Bournemouth Fan View: Charlie Daniels offers proof that Cherries need to invest

My AFC Bournemouth side were in a no-win situation against Liverpool this weekend. No matter what formation we played, the tactics we employed, or how well our individuals performed – we were always likely to come up short against one of the best sides in Europe. At least, in my opinion.

Despite being thoroughly outclassed 3-0 I was still left feeling slightly disappointed, however. Although I’m not sure we could have ever won the game, I don’t think we did ourselves complete justice.

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One reason for this was potentially the tactics we employed. But perhaps, more importantly, many of the players we had at our disposal weren’t good enough to pull them off. Club stalwarts such as Charlie Daniels, Simon Francis and Dan Gosling have all done a lot for my club, but desperately need to be upgraded on if we’re to progress.

Charlie Daniels race is run

Now it’s harsh to single out Charlie Daniels, as he was not the worst player on the pitch at Anfield this weekend. But he certainly didn’t look comfortable against the attacking quality he was up against.

In fact, it was our 4-0 mauling to Liverpool earlier this season where it became clear to me that Daniels simply can’t play first-team Premier League football any more.

His struggles summed up our defensive problems. Nathan Aké, Steve Cook, and Asmir Begovic were our best performers this weekend – but they could not help hold together a team consisting of too many players long past their prime. Or ones that just simply aren’t good enough.

AS IT HAPPENED: Liverpool vs AFC Bournemouth

Defensively suspect

Many of the goals we’re conceding are also easily avoidable, Simon Francis somehow leaving Sadio Mane unmarked for Liverpool’s opening goal on Saturday being a key example.

The solution to this is to bring in better players. Simple, but true.

If we don’t invest this summer – and in Premier League-ready players – to strengthen the core of our team, then we could find ourselves in deep trouble next season.

Too much respect

I feel that Howe’s tactics also didn’t do us any favours this weekend. We set up in a 3-5-2, but this ended up more like 5-3-2, with wing backs Ryan Fraser and Charlie Daniels pushed back throughout.

Although this made us look defensively solid for large swathes of the game, we simply couldn’t get anything going in attack. We lost the ball a hilariously large amount of times.

This problem was exacerbated by the fact we played Jermain Defoe as the main striker, and kept pumping high balls for him to chase. This made no sense considering his size and the fact he was against man-monsters Dejan Lovren and Virgil van Dyke.

Overall it was a tough day at the office on Saturday. But it felt like one we made much tougher than we should have.

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