Player Ratings - Bournemouth

[goldstone]

More points dropped at home. OG should have been more adventurous and started with Barnes.

Kuszczack 6. Poor distribution and one terrible kick from a back pass.
Calderon 6. OK, but not his best performance.
El Abd 6. OK, but not sure I'd want him as our first choice centre back.
Upson 8. Good strong game again. My MOM.
Ward 8. Good defensively, tried to get forward whenever possible, and well taken goal.
Bridcutt 5. Poor all round performance. If his form doesn't improve Gus is welcome to him for 2.5 million.
Ince 7. Some really good stuff, but gave the ball away as a result of stray passes a few too many times.
Crofts 7. Unlike many on here I thought he had a pretty good game.
Lopez 5. Hasn't maintained the improvement seen in recent games.
Lua Lua 7. Looked lively. Maybe tired a bit in the 2nd half. Great shot that hit the woodwork - deserved a goal.
Ulloa 7. Not quite back to his best, but only his second 90 mins after a long layoff. Got into some great positions. Robbed of a goal by first the woodwork and then a wonder save.

Subs:
Agustein 7. Looked OK but didn't contribute enough.
Barnes 8. Should have started. Great work rate and made things happen.
Orlandi 7. Not on long, but made an impact.

Manager 5. See my opening comment.

 

[BUTTERBALL]

Difficult one. Two points dropped and one point gained.

We could/should have been two or three up by the time Bournemouth scored their penalty. Ulloa made himself some excellent chances and got on the end of some well worked passes, but fluffed his chances. He should have done better with at least one.

I thought we were excellent in the first half for much of it. We couldn't get going for much of the second half as Howe had clearly instructed his players to press hard and high. I thought that Bridcutt was not doing his job (attacking wise) in the second half and left our defence at the mercy of lobbing balls up or limiting their options.

We looked a lot better when Barnes and Orlandi came on.

Great 60 minutes. Poor 30 minutes.

Tomas - 6
Calde -6
El - Abd - 5
Upson -7
Ward -7

Bridcutt - 5
Ince - 7
Crofts - 5
Dave - 6
Lua Lua - 7

Ulloa - 6


Subs
Kemy - 7
Barnes - 7
Orlandi - 7

Agree with all this including the ratings, plus I am being lazy.

 

[big nuts]

GK Kusczak - 4 - One decent save but distribution was dreadful throughout.
RB Calderon - 4 - Ran ragged by their left winger.
LB Ward - 8 MOTM crucial goal and played well throughout.
CB El-Abd - 5 - Looked shaky at times.
CB Upson - 7 - Assured as always
CM Bridcutt - 4 - Worst performance I've seen from him, continually slowed play down, when we needed to pass with more penetration and purpose.
CM Ince - 7 - Some lovely close control and played well.
CM Crofts - 8 - Really surprised he was taken off, covered so much ground and continually won the ball back for us.
LM Lua Lua - 7 - Hit and miss - was well handled by their right back who was excellent throughout just behind Camp as their MOTM.
RM Lopez - 6 - Neat and tidy in possession, a couple of poor set piece deliveries which was frustrating.
STR Ulloa - 6 - Brilliant first half performance in terms of holding the ball up, should have taken at least one of his chances and seemed to fade second half.

SUBS
Agustein - 6 -
Barnes - 7 -
Orlandi - 7 -

 

[Meade's Ball]

The ones i shall point out, as it takes ages to do them all, are Calderon with a 4 as he was consistently done throughout the first half especially, Ulloa with a 5 as those chances he would have put away before were begging to be simply finished and his style was a bit lackadaisical today, Upson with an 8 as he was pure class, Bridcutt with a generous 4 as everything he did today was wrong and difficult to witness and Spanish Dave with a 7 as i thought he barely put a foot wrong and he seemed to have a spring in his step worthy of reward along with his crosses and even crossfield passes that went straight to feet. The rest were ok.

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

Kooshack - 6
Calderon - 6
El-Abd - 6
Upson - 6
Ward - 8 - MOM
Bridcutt - 5
Ince - 6
Crofts - 5
Lua Lua - 7
Dave - 4
Ulloa - 5

Subs
Agustien - 6
Barnes - 7
Orlandi - 6

 

[Conkers]

Anyone giving Koosh a 7 or more surely couldn't have been at the game.
His kicking was absolutely horrendous. Was he out on the lash last night?

