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Bournemouth Fan View: Cherries lack leaders
One thing I’ve always felt my AFC Bournemouth side lacks is leaders. You know, proper men who take control of situations and don’t make stupid mistakes. And don’t let their teammates make foolish errors either.
Watching us throw away a win at West Ham United this Saturday has not changed my opinion on this matter.
AS IT HAPPENED: West Ham v Bournemouth
READ MORE: Hernandez proves his worth to Hammers
After taking the lead in the 71st minute through Ryan Fraser, we then conceded straight from the restart – not winning two balls in the air for Javier Hernández to then grab an instant leveller. It had me tearing my hair out. We conceded a similar goal straight from kick-off earlier this season too, against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup.
Lack of leaders
Whether we deserved to go ahead in the game (we didn’t) is irrelevant – it’s all about the points when you’re in a relegation battle, and we could have got a big three this weekend.
Instead, we meekly surrendered the lead when we could have easily gone on to win. The Hammers’ most dangerous player, Manuel Lanzini, had just gone off injured, after all – and we largely dominated the rest of the game after Hernández’s goal.
Our superior fitness was allowing us to dominate the final stages, and we looked the most likely to win the game. So, I can’t help but feel that if we’d just had the big characters to calm things down after taking the lead, we could have claimed the points to climb to the heady heights of 10th.
Sadly, we have a team of players that are often great individually, but sometimes lack leadership qualities. Such as error-happy captain Simon Francis and the superb yet largely silent Nathan Aké.
Superb Stanislas
There were several positives to take from the game though, don’t worry (you were worrying right?). One was the return of Junior Stanislas. Although he only came off the bench, he made a huge impact and showed why he’s a definite starter for us when fit.
Despite Jordon Ibe’s improved recent form, he can only dream of having Stanislas’s composure on the ball. His range of passing was sublime, and his pass to Ryan Fraser for our goal was inch-perfect.
He almost scored one of the goals of the season at the death too, dribbling his way through almost the entire West Ham midfield when we broke on the London side.
Begovic saves us (literally)
Asmir Begovic was another notable performer, making some vital stops when we struggled at the start of each half. He more than made up for his error when we played West Ham last month.
However, I can’t help but feel with a bit more steel, a bit more experience, we would’ve snatched a win this weekend. Whether Eddie Howe feels the same I do not know.
All I know is that I’d like us to bring in a hardened battler in midfield during this transfer window. That could be all it takes to become a comfortable top-half side, rather than part of the large clutch of teams fighting relegation.
