Thursday 27 November 2014

Was Ipswich game really Cherries best performance?

Eddie Howe was adamant that the Ipswich game was the Cherries best performance of the season so far. I understand where he is coming from in the fact that the control of the game and the forward attacking play was very pleasing on they eye against a top ranked team, but I felt there were lots of improvements still to be made and not just because of the 2-2 result.  
Surman and Arter are really pushing the team on well.
AFCB certainly created a lot of chances but they did not take all of them or nearly half of them. Out of the 23 shots that were recorded nine were on target which is a pretty good ratio. Sometimes though less shots and better accuracy with the few chances you have can be more productive. I think the possession stat is more pleasing as to have 60 per cent of the play against a top rival, albeit at home, is dominance in terms of what teams achieve in the Championship. What I did feel Eddie Howe would have been pleased with is the way the team started the game in both halves. At the start of the second half AFCB entered a pattern of play when Ipswich simply couldn't get near the ball. The frustrating thing was after five minutes of that Ipswich scored with their first attack of the second half. You have to give the opposition some credit though as it was a well created move down their left wing and Teddy Bishop made an excellent finish.

Ipswich themselves managed 10 shots against the Cherries during the match and Boruc faced four that were on target and unfortunately let two in. I don't put the goals down to goalkeeping mistakes either as the whole team did not get to grips with Ipswich's play on the occasions when they created opportunities.

So best performance from the Cherries? I think there were some great individual performances and both Harry Arter and Andrew Surman were grafters in midfield who hardly put a foot wrong all game, but I believe there is much more to come from this side and they can still improve on what we saw at the weekend. High Championship standards are what this team are capable of now.

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