- 8 hours ago
Even at this early stage, Andoni Iraola's Bournemouth look like they're going to have an enormous season. Only 1 defeat, away at Anfield, and seemingly free-scoring, they look like a team ready to record their best every Premier League finish. But, after losing 4 of their best players in the summer, how is that even possible?Adam Clery looks at the incredible way their manager has them playing, and why it's so hard for every other team in the league to deal with.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Right, hello everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel, and it's the international break, or the death of all
00:07content, as I like to call it.
00:09So what we're going to do today, what we're going to have to do today, is look at some more
00:13fun, more abstract concepts.
00:15Like, can Bournemouth, for example, who are playing like they could probably win the Premier League, actually win the Premier
00:22League?
00:23They're only a few goals behind the league's higher scorers, only a few goals worse off than the tightest defences,
00:29and have a solitary loss to their name this season, that 4-2 opening weekend thing at Anfield, when everybody
00:36went, bloody hell, Bournemouth are good, aren't they?
00:39And all that, despite losing 3 of last season's back 4, 4 of last season's back 5, if you care
00:45to include the goalkeeper, which I do, and replacing them with players who cost a fraction of the price, and
00:51who most people hadn't really heard of.
00:54And don't look at me like that, alright? Adrian Truffitt. No, you hadn't.
00:58So just how far can Iriola's Bournemouth go? Can they actually win the Premier League?
01:04Well, not to spoil the entire rest of the video, but almost certainly not, no.
01:09However, do I feel that there is an illustrious European place with their name on it?
01:16Yes, I do. And I will show you for how and for why, now.
01:24Right, so in order for this video to flow correctly, I'm going to have to structure it sort of the
01:29opposite way around that I normally do.
01:31You know what I'm like, I'm usually tactics first, yapping second, and we will be looking at this system, why
01:36it's so effective, why nobody seems to be able to live with it.
01:39But first, I do need to tell you about why this is a very good season for Bournemouth to have
01:45suddenly got good.
01:46And also, this video was actually a suggestion from one of our channel members, Brian Hall.
01:53So thank you, Brian, for being both handsome and intelligent.
01:56If you would like similar praise and would also like to tell me what to do, full information about becoming
02:02a channel member in the description.
02:04But yes, Bournemouth.
02:06One thing I have been certain of since the summer was that going into this edition of His Majesty the
02:12King's Big Bad Barley's Premier League for Men was that it was going to be a weird season.
02:17For the first time, you have six teams in the Champions League.
02:21All of them in the new format now have eight matches against mostly top-tier European sides.
02:27So no gimmies.
02:28And all of them are likely to get out of that league phase one way or the other.
02:34So that, for those six teams, is a minimum of 10 to 12 extra high-level matches this season.
02:42Before you even start to factor in that all six of these teams are good enough to go on a
02:47good domestic cup run as well.
02:49Then you've got two teams in the Europa League also looking at, I'd say, about 10 to 12 games against
02:55decent European opposition.
02:57And probably considered potential favourites to go and win the thing.
03:01Nottingham Forest getting their shit together notwithstanding.
03:04And then there's Crystal Palace in the Conference League who, sure, have considerably less challenging fixtures than the teams in
03:11the two competitions above them.
03:12But also, by extension, you would make one of the absolute favourites to win it.
03:17So we'll almost certainly be involved in that competition right up until the end of the season.
03:22Which, given they had to qualify just to play in it, is 17 extra games if they avoid that weird
03:28extra two-legged cup round.
03:30You add on the Community Shield for both them and Liverpool.
03:33Then factor in that seven of these teams are still in the Carabao Cup.
03:38So that's at least one more game.
03:39Possibly this many.
03:41And then in January, of course, we will jump to the FA Cup, which guarantees them all another game.
03:45Possibly even seven.
03:47And then you add on that two of them had an entire summer of cup world clubbing in America.
03:53And this is what the schedule looks like for England's nine best teams.
03:59And yes, before you start, I am using best in inverted commas.
04:03There's obviously no objective way to really measure that on a week-by-week basis.
04:07But that is the eight highest place finishers last season, plus the FA Cup winners.
04:12So, fair comment, every single team below them, Man United, Brighton, Everton, Fulham, every single one of them should have
04:21gone into this season really feeling like they had a great chance to go and attack the league.
04:28Some of them are going to play half as many games this season as the teams in this list.
04:33So that's a huge advantage.
04:34But after seven games and using both my eyes and my brain, Bournemouth looked like the best of the trailing
04:41pack by miles.
04:43And they went out of the Carabao Cup at the earliest possible opportunity.
04:47They have no European commitments.
04:50They won't have to play in the FA Cup until January.
04:52And even if they went all the way in that competition, which, let's be real, would mean they ceased to
04:58care that much about how they were doing in the league, if they could potentially win a cup, right?
05:03Their season will look like this compared to all the teams currently around them in the table and Nottingham Forest.
05:12And that is absolutely massive for a Premier League side.
