Friday 15 December 2017

Could Begovic have saved Lukaku's header?

Asmir Begovic won't have been pleased with how Man United get their win at Old Trafford against a Bournemouth side that were well in the game and even dominating for periods of it. While he may think he could have got across better to stop Lukaku's winner, he would have hoped for a bit more cover in the first place from his defenders in stopping the cross coming in.
Was Begovic a bit slow at Old Trafford?
On the night, I thought Asmir did not have too much to do. He only faced two shots that were on target and I suppose he would have liked to have stopped them both, but without making excuses for him it was not a great night in terms of the weather and both he and De Gea must have thought before the game kicked off that they would probably be very busy with such conditions on the pitch.

When the goal did come Begovic was looking almost shocked at how close he had ended up next to the post. Whether he was unaware of his position exactly or the speed of the ball is hard to tell, but he didn't really get anywhere near to it. I don't think he simply expected Aké to win the header, but the angle of Lukaku's header certainly took him by surprise.

Where Eddie Howe might be more concerned is with what happened in the build up when Adam Smith went down after colliding with Martial and not getting up as quickly as he probably needed to to help stop Juan Mata get his cross in. If a player is truly injured though you hope the referee stops the game and awards a free kick. Sadly, it didn't come for Bournemouth. So there was a need to rally to help defenders in that area of the pitch. Mata is such a good player that those few extra seconds is all he needed to provide the perfect cross for Lukaku and Bournemouth were undone.

I think Begovic might have done better, but it was really a series of errors and not just one that led to United's goal along with some quality play from United. 

Ask Fans' Match Preview AFCB v Liverpool

AFCB training complex gets go ahead.

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