The Play Off Fight 21/22

Whilst I agree with everything you say a lot of the reason lies in the quality players that Bournemouth can choose from even when they are suffering injuries and suspensions. The Bournemouth squad like the Fulham squad have quality in depth whereas our squad is limited to some quality players a few players who can perform occassionaly and too many players who are below average in the Championship.

The core squad that we have is as good as we have had for many seasons.  Players like Dieng, Willock, Chair, Dickie, Barbet and Dunne would get into most Championship teams. They are all pretty consistent performers who are rarely injured and in such a competitive league are the main stay of our team.

The issue that we have revolves around the remainder of our squad, Albert, Johansen, Wallace and Austin are all at least a couple of years past their best and they all struggle to play at the same level for more than a couple of games. We all know that if they can stay injury free that Amos and Field should be cementing their place amongst the core players but they need more games to prove to themselves and the manager that they should be first choices. 

Where we struggle is with players like Dykes, Thomas, Odubajo, Dozzell, Dykes, Kakay, Hamaillinian, Ball, Barnes, and Bonne who can all play the occassional good game but it's only when all the right stars are in alignment and that is 

Losing games against Barnsley and Blackburn is certainly frustrating but with IMO a squad of limited quality  were we actually over performing in previous games?

I think we have to try and enjoy the rollercoaster we are currently on because I believe there will be massive changes in the summer as we lose some of our better players to the Premiership and a lot of our other players are released as their contracts expire.

To progress we need to continue recruiting better players like Dunne, Willock and Dickie who are now assets on the pitch and on the balance sheet should they be sold.  I know this is controversial but if we are looking for better players why not also look for a better manager. Bielsa is now available and he got Leeds to the promised land without too much fuss. 

Usually towards the end of the season the bottom 6 start winning and can pull off some upsets against the top sides, is hard to judge in this league. We've just had on paper an easier month and it was our worst of the season so far

To be fair we were praising our team a few weeks ago for never giving up and rescuing points when not playing well. it does my head in a bit trying to work out the permutations so I'll focus mainly on our scores and looking at the table after each round of fixtures. We have a week off before Cardiff so let's hope for a fresh squad and 3 points.

West Brom out of it now
Steve Bruce wasn’t exactly going to get them out of jail anyway
They were terrible against Swansea last night

Team to watch is Huddersfield
Games in hand but unbeaten in 16 and up to 2nd
Good manager Carlos Corberán was assistant to Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa who got them promoted