MATCHWEEK UPDATE: Bournemouth have won 4-3 against Liverpool at the Vitality Stadium. The Cherries were 2-0 down after 22 minutes. What a comeback! Our players need to take note.
The expression used in the title is credited to pop artist Andy Warhol who famously said: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” I suppose the equivalent of that in a football match would be when a player scores a hat-trick. As the moniker suggests, Sanchez scored three goals in a quarter of an hour – 14 minutes and 29 seconds on the clock to be exact. The Chilean fulfilled Warhol’s prophecy quite well, as I dug deeper with my research. In 1966 (not the football World Cup), a crowd gathered trying to get into the pictures and Warhol supposedly remarked that everyone wants to be famous, to which Finkelstein (his photographer) replied: “Yeah, for about fifteen minutes, Andy.” You remember the West Ham ball boys trying to snap a selfie with Sanchez right after the game? Warhol experienced the same circumstances. Talk about allegiance. But to be fair, who could blame the youngsters? Our fate was sealed early on in the match.
Whilst we have been unlucky with our injuries, and have partly put it down to bad luck, the fact of the matter is that we are our own worse enemies. Just about every player is creating records against us, and understandably so, as we conceded an average of over two goals a game in the Premier League this season. Theo Walcott has scored five goals against us in the PL; the most against any opponent he has faced. The amount of defensive errors which have led to goals is simply appalling – and it’s not just this season. Now, most will think that last season was absolutely incredible, and that we were good all round, as we finished 7th. But if you look at our last few matches, we conceded more than average.
According to Squawka, we made the most defensive errors last season with 14. Not sure how Aston Villa managed to get less than us. Additionally, we are still top of the pile (well, scrapheap) this season with six. Palace and Liverpool are joint second with half that! What this tells us is that our players need to make themselves more accountable in defence. This is a problem that Slav has struggled to deal with, as we were 14th in that table in Sam Allardyce’s last two seasons.
With both teams coming off the wrong end of a EFL Cup quarter-final, I’m sure many would’ve expected a tighter match. Carroll scored a hat-trick against Arsenal last time out in less time than Sanchez! He scored it in exactly half the time the Arsenal forward did in 7 minutes and 14 seconds. Prior to the match, his return was a good omen. In a way, I still believe it was, as he scored a goal – if only we didn’t concede three beforehand. We have been desperately missing a striker. Playing with just the one forward meant that we couldn’t create many chances.
Something that I touched on in my previous match review was that we couldn’t afford to give Arsenal many chances like we did against a lacklustre Manchester United side last Sunday who have drawn last four home league matches. Arsenal have the highest conversion rate in the league for a reason. The Red Devils had 17 shots compared to Arsenal’s 19. The difference? Another four goals conceded. Granted some of their goals were of tremendous quality, they are the sort of team that will pounce at every opportunity presented. And apart from the opening quarter of an hour, they most certainly did. But they pounced very well. We have conceded five goals in a PL home match for the first time since March 2002, when we lost to Man United 5-3.
There is no doubt that some will be thinking about the formations that have been implemented, and how we ought to line-up. But, the reality is that we have made far too many changes with our players. Bilic has been at the club long enough to know what our players are capable of, yet he is making changes to the starting XI more erratically than Bob Bradley, the new Swansea manager. Some of our players are a complete shadow of the players they were last season. Noble is the obvious culprit here. If the gaffer fails to get ahold of the team, and use players effectively, he is likely to get the sack. An example of this indecisiveness was when he couldn’t make his mind up on whether to play Carroll or not. He did when we were 2-0 down.
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Second season syndrome could explain why we are struggling. We had it under Sam Allardyce in his second PL season with us, as we were 19th with half the games played, and ended 13th – not such an unlucky number it seems. In his post-match interview, Slaven said the team lacked intensity not just in games, but on the training field as well. This is that lack of control over the team that I was referring to. If he can’t manage us properly, why should he stay? We aren’t the only side to be experiencing this phenomenon. Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City have failed to live up to the hype of last season. Their 13 points from 14 games is the worst defence of the title in PL history. That said, I’m sure their fans will be going to the bookies asking: “What odds on Leicester to be relegated and win the Champions League?” They had 29 points at this stage last season. By comparison, we lost 8 league matches last season, but have managed to do so this season in only 14. The problem is more than just Kanté leaving without a replacement or the inconsistent players we have. Forget about signing the player who will sell the most kits, get the players who will bolster the team gradually.
I think this is the time when the manager really puts his foot down. He can’t put players on that aren’t performing well enough. He has done well by leaving Adrián and Zaza on the bench. I think the time has come for Noble. For the past few games, he has not been at the races. Lanzini and Obiang make a much better partnership than our skipper. Even in this mauling, he connected the midfield and attack well. Our midfield have been outplayed a ridiculous amount of times this season. This is one aspect of our game that showcases our lack of intensity that Slav was talking about.
Finally, I would like to extend our support to the Chapecoense team. Unity and solidarity are just two values that encapsulate the Beautiful Game. They embody the spirit of the sport. Clubs have offered their players on loan to the Brazilian club for free, which says it all about how supportive the football community is.