Andrew Surman offers no creative spark as Bournemouth lose at the Hawthorns

After all the pre-season optimism I was bought back to earth with a bump this weekend as my AFC Bournemouth side went down to a meek 1-0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion.

There was so much talk of how we’d be challenging to finish above ninth. How our summer transfers would turn a good side into one possibly bordering on greatness.

Sadly this game made me realise football rarely goes the way you want it to. We had all the possession – but none of the chances. Frustrating doesn’t begin to explain it.

Midfield mire

It is, of course, just one game. Although it was disappointing to lose in such a lame way, it was obvious where our problems lay.

Although up front you could say Josh King, Benik Afobe, and substitute Jermain Defoe had little opportunities – you have to ask why that was.

The answer, in my opinion, was a startling lack of any kind of service from midfield. Harry Arter and Andrew Surman simply weren’t able to pick apart West Bromwich Albion’s rock solid defensive line.

And to get through a packed defence you need some guile, some precision, some speed of thought. None of that was present in our ranks.

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Andrew Sideways Surman

Although Harry Arter did at least get stuck in, it was Andrew Surman who stuck out on Saturday in the middle of the park. And not in a good way.

He’s been criticised by our fanbase a lot in the last year, and he wouldn’t have won those people over this weekend. His passing was safe rather than brave, and – like many of his teammates – didn’t shift the ball anywhere near fast enough to break through the mass of WBA shirts.

Naturally, your mind then goes to who we could pick instead. It’s therefore worrying that our midfield options are actually quite limited.

Dan Gosling would have least added some much needed physicality against an imposing West Bromwich Albion side though. Lewis Cook, on the other hand, would have certainly attempted more incisive forward balls.

They might not have worked, but they would certainly have had more chance of yielding a goal than yet another sideways pass from the likes of Surman. Our alleged bid to land Jorginho from Napoli earlier this month suddenly makes a lot more sense.

Any positives?

Although our display was as limp as a paper bag that’s gone through a spin cycle, there was at least a couple of reasons to remain optimistic.

Well, okay just one – Nathan Aké. He was in the right places at the right times, and seemed to be one of the few players attempting to make something happen in terms of an effort on target. And he’s a defender!

Overall, we’ll certainly need the entire team to be a lot more proactive next weekend when we face Watford. Otherwise we could be starting yet another Premier League season with back to back defeats.