Joel: I like our strength in depth

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Defender delighted with the impact substitutes made in 1-1 draw against Bournemouth.

Nick Szczepanik

2026-01-21T10:00+00:00

Joel Veltman at full stretch during Monday's 1-1 draw at the Amex.

Joel Veltman found the 1-1 draw at home to Bournemouth frustrating, and not only because of the team’s slow start. He was unhappy with the long delay between the coming together of Bart Verbruggen and Amine Adli and the taking of the resulting penalty, and also with some of the visitors’ tactics. But he also praised the strength of the bench and the decisive influence of the substitutes.

“We started well, I think, but after their goal, we were not good enough. We knew they [Bournemouth] would be intense, one v one everywhere, but we were not on our front foot, so that was poor from us, first half.

“Sometimes something needs to happen before we react, and obviously we speak about that, we train on that, but that's still the Premier League, you can't always win games 2- or 3-0.

“But we know how to bounce back, we showed it many times before. So we did well in the second half, much better. Still not good enough, because you want to win, but I think we deserved the 1-1.”

Joel disagreed with the decision to award a spot kick when Adli brushed against Bart, but he objected even more to the time – a full five minutes – before the penalty was taken.

“My first impression was, he [Adli] was diving, and he couldn't reach the ball anymore, even though he got touched by Bart, and then obviously the VAR involved, and for me it needs too much time with all the slow motion and everything.

“Me personally, I don't like VAR; it just takes all the joy out of the celebrations. I would say get rid of it, but that's me personally. I scored against West Ham, but I didn't celebrate, because you never know what's happening.”

However, the Dutch defender gave referee Paul Tierney credit for ignoring attempts by the visitors to waste time by going down at the feintest touch. “You saw that everywhere, they were laying down, screaming, but that's their right to do it, and the ref needs to be honest. I think he did well at the end, because sometimes they were going down, and he just continued to play, so he [served] us well as a ref.”

Monday night football at the Amex produced more late drama and VAR controversy. Highlights in partnership with @mpbcom. Buy, sell and trade used camera gear. https://bit.ly/MPB457

In the end, the appearance off the bench of Carlos Baleba, Yankuba Minteh and Georginio Rutter and then Babis Kostoulas and Olivier Boscagli turned the game back in Albion’s favour. Joel believes that such squad depth can be vital over the remainder of the season.

“Very important,” he said. “Obviously we invested a lot in the last couple of years, we want to move on, we want to grow as a team, move up the table, and if you can bring on Gini and Carlos, it’s amazing, because they're also 1st XI players, and it's more a decision for the gaffer to deal with that, but for the strength, it's very good. I think we've showed already this season what our subs are capable of, and they can give it just that extra bit. It's just very nice to have.”