05:16Like, first up, the additional recovery time you get with a schedule like this is going to help so much
05:22with injuries.
05:23These players will get proper chances to rest between really high intensity games of football rather than just playing one,
05:30jumping on a plane, going to the next one.
05:31But what it does for a manager, and especially a really detail-orientated one like Areola, is spend days at
05:40a time, an entire week in some cases, on the training ground with these players, refining the structure and making
05:47adaptations from match to match.
05:50When your schedule is just play, recover, travel, play, you cannot do that.
05:56And this structure is currently so, so good.
06:01Bournemouth are a murderously high-pressing team who also like to dominate possession, but also can counter on you from
06:08deep with lightning speed.
06:10They are a proper, proper triple threat.
06:13How they work is by being the most aggressive team in the league off the ball.
06:17And the best example I can remember seeing of this thus far in the season was when they played Tottenham
06:23and won.
06:24Right in the very opening seconds, like this is literally the first minute, you can see no matter how deep
06:29Tottenham retreat with the ball, Bournemouth have a player willing to jump out to them.
06:34Now that is technically a man-for-man press, which is a term you might have heard, because lots of
06:39teams do it.
06:40You just have an assigned player and when they get the ball, you go out to them.
06:43But what is different about the way Bournemouth do it, and what is actually much harder and more impressive, is
06:49that the man-for-man element is not, how can I put this, set in stone.
06:53Pretty much every single player is expected to make their own decisions over who to go and press.
07:00And every other player is expected to not let those decisions leave them wide open.
07:05You go back to the start of this move, and Tavenier decides he has to jump from the midfielder here
07:11to pressure the centre-back, which is proactive, that's very good.
07:14But it does leave the man he was on totally free, which teams would obviously try and use to their
07:20advantage.
07:20But Alex Scott, who is sitting on a man all of his own, sees him going to do this, and
07:26jumps up himself one to cover the free man.
07:29So now Tottenham do not have an easy central pass that would bypass some of the Bournemouth players and take
07:36all the pressure off.
07:37Scott stopped them doing that.
07:38Evan Nielsen is covering this defender, but spots the ball going back to the keeper and jumps from him, curving
07:44his run to stop any pass out.
07:46While Tavenier does not let up the pressure on the centre-back, even though he's released the ball.
07:51Now you stop it at that moment there, and look at the situation this has given them.
07:55There is no pass into here because Scott jumped up, there is no pass out to here because Evan Nielsen
08:00got his angles right, there is no pass into Spence because he's being squeezed.
08:05So Spurs do what Bournemouth are always trying to get you to do, and just resort to playing it long,
08:13playing something low percentage, playing a pass that is very likely to be inaccurate.
08:19From there, they're strong in the challenge, they swarm the second balls collectively, and they turn that possession over.
08:24And it's not what they're doing is overly complicated because, like, it isn't.
08:28But to be this relentless in your pressure, to be this fluid in all of your movements, to let this
08:34many different players make this many different decisions and not have the whole thing collapse into a big heap of
08:40shit on you, is genuinely really unique to Areola's Bournemouth.
08:45There's no other team doing this this way this season.
08:49I think it'll be a long old time before teams figure out what to do.
08:52Like, it sounds chaotic, but they're very clever with it.
08:55You look at them at goal kicks, for example, and it looks here like they've not quite been aggressive enough.
09:01Like, Tottenham have six outfield players, they've only committed five, Semenyo's just out of shot, so Jed Spence is unmarked.
09:08The thing is, right, Jed Spence is on the touchline, isn't he?
09:12So if the ball goes out there, there are 270 degrees of white paint that stop him passing in that
09:19direction.
09:19If it comes out of him, he can only play it forwards, and he's on his wrong foot.
09:23So if it does go out there, they'd immediately have him penned in, and his only option would be to
09:29go long, to play something low percentage, to play something that has a high chance of being unsuccessful.
09:35And that's if he didn't lose it in the first place, because while they're not marking him directly, they're very
09:40capable of cutting the pitch off and jumping on him if he takes a ropey touch.
09:44So the whole thing looks very chaotic and mad, but it's actually very clever and very well structured.
09:48Like, Tottenham ultimately do not take the bait here.
09:51They just end up going long, but that's fine, because again, they are strong in the challenge, they swarm the
09:56second balls, and they win it back.
09:58Now how Bournemouth attack in these moments is, like, pretty obvious.
10:02You're forcing high turnovers, you're winning the ball back, your squad is rammed with really athletic ball carriers who love
10:08taking people on and bursting beyond their markers.
10:10And nearly one third of their goals this season have been directly classified as a counterattack, the highest percentage of
10:18any team in the league.
10:19And in fact, since Iriola took the Bournemouth job, right, they are sixth out of the 192 teams who contest
10:27Europe's top five leagues, sixth for the number of shots that have come as a direct result from a defensive
10:35action.
10:35And while that is a very impressive start, I would stress upon you it's also quite a flawed metric and
10:41doesn't even paint the whole picture.
