Luke's Football blog

Season Review

Bournemouth have had a season that has been good to watch for their fans, as they were predicted to be in a relegation battle and were favourites to go down.

They started off the season with a 2-0 win against Aston Villa, kickstarting their season in a good fashion, but it would soon go downhill from there.

Parker would suffer three heavy defeats, which included a 9-0 loss away to Liverpool, where after the game he slammed all his players and said they weren’t good enough, which got him the sack.

Gary O’Neil would be the caretaker, and soon he was rewarded with the job after a string of good results that saw them rise up the league and him win manager of the month for September.

He would go on a run of two wins out of 15 games, which saw them drop back down into the relegation zone, with people thinking that their honeymoon phase was over.

They would eventually win five games in April to secure their safety for another year and earn Gary O’Neil a manager of the season nomination after guiding Bournemouth from the abiss to Premier League safety.

Player Of The Season: Jefferson Lerma

There was only one option for this award, as I feel Lerma has been one of the only consistent Bournemouth players this season, as his performances haven’t dropped at all across the season.

His work rate and energy he provides are key to the way Bournemouth have been playing the past few seasons, which has seen success go their way in recent months. He is a midfielder that likes to get stuck in and loves to win tackles, which has seen him pick up loads of yellow cards over the course of the season; However, that’s his best flaw as he will offer you non-stop work and will always try to cover every blade of grass.

He didn’t sign a new contract with the club, which is a huge loss for them as they will miss his work rate in the middle of the park, so they will be hoping they have a replacement in mind already.

He is rumoured to be signed by the team I support, Crystal Palace, which I think is a good deal for the club as we’ve needed a fresh pair of legs in midfield, and with two experienced midfielders leaving, it has come at the right time.

Most Underwhelming Player: Chris Mepham

Chris Mepham has been a staple in the Bournemouth side for the past couple seasons, but recently he hasn’t been in good form, which has seen him dropped.

His season didn’t start off well, as a string of three bad performances against big six teams, including an own goal against Liverpool, where his side lost 9-0, highlighted him as one of the weaknesses in the Bournemouth defence at the time.

It didn’t get better, as a string of average performances saw his minutes limited after the World Cup, as he barely played the full 90 in most of the games.

He finally made it into the starting 11, but more average performances left him dropped for the last 2 games of the season, making it an uninspiring campaign for the Welshman.

Game Of The Season Bournemouth 4-1 Leeds

It was between the 3-0 win versus Everton and this game, but I decided to go for this game as I felt this was the game that stomped their authority on the league and kept them up.

It started with a goal from player of the year Jefferson Lerma as Billing and Solanke helped open up the Leeds defence before Lerma fired home.

Lerma would soon get his second just a few minutes later as a poor flap from the corner by Meslier presented Lerma with a chance, which he coolly fired away to get his second goal of the game.

Leeds would get a goal just before halftime as Bamford headed home into the bottom left corner from a cross by Gnonto to give Leeds a fighting chance in the game, but it didn’t end up that way.

The cherries would soon restore comfort as Solanke danced through a couple of challenges before slamming it home into the bottom left-hand corner to give Bournemouth the edge in the match.

It would then be 4-1 to the cherries as Semenyo bundled in his first goal for his side from 15 yards to put the game beyond doubt and keep Bournemouth up at the same time.

How I Rate Their Season: 6.5

This seems a bit harsh considering where they were when Parker was sacked, but they have been a bit inconsistent over the course of the season, especially in the last part of it, losing 4 games in a row, which made me decide to give them a 6.5 out of 10. It’s been a solid season for the cherries, and they will hope to build on that in the coming season as they try to stay in the division.