Gary O’Neil
Sloppy Cherries defending saw City race into a 3-0 half-time lead, adding another after the break before Jefferson Lerma’s late consolation strike. The defeat saw Cherries slip back into the Premier League relegation zone, one point from safety with 14 games to go. Asked what his side could have done better to make the contest closer,
Gary O’Neil said: “Not pass to them twice in our half would’ve been a good one. But I thought it was a decent performance. I thought we got punished for a couple of mistakes. I thought we were front foot. Apart from the score-line, I thought it was uncomfortable for Manchester City. I thought they turned the ball over more than usual for them. I thought we pressed well. I thought we gave it a real, good go. We got heavily punished for a couple of mistakes, didn’t make the most of our opportunities. We arrived in decent situations a lot, and it took us a very long time to score a goal from that. I thought there was lots to be positive about. I can sum it up fairly simply for you. We had a real good go, I thought. We made mistakes that are uncharacteristic for us. We don’t turn the ball over a lot in those situations. I don’t think we overplay very often. I think we generally mix it up fairly well. I don’t think we’re a team that takes huge risk playing out from the back. But the boys obviously understand that every time the ball arrives at you as a footballer, you have a decision to make, whether you can secure it and make passes or whether you need to play forward. We maybe got a couple wrong today, against a top, top side. They punished us heavily for that. We kept going, we showed that we won’t stop and I thought that we caused them some problems.”
