Gary O'Neil stuck it to Bournemouth, while Unai Emery, Neal Maupay and Darwin Nunez all shone. But Vincent Kompany, Steve Cooper and West Ham have problems.
Gary O’Neil stuck it to Bournemouth, while Unai Emery, Neal Maupay and Darwin Nunez all shone. But Vincent Kompany, Steve Cooper and West Ham have problems.Undoubtedly too proper a football man to outwardly indulge in revenge or pettiness, O’Neil can allow others to wade through those narrative frivolities. He will simply see three points as valuable as any other to a Wolves side that has created tangible separation from the struggling pack.
That, ultimately, was both the irreconcilable difference found between Bournemouth and O’Neil in the summer, and the contrast between Bournemouth and Wolves on Saturday: the former have grand ideas but the latter are undeniably more comfortable with their current reality. O’Neil has his clear limitations as a coach, but his strengths are equally obvious and no less relevant.Absolutely phenomenal work to describe Bournemouth as “a difficult place to come”.
There is no substitute for Toney’s finishing. It is rare for a team like Brentford to possess one such talent for too long, and unprecedented for them to harbour two. But Maupay can provide the perfect foil for his teammates like a selfless and hard-working centre-forward of his ilk should, as shown by his gloriously-weighted pass in the build-up to Wissa’s goal and the perfect lay-off for Mbeumo’s. Just don’t ask him to score the chances he helps create.
Branthwaite is a truly special talent, name-dropped by Jurgen Klopp before the derby and emerging with his reputation enhanced despite eventual defeat. Alongside Amadou Onana, he was at the forefront of a rearguard which so blunted Liverpool until Michael Keane’s little silhouetto of a man cropped up.
There is no player more important, more fundamentally intertwined with their team’s performances and results, than Rodri is to and with Manchester City. What a shame he feels he has completed the game to such an extent that he is practically daring referees to send him off now.
And that is fine. A perfectly justifiable decision, if an understandably jarring one. The Bournemouth owners inherited O’Neil as part of their takeover last December and they simply wanted to appoint their own man to take them in a different direction. It was harsh, sure, but ultimately fair. There is a chronic lack of accountability behind the scenes and on the pitch at Bournemouth and that tends to only ever translate to a manager sacking. Iraola’s case is becoming harder to argue with each game, yet there is a sense he is being hung out to dry.
With this level of chopping and changing, players already unfamiliar with each other are inevitably unable to build relationships, establish an understanding or trust teammates without thought. And it is showing in the most painful of ways.
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