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Wednesday, 18 December 2013

Can our back four improve quickly?

Eddie Howe may have to ask himself some difficult questions in the coming weeks. Looking in the mirror at your players performances is something he does every day, but when they are making the same mistakes it is not easy to plough on waiting for the day they make better decisions. Still that is the task of a coach and manager. It may be that AFCB's back four are not good enough at the moment to be keeping clean sheets at Championship level. They can do it, but it is achieving it regularly that will make AFCB into a winning team.
Charlie Daniels is open someone give him the ball.
While you can go into the market and look to change things that way, it would be sensible for Eddie to stick with his current crop of defenders if he feels they are almost there in making those right decisions. We have seen them get it right and also very wrong and it is a constant battle. The players they are up against as well are forcing some mistakes. What we need is for our defenders to be learning. You don't get long to learn and the rate of that learning is shown in the league table.
Tommy will be hurting this week. I hope he is determined to
lead his men to a win at Sheffield Wednesday.
I can't say that any one player has more often than not played poorly at the back. The defence should be looked at as a whole as errors are coming from different players and more often than not when there is little pressure on the ball. I liked the disciplined way that AFCB tried to defend against Reading and to an extent against QPR, even though they did not get a result in both matches. But at home the team seem to find it much harder to get the right balance when they go forward and leave the back exposed. 
Simon Francis has been tested this season.
The team are doing well and getting it right for a lot of the time but they only have to make a couple of poor decisions and find themselves a couple of goals down in the Championship. What I like are the comments coming out of Dean Court from the players. They are not disheartened but are keeping the end goal in mind to stay up this season and admirably wanting to achieve that playing with some style. It may be a bit uneasy for us fans to watch in the stands, but if the players are committed I believe they will start improving. 
Cook's inexperience was shown up a little on Saturday but he'll come back stronger.

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3 comments:

  1. Afcbpete18 December 2013 at 15:11

    With Ward out injured, it could be argued, that for the whole season so far, Eddie has yet to play his strongest team, let alone on a regular basis. Only he knows what Maxim's plan is. It would seem he (like every other Chairman of a Championship side) would like us to push on and try and attain promotion. So if it was me, I'd be looking to strengthen the squad, with players who would be of the right calibre to push us on to that dream. How ever, if it's a question of let's stay up, consolidate and see what happens, we may not see too much activity in January. Frankly, I feel we need several quality signings right through the team. Even if Eddie brings no one in, it will make no difference to my support for him and the team, we may well struggle, but it's been a thoroughly enjoyable season, and I'm certain the rest of the season, regardless of results, will be no different!! UTCIAD

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  2. Cherry Chimes18 December 2013 at 19:18

    Good to hear that you will be keeping your support no matter what AFCBpete. I personally hope the players we have can improve rather than bringing in yet more players and spending in January when prices are often even more inflated. I expect AFCB to just sign Camp in January and look to invest in the summer.

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  3. Afcbpete19 December 2013 at 14:55

    Clubs may also be keen to move players on as we are. I think Eddie is pretty canny when it comes to transfer dealings, up to now at least. I'd not disagree about summer being the busier period, it will be determined by who's available in January, I think it would be madness to miss out on the RIGHT player. As for my support, I've seen far too much dire times/teams and displays, not to appreciate what's on offer these days. Of cause results are disappointing, but the quality of our play is well worth watching, just hope, as does everyone else, that results will come, and come soon.

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