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

The ones i shall point out, as it takes ages to do them all, are Calderon with a 4 as he was consistently done throughout the first half especially, Ulloa with a 5 as those chances he would have put away before were begging to be simply finished and his style was a bit lackadaisical today, Upson with an 8 as he was pure class, Bridcutt with a generous 4 as everything he did today was wrong and difficult to witness and Spanish Dave with a 7 as i thought he barely put a foot wrong and he seemed to have a spring in his step worthy of reward along with his crosses and even crossfield passes that went straight to feet. The rest were ok.

Agree apart from Spanish Dave who was awful. 3 at best

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Anyone giving Koosh a 7 or more surely couldn't have been at the game.
His kicking was absolutely horrendous. Was he out on the lash last night?

Both keepers kicked the ball into touch a couple of times. The strong swirling wind might have had something to do with it.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I thought our best chances in the first half came through Spanish Dave.

Our corners are poor. Not because of the delivery, but all across the country the penalty boxes are packed and there is a very low success rate. We need to be a little more inventive. There were a couple of times Crofts was unmarked (and no-one near him) on the edge of the box and we would have been better off (in hindsight) passing it to him.

 

[portslade seagull]

Kusczack - 6 - Kicking was very poor today but nothing else of note to do
Calderon - 6 - Def not a Pen
Upson - 7 - Usual self very composed
El Abd - 6 - very strong
Ward - 7.5 - Scored the goal little troubled
Bridcutt - 5 - mind elsewhere untold misplaced passes
Ince - 8 - Looked very strong today
David - 5 - Not sure what he adds at the moment, bottles tackles
Lua Lua - 8 - our one real attacking menace
Crofts - 5 - not really in the game today
Ulloa - 4 - not match fit and missed a sitter
Barnes - 7 - Should have played from the start
Orlandi - 6 - not enough time on the pitch
Agustien - 5 - quiet


The posts crossbar and Lee Camp kept Bournemouth in the game today

 

[ruthers]

Kusczack - 6 - Poor distribution - again.
Calderon - 5 - Skinned a couple of times, can't defend against pace, looked shattered by 80 minutes. 10/10 for effort!
Upson - 7 - Solid but with Adam held line far too deep (as always) allowing B'mouth to press high up the pitch so we struggled to get the ball out of our own half
El Abd - 6 -Prefer to Greer but always liable to clumsy challenge/booking
Ward - 8 - Very good game, rewarded with goal and MOM
Bridcutt - 6 - Not as bad as other opinions, didn't hide but not a good game by his standards
Ince - 7 - Becoming a huge influence in our season, doesn't lose the ball when in possession under pressure
David - 5.5 - slowly getting better but felt early on wouldn't see out the full 90
Lua Lua - 7 - Puts in the work, plays for the team more than last season. No complaints
Crofts - 6 - didn't remember him being involved too much apart from the shot through the keepers hands
Ulloa - 7 - showed his class in first half, holding the ball up well. Missed the sitter. Mainly anonymous 2nd half.

Barnes - 7 - hungry, maybe should have scored with the header
Orlandi - 8 - we miss him. Strong and made a big impact late on
Agustien - 5 - a poor corner, and a couple of woeful touches.

Oscar - 6.5 - Tactically inept against B'mouth's pressing game, didn't get them fired up for start of 2nd half but made the correct substitutions.

 

[Machiavelli]

The posts crossbar and Lee Camp kept Bournemouth in the game today

This. Although I think we need to add that that referee had something to do with it too.

 

[Machiavelli]

I don't think I've seen us have so many goal scoring opportunities while not actually deserving a win. Sounds odd I know, but I think so many were off their game. We had a good first 20-25mins, then a good last ten, but were pretty uninspired for the rest of the game. We had no urgency, there was seemingly no creativity, struggled to get to the second ball. My mind boggles at how we can be so poor and yet still create as many chances as we did.

Agree with this. Can't remember a game in which we've had so many opportunities, yet we had so many players who were off their best. It's only really Upson, Ward and Ince, along with the substitutes, who were much cop today. That first half an hour of the second half was just strange. We played so narrow: KLL seemed to want to get as far away from Oscar, Nathan et al; David isn't a winger and doesn't know how to hug the touchline; as good as he was, Ward needs to bomb forward more, especially with Kaz's predilection of cutting inside.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Nobody above a seven.

