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| Ake is getting forward ell bu must take on the shot when he is best placed to shoot. |
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This is a fan’s personal view of AFC Bournemouth from the outside looking in. It reports on the daily official activities reported by the club and comments made by individual fans on social media and fanbase websites. Life as an AFCB fan is never dull. As a life-long supporter of the Cherries, it is the friendliness of the staff, fans and my enthusiasm for the club that inspired me to write this blog.
Tuesday 10 March 2020
Aké needed to take responsibility when he was through on goal
The last few minutes of the match with Liverpool were pretty difficult for Bournemouth fans. Nathan Aké latched on to a pass, I think from Lewis Cook, and looked destined to score with Adrian trying to rush out to close the angle. In that moment there is probably a different thought process going through the mind of a defender than a striker. If it had been Callum Wilson or Ryan Fraser with the ball at their feet, they'd probably have gone for goal or tried to take the ball around Adrian. But Aké didn't want that responsibility or thought that Callum Wilson would be more likely to score, if he passed. Sadly, it wasn't the right decision, but how can players always know what is the best decision to make?
Nathan Aké has probably already had a few sleepless nights over his indecision and failure to shoot in the last minutes against Liverpool. He'll have played the moment over and over in his head a thousand times I 'd expect and seen a different outcome every time. There is only one take that counts though, and the pass to Callum might have felt right in Ake's mind. He probably gets shouted to in training by Callum every day that he should pass, and it was probably instinct for him to do so.
We do need Bournemouth players to shoulder responsibility though. Whether it is Aké, Wilson or any other of Bournemouth's players. When they feel they have a good chance to score they need to have the courage to be selfish and take the chance. They need to want that. It was the same when Steve Fletcher scored against Grimsby, to keep Bournemouth in the league, he wanted the moment and owned it.
There will be more games when Bournemouth's players are in similar positions. We saw Billing miss a couple of chances against Chelsea early on, and it's not going to be the same player every time. But now it has come to the hard end of the season and while it is nice to make goals look easy, it is a difficult job with great pressure. Somehow Bournemouth's players need to want to feed off the adrenaline of the pressure and being in that moment. If they score they become automatic heroes.
Previous post on Cherry Chimes - Steve Cook loss is crippling for AFCB
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