I’ve clearly not been paying enough attention to the Championship recently, how on earth did I not see that Bournemouth are unbeaten? After last season’s 6th placed finish and play-offs disappointment they’ve clearly hit the ground running, as they showed against us on Saturday afternoon.
They didn’t exactly go crazy in the transfer window. Ryan Christie was a very interesting signing from Celtic for a couple of million. Jamal Lowe, Emiliano Marcondes and Gary Cahill all joined on free transfers, three fantastic signings for nothing. Although there’re no transfer fees involved, you can imagine they’ve forked out a fair wedge in wages and signing on fees. I dread to think how much Gary Cahill was on at Crystal Palace.
If they forked out big time to bring in the invaluably experienced Cahill, two years ago they spent an eye-watering amount on his centre-back partner Lloyd Kelly, who had a frustratingly short-lived City career. One of those players you just knew would make it big time. You just wished it didn’t come so soon as we only saw Kelly for one and a half seasons. Barely any games at central defence, clearly his best position and where’ll he’ll end up playing. £13m was a silly amount of money, even for someone so talented. No shame in accepting that. I’ll give him a polite round of applause any time he plays against City, his hard work essentially paid for the training ground.
Bournemouth Looking Like the Quality of the Division
We’ve got our own ball playing centre-back now, even though he was forced to miss the game on Saturday. Rob Atkinson is only 3 months older than Lloyd Kelly and cost ~10% of the fee. There’s similarities between the two, although Kelly is clearly the more polished all-round defender at this time. It’ll be interesting to see where they’re both at with their careers in a few years time though. How high is Atkinson’s ceiling? Kelly’s is clearly at the very top level. He’s a crucial part of the best defence in the division, no team has conceded fewer goals. Ridiculously they’ve conceded only one goal in their six away trips – unfortunately we never really looked like adding to that tally, bar the occasional half-chance.
At the other end of the pitch they’ve scored seven in six games, a fair bit less than the 13 they’ve managed at home in six games. That’s still two more than we’ve managed at home I should hastily add! Despite the comparative lack of goals for them on the road they managed to score twice against us and it could easily have been more. To add to their other list of impressive stats, they’re also 5th in the possession table. To be honest, we just weren’t able to live with them this time around.
Force to Be Reckoned With
Despite not having the most intimidating squad in the division, Bournemouth are a serious force.
They’ve got quality all over the pitch. Ben Pearson is arguably the best defensive midfielder in the league, and even though he didn’t play against Bristol City due to suspension, they had quality players to come in off the bench. The fact Bournemouth has a player of the quality of Jamal Lowe to come into the team shows their strength in depth. Our midfielders have been brilliant so far this season, but they just weren’t able to impose themselves at the weekend.. I hope Massengo is back fit soon, he will be a welcome addition to midfield once he gets back on the park.
We managed to keep Dom Solanke off the score-sheet – just about – but you can see he is a class act. Seven goals for him so far this season. Bournemouth’s team isn’t exactly plastered with Championship stars, a less exciting squad than Fulham’s for comparison, but it is one that’s totally on song right now though.
So for all that I’m disappointed about the result against Bournemouth, sometimes you have to stand back and admit you were beaten by the better team on the day. We’ve started the season well, we’ve had some brilliant moments, but the longer we go without a home win the more the fanbase will grow disgruntled. Not everyone sees us play away, meaning that not everyone has seen us win yet! It’s something that needs sorting and quickly. Fingers crossed it gets sorted tomorrow against Forest, as we really need to get a win for the fans at Ashton Gate sooner rather than later.
I enjoy writing these blogs, it’s something I’ve never done before. The task of analysing and predicting a game is something I’ve done almost 200 times for the podcast. I’m obsessed about Bristol City, but every now and then you get reminded that these things you’re obsessed with don’t really matter. Bournemouth player David Brooks has recently been diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma and will begin a course of treatment this week. Here’s to him recovering as soon as possible. He wears number seven, and it was brilliant to hear the whole ground stand to applaud him on the seventh minute of the match – made me proud to be a part of this fanbase!
