I think that we lost this game due to leadership in midfield. Who is the boss on the field? No one. If Lucas was in midfield, we would have had better control. At the start of the season I did not like the Lallana-Wijnaldum-Hendo trio. None of them is a leader, all of them are technically good but they don't take responsibilities unlike Lucas or Gerrard. Lucas although he is a limited midfielder, does the job well and knows how to manage difficult situations. Yesterday, we lacked leadership in midfield. I think a good DM/CM is need in this team. We cannot rely on Can, Hendo or Wijnaldum to lead this midfield.
Disagree with this.
I know what you're saying, that none of Wij, Hendo or Lallana have the leadership qualities that you would normally associate with the likes of Gerrard, Keane, Vieira etc but that being said, we have dominated every game in the midfield this season. Despite yesterdays result, we dominated that game too.
It wasn't the midfield that cost us the game yesterday, it was shocking individual defending.
1. Milner dives in when he doesn't need to and gives a pen away. It was something Moreno would have done and not something we expect from James.
2. Good counter by Bournemouth but we still had one maybe two chances to clear the ball when it came into our box which we didn't and then Karius should be saving that shot, awful goalkeeping.
3. Origi should be winning that aerial challenge against Jack Wilshere of all people but he loses concentration and takes his eye off the ball, at a very crucial time in the game and in a dangerous area on the pitch. Very sloppy.
4. Bournemouths player has all the time in the world to take a shot at Karius, he wasn't closed down, and then Karius makes a complete mess of it and spills it.
So I actually thought our midfield played well yesterday but as usual individual errors cost us the game. If matip played yesterday then we win that match 4-0. I think Jürgen needs to bring in another top centre half and certainly a half decent goalie, we can't continue with those two clowns we have on our books.
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