Yesterday was a real sucker punch, but on the whole, I felt Bournemouth did deserve to win and I don't think we did enough to win. They were better than us yesterday, but we had a few below par performances from our more reliable players - O'Shea (second half), Morsy, Hutchinson and Delap.
It's the 3rd time this season where we've been on the wrong side of fine margins and dropped points - Brentford away from a winning position, Leicester at home from a winning position and Bournemouth yesterday from a winning position. Tactics? Decision making? Weak bench? Personnel? Probably a combination of all mentioned.
But I think January will have to be cut throat. Bold decisions will need to be made. The gap to 17th isn't a mountain to climb, it's well within reach. We are in games, but falling short.
Is Muric good enough to be our number 1 if we want to stay up? Forest replaced their GK in January last season and stayed up. Do we need to be ruthless and do the same?
Right back is an area of concern. Tuanzebe is a big miss defensively. Johnson & Clarke are not at the level for the Prem. Johnson was a summer signing on a long contract, but teams will target him if we stick with him. He might need a run of games to get up to speed to see better of him, but he doesn't look assured defensively. Do we need a new right back?
In midfield, do we need Kalvin Phillips on loan? It's a lot of money to have him as an unused sub against Bournemouth at home - I found that quite odd especially at 1-0 up with 15 to play, if he's not coming on, why is he here? Will we be ruthless in our thinking and free up a loan spot? We have Morsy, Cajuste, Taylor and Luongo. Could Cam Humphreys be recalled to fill the squad gap?
Wide areas are lacking quality. Do we need to tweak how we play to get the best out of big money signing Jack Clarke and hope he comes good? Or do we need to look in the shop window again?
Wes Burns is struggling, he's reached his ceiling for us. I won't fault his work rate, but the quality isn't a threat for this level. He was bought for a L1 rebuild and we've got everything out of him but players have a ceiling at some point. We need to sign someone.
Liam Delap is being burned out. We pin a lot of hope on him, but he can't do it every week. Another striker in the summer was a big blow to miss out on. Delap's form masked that blow, but we can't fail again in January. Hirst returning will help, but how long can he stay fit for?
It will be interesting. I don't know what our financial position will be, but we are falling short to fine margins and I still believe we can bridge this gap. |  |
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