Bournemouth 5 - West Bromwich Albion 1

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Ratings submitted so far: 8

Brendan Clegg:

I rarely post reports on cup games anymore because the competitions have been devalued by everyone, but felt compelled to put some brief thoughts out having seen lots of negativity and despair after the game in various places.

Just a little bit of proportion and reality. Bournemouth spent around £100 million in the transfer window, on the back of other big spending over the last 2 years.

The gulf is enormous between our best 11 and their best 11, but one of the things about the differences in wealth between the Premier League and Championship is the strength in depth it affords you, as we see in the teams coming down. The gulf between reserve teams is even bigger. Championship sides can find ways to create first 11s that can compete and put on a good showing, but only those with parachute money can really do much beyond that.

I thought the team we put out was fair enough given our priorities this season. You can argue a player here or there… I’d have had someone stronger alongside Taylor but then I probably wouldn’t have risked Fellows.

It was never a 5-1 game but the goals we conceded were very poor. There wasn’t any brilliant play or premier league quality.

After a decent start and taking the lead, we needed to be horrible and resilient. We were not.

The first was a nothing cross, Taylor had to deal with it, Wildsmith if 2 or 3 yards further forward just collects it but instead has to tip it away, Holgate totally asleep.

The second isn’t even well worked. We’re passive in the middle, Holgate gets caught square but the angle is so wide if he puts any challenge in he should block the shot, Wildsmith gets done at his near post.

The third, Swift bottles a challenge in the edge of their box and 10 seconds later it’s in our net. Somebody has to do the dark arts somewhere.

The fourth, conceding so fast after kick off is criminal at any level of football.

The fifth… too easy, line all over the place. No need to be like that. Right side again.

I would say that at 1-0 we had a number of opportunities where we won it high, forced errors but either the quality or decision making was nowhere near the level needed. The quality (Grant mostly) you accept but there wasn’t any brilliant one great break where in the end Styles just has to play it inside to Diangana on the edge of the box but he goes alone and loses it. This sort of composure costs us and has cost us against any level of opposition.

Both Molumby and Johnston did the same in the second half in good situations even though the game was over, and undid their own promising work.

I thought our fans were brilliant.

• Wildsmith - 4 Not great. Lacked sharpness. Why doesn’t he play for the reserves/development team?
• Furlong - 6 Did alright mostly
• Holgate - 4 A championship level right back, probably a league 1 centre back, just not enough desire or effort to defend
• Taylor - 5 Harsh but there were many errors. Didn’t hide, has got character, will be better for it. Not quite ready for me still
• Styles - 6 On the ball he looked fine apart from aforementioned choices
• Fellows - 6 kept it well, didn’t look out of place, got crosses in
• Mowatt - 5 fine on the ball but their energy and speed were a problem for him
• Racic - 4 Not sure he could blow out candles on a birthday cake and missed a very easy chance. No fight and panicked/gave it away too often
• Swift - 3 All languid and silly flicks. Corberan got about 6 games of fight and effort out of him. Honestly he’d be the last player I’d pick right now
• Grady - 6 Was one of the few players who could hold the ball, move forward or win free kicks. Had a lack of options but kept showing. How does he kick-start his career again? Accept he’s a left winger and spend 6 months building his strength, sprinting and stamina to do the job properly in the way Grant has. Ability is there but it isn’t enough
• Grant - 5 plenty of running but showed how limited he is without Maja. And I worry when we see him trying to do silly backheels etc when his redemption has been built on doing the basics and running himself into the ground.

• Wallace - 5 Might not be as quick anymore but you could never say he doesn’t give it everything, track back or battle for us. Would have him over Swift if we had to in pretty much any position
• Diakite - 7 Was a positive for me again. Didn’t look out of his depth. Excited by how he might develop over the next 12 months if he stays fit
• Molumby - 6 Gave us more aggression
• Johnston - 7 Another who looked like he could impact at this level but for his decisions… but lively and creative
• Cole - 4 Nothing doing