10:43Like, it wouldn't, for example, count the penalty they get against Brighton, where they pressure Dunk into giving it away,
10:49break really quickly into the box, and get fouled.
10:51Like, that is not a shot created by a defensive action, it's a penalty won by pressuring the opposition really
10:57well, which is different entirely.
10:58So they're actually even better at this stuff than the data looks.
11:02But the truly crazy thing about Bournemouth, right, is that even when they have possession, when they've got the ball,
11:08this all largely works the same way, right?
11:11Because this idea of being competitive in second balls in the other team's face and then immediately making a chance
11:18can be manufactured somewhat artificially.
11:23Bournemouth topped the league for the number of long passes attempted this season and are second for the number completed.
11:29And the idea is that by going long, either from your midfielders, your defenders, or your goalkeeper, and putting the
11:34ball into really dangerous areas,
11:37either you win it, which is great, because now you're in a good position, or if the opposition win it,
11:42you can immediately contest it and try and get it back, and you're in a really good spot to do
11:48so.
11:48Take the Alex Scott goal against Brighton, for example.
11:51That's long from the back.
11:52The defender wins the header, so they've technically lost the ball, but then Semenyo takes it straight off him, and
11:58you've got a chance out of that.
11:59And it's pretty old school, all of that. I've seen a lot of people referring to it as kick and
12:05rush, which if you're not familiar with the etymology,
12:07was the type of football popularised in Britain about 100 years ago, when every single playing field was too much
12:14of a fucking bog to even consider doing a five-yard pass.
12:19And, well, it is. It is literally that, but not a bad way.
12:25Bournemouth have the lowest passes per defensive action this season, which, for the non-nerds of you watching this, so
12:32both of you,
12:33basically means how many touches of the ball do the opposition get on average before you smash them.
12:39Bournemouth this season have given teams the least amount of time on the ball.
12:44They're third for the total number of pressing sequences, second for the total number of high turnovers, third for the
12:50number of shots from high turnovers.
12:52They are monsters out of possession, but with the IQ of, like, a chess team.
12:58And that, fundamentally, is what Areola has turned them into.
13:02Like, in my opinion, the scariest team to play against in the whole league.
13:07You'll have the least amount of time on the ball, and they are the absolute best at doing stuff when
13:11you lose it.
13:12That's horrible.
13:13And you, you did. I know you did.
13:15You probably expected me to spend five minutes in this video pulling myself off over Semenyo, didn't I?
13:22Given that stat doing the rounds, he's, like, been involved in over 80% of their goals this season.
13:27But I reject, out of hand entirely, that this is a one-man team.
13:33He is brilliant. He is vitally important. He's incredibly skilled.
13:37They would undoubtedly be less good at doing all of this if they didn't have him.
13:42But they would still be doing it.
13:46And they would still be good at it.
13:49If losing Kepa and Kerkhez and Hoyssen and the other one in the summer and still somehow improving should show
13:57you anything,
13:58it's that what is going on here is that this manager and the way he has this team collectively playing
14:04is what matters.
14:06Not necessarily the individuals he has to do it.
14:10So, yeah, do I think the Bournemouth are going to win the Premier League?
14:14No, absolutely not.
14:15But do I think they are this year's Crystal Palace and or Nottingham Forest?
14:21Yes, obviously, that's what the whole video was about.
14:23Like, barring some sort of massive, unpredictable, spectacular collapse,
14:28they should absolutely be right up there in those European places come the end of the season.
14:33And I know, I know there's going to be noises about the manager.
14:37Some other bigger, allegedly more illustrious clubs are going to jetson their manager and come sniffing around him.
14:44But I don't know why you'd leave this.
14:47Like, not even from a sentimental sort of perspective.
14:50Like, the freedom he has to get his team playing this way.
14:52The fun he must be having taking them up the table.
14:56I think you'd be mad to leave that.
14:58So, yes, there you go.
14:58That is, by request, what Bournemouth are doing this year and why it's quite exciting.
15:02And why they'll probably keep doing it for the entire rest of the season.
15:06So, please let me know, please, genuinely, what you made of it in the comments down below.
15:10And if you would like to tell me what to do for a living, you now have that power.
15:14Just sign up for the memberships.
15:15The link is in the description.
15:17We're doing, like, a live stream for them every two weeks.
15:19They get to pick the videos.
15:20They get to help with the videos.
15:22There's discounts on merchandise.
15:23Keep forgetting to show this off.
15:25That's the shirt.
15:26If you haven't seen it yet, we've played loads of football in it.
15:28Look, did really well there.
15:30Got to the semifinals.
15:31That was nice.
15:32So, if you want some money off that and all the other nice, fun stuff that YouTube makes
15:35you give members, you can click the thing and get the thing.
15:38And you can also get me across all the social medias at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
15:41And until next time, which, I mean, God knows what that'll be.
15:46There's not really any real football going on right now.
15:50I'll see you soon.
15:53Arrivederci.
15:55Which I think means goodbye.
15:56Bye.
Comments