Wednesday 18 January 2017

Where are the tough defenders for AFCB?

The Cherries are conceding a lot of goals in games - three a match at the moment. We can argue that changing the personnel is not helping the team, and yet the teams that AFCB have been playing are not sides that should score three goals every week. Still, Arsenal, Millwall and Hull City found it no problem to find the back of AFCB's net. John Terry might not be the right answer, but the Cherries must find more resilience or prepare to be sucked into the scarp down at the bottom.
Can AFCB get away with not adding another defender to the squad?
The absence of Simon Francis is a cruel blow that has been a double forfeit with the return of Nathan Aké to Chelsea. These things can't be changed, but the defenders that are available at the club have to show more metal than we have been seeing of late. Where is the pride in obtaining the clean sheets and why is it so easy for teams to score against AFCB at the moment?

I'd say that how to unlocking the door of AFCB's defence has been well noted - aerial goals are becoming common place. If the central defenders are not going to win their headers and the keeper is not bossing his box, there is an open opportunity for the opposition to get a strike on goal. Against Hull City the first goal was an excellent cross, but Adam Smith was nowhere near tight enough to try and stop it, and Boruc was sucked in underneath the cross, while Tyrone Mings didn't get ahead of Hernández to clear the ball. It's not just one mistake, but a series of details that have been misjudged. 

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I don't expect Tyrone Mings to be perfect yet at this level and he'll look back on the second Hull goal with a big disappointment. He may not have felt that he was getting pushed back, but his failure to commit made the attacker's decision for him of when to shoot. Even the third Hull City goal was a calamity with a poor defensive header and no desire to win the second ball. Huddlestone had time to get the ball under control and to hit it towards the goal, and AFCB were just off the pace for this one.

AFCB need a commander at the back. In Simon Francis' absence they seem fragile and unfamiliar with each other. Someone has to be barking orders and setting the standards and it starts from the back. AFCB's defenders are knocked down too easily and the fans need to see more defiance than this from the Cherries.

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