. It was more defensive than Clement ever managed to achieve. There was only ever going to be one outcome.

WE could have managed the press better with wiser substitutions, but chose not to, sending the wrong people on at the wrong time, ie too late.

We did have that one tremendous chance, with Buchanan's shot cleared off the line. Waggy made a huge appeal, which Rams TV thought was for the ball crossing the line. It wasn't, it was for handball - the ball did hit his hand, but it was down by his side, so no peno. The defender didn't know that and sat himself up to have a sneeky look round. Once he had seen the ball cleared and no reaction from the ref and his assistant, he flopped back down as if he was out cold. The fact that he was up running flat out again just 2 minutes later says that his concussion was fake news.

There was much to be pleased with, mostly our pace of play at the start, and also late on when the match had already gone, but that is now 3 games in a row when sitting back has cost us. We could be sitting in 14th place. We are playing better than the start of the season, and we are capable of making good teams look ordinary, but the players just need to be allowed to.