Ulloa looked like he needs a few more games to get back to full match fitness.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Kusczack - 6 - Nothing much to do. One good stop. Dreadful kicking.
Calderon - 6 - Stuggled defensively. No fault for the 'penalty' obviously.
Upson - 7 - Solid
El Abd -4.5 - This was the El Abd of pre-Gus days. Poor control, poor passing, poor decision making.
Ward - 8 - Excellent
Bridcutt - 4 - Genuinely the worst I've ever seen him play. Did badly at all the things he's so good at. Constantly caught in possession.
Ince - 7 - Decent
David - 5.5 - peripheral
Lua Lua - 8 - Good performance, despite a lack of protection from the ref. Desperately unlucky not to score. Twice.
Crofts - 7 - Work-horse
Ulloa - 5 - Worked hard, but its all about taking the chances. The huge miss on 45 minutes was a huge moment in the game. If we'd gone in level, we would almost certainly have won that game.

Barnes - 7 - Busy and determined.
Orlandi - 8 - Tantalising glimpse of what we've missed. Great awareness, great delivery and looked surprisingly QUICK, too.
Agustien -6.5 - Glimpses.

 

[Springal]

So KLL is basically getting high scores because of a couple of good shots? I thought he was proper poor, positionally in the second half he was awful. Looked dis-interested and sulky. Their RB was on a yellow, yet he rarely ran at him after this. At one point, when Ward was pushing forwards, expecting KLL there, he was just in the middle not even looking.

Kuszczak 6

Calderon 6
Upson 7
El-Abd 5
Ward 7

Ince 7
Bridcutt 6
Crofts 6

Lua Lua 6
Lopez 5

Ulloa 6

Subs:

Agustien 7
Barnes 7
Orlandi 7

 

[hans kraay fan club]

So KLL is basically getting high scores because of a couple of good shots? I thought he was proper poor, positionally in the second half he was awful. Looked dis-interested and sulky. Their RB was on a yellow, yet he rarely ran at him after this.

No. No he wasn't. He absolutely should have been, but he wasn't.

The only Bournemouth booking was for the CM Harry Arter, for trying to take Bridcutt's leg off at the knee.

 

[Seaford by the sea]

Kuszczak 7

Calderon 7
Upson 8
El-Abd 7
Ward 7

Ince 7
Bridcutt 5
Crofts 6

Lua Lua 6
Lopez 4

Ulloa 7

Subs:

Agustien 7
Barnes 7
Orlandi 8 - great impact 2 quality crosses and did brilliantly to keep ball in that ward scored from

 

[Springal]

No. No he wasn't. He absolutely should have been, but he wasn't.

The only Bournemouth booking was for the CM Harry Arter, for trying to take Bridcutt's leg off at the knee.

My bad. Either way, he just seemed reluctant to run at them.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

Kuszczack (5) Looked static, very poor distribution and poor kicking.

Calderon (7) Good performance but looked tired, possibly due to picking up other players workload at times.
El Abd (6) Looked nervous on the ball, hesitant going forward but a solid display.
Upson (8) Stood out, strong and confident.
Ward (9) Solid performance, confident on the ball, got forward and, of course, got the equaliser. (MoM)

Bridcutt (7) Looked like a poor performance as normally so good, to be fair it was a 7 and no less but he normally is a high 8 or 9.
Ince (8) Excellent strength, great determination a natural midfield ball winner and distributor. (Could easily have been MoM)
Crofts (7) As with Bridcutt a below par performance, to easily gave the ball away.
Lopez (5) Awful display, looked tired, didn't want the ball and limited our attacking options.

Lua Lua (8) Great first thirty minutes and then went quiet. Can back to life mid second half but needs to be a ninety minute player.
Ulloa (7) Needs match fitness, off the money and needs some more game time.

Subs:

Agustein (5) Needed more time, seemed laboured at times.
Barnes (8) Made a difference and that's all you ask of a sub, got stuck in and took his chances.
Orlandi (7) So looking forward to see a match fit Orlandi.

Overall 7, losing to many points and not taking our chances. Poor in the final third and don't look dangerous.