Luke Randall's Talking Points of the Month....

Performance of the Month

 

Bournemouth showed Hull who the real relegation side are this October

Eddie Howe described his side as 'faultless' as they tore Hull apart in a 6-1 thrashing at the Vitality Stadium on 15^th October. Both Bournemouth and Hull are teams many will have as relegation favourites this season, but Bournemouth looked a class above their opponents. Bournemouth came into the match in 13^th, just 2 places above Hull in the table. Hull left in 16^th, falling just one place, although it must have felt like they had fallen to 20^th  as they looked at their relegation ‘rivals’ and became accutley aware of the gulf in class between the two sides.

The two teams contested quite evenly for most of the opening period, before Bournemouth scored two quick fire goals before half time. The second half was more of a late show, as after their fourth goal on 65 minutes, Wilson and Gosling waited until the 83^rd and 88^th minutes to hammer the final nail into Hull’s coffin.

Bournemouth only enjoyed 49% possession throughout the match, but threatened the Hull goal 22 times; a fantastic conversion rate and double the total number of shots that Hull produced. This result took Bournemouth to 13^th, and since then they have climbed to 10^th, just 2 points behind Manchester United.

Player of the Month

Dembele, Celtic's best since Larson?

Moussa Dembele, possibly the buy of the summer in Scottish football for just £500,000 from Fulham, has not stopped producing the goods. It started when he scored a perfect hatrick against Rangers in early September and scored 2 goals against Manchester City in the Champions League. Apart from missing a penalty against Barcelona, he has brought nothing but goals galore to Celtic. Since the10th of September, including the hatrick against Rangers, he has scored 8 goals, his latest being a late goal against Ross County on Wednesday 26^th October. The main question regarding Dembele is how long can Celtic keep him? This is a player who Rangers fans will want to forget in a hurry. Even if he does not play that well, he still scores. He has been quoted as a £40 million striker so it will be interesting to watch what happens in the January transfer window.

Goal of the Month

 

 

My goal of the month goes to Gaston Ramirez, who opened the scoring in a 2-0 win for Middlesbrough over Bournemouth on Saturday 29^th October. His 39^th minute goal helped Middlesbrough climb to 14^th in the table.

It was a wonderful solo goal which saw Ramirez almost run the whole pitch before scoring. He blocked a Bournemouth shot and then took the loose ball from near enough his own box and used a nice piece of skill to take him past the Bournemouth midfielders towards the half way line. Then, he used the space he had found to drive toward the Bournemouth box before brilliantly cutting inside past the final defender (Andrew Surman) and slotting the ball into the net, leaving Bournemouth keeper Arthur Boruc with absolutely no chance.

It was a truly superb strike from Gaston Ramirez which earns a goal of the month award from me.

 

Moan of the Month

A dejected bunch of Scotland players trudge away from another Slovakia goal

Scotland have already made the dream of going to Russia in 2018 for the World Cup a nightmare, after just 3 matches. They cruised to a 5-1 win over Malta in the first match but in the October Internationals, drew at home with Lithuania and lost away to Slovakia. My moan of the month has to be the recent Scotland performances. They dropped points against Lithuania, a country outside the top 100 teams and then went to Slovakia and were beaten 3-0 by a less than average side that hadn’t scored in a number of games previously. They sit in a poor 4^th place in the table and though they aren’t far off top they still look destined not to qualify. Scotland’s next match is against England at Wembley, and though Scottish will be right up for the Wembley clash, hope seems to be fading very quickly.

Why can Scotland never manage it? A good number of their players are playing at a good level in the English Premier League, notably Robert Snodgrass for Hull and Crystal Palace’s James McArthur who scored 2 goals against Liverpool recently. Other players either play in the English Championship or the Scottish Premiership. You could not say the Scotland manager (Gordon Strachan) is poor either as he has managed top sides before, including Celtic and Southampton. Why then can these players never capture their form when they put a Scotland shirt on? Man for man, the Scots have as good a squad as many top sides inside the top 15 or 20 in the FIFA rankings.

Is it the expectation of a nation? Is it that the players don’t play well together as a team? Is it that Gordon Strachan should select different players? The same old faces are given the run out every time. Why does Leigh Griffiths not start? Why is Ross McCormack not in the team? Why are there Scottish Championship players in the squad, such as John Mcginn of Hibernian? Should different players get the call up? Change is needed and fast or Gordon Strachan could be the latest Scotland manager to say goodbye. Hope of a first major tournament in 20 years seems to be disappearing.

 

 

 

by Luke Randall