Sunday 29 May 2016

AFCB were busy defending last season

I was impressed to read on the Premier League site that our very own Steve Cook was the top dog when it came to making headed clearances this last season with 188. Of course, you could argue that if the team defended better in front of him and stopped more crosses then there would not be so many ball for him to have to head away. 

Statistics can be very miss leading but they at least give you an instant reflection of what is happening a lot during games. We know that Daniels and Francis try and get forward as much as they can so there is less surprise that they are equal first and second in the assists with five and four respectively. Francis also came out equal third with successful tackles on 77.
Steve Cook has been busy on defensive duties.
I imagine that Artur Boruc was fairly high up in the amount of saves made as well, but the priority for the side next season is to reduce the workload on the defence and keeper. From the transfer talk that has been rumoured so far it looks like that means stronger midfield players on the to buy list. Rather than change too much at the back, Eddie Howe seems to want to stay on a course of attacking teams and giving them more problems to contend with first before putting too much efforts into stopping other teams play.

It is admirable that Eddie is determined to keep pushing his side forward and I wonder if there is a limit to how many attacking players he can really bring into the side. Most top sides have a strong balance between attack and defence, but AFC are work in progress so I'll hold fire to see what players come in during the summer. 

The Cherry Chimes' Newsletter will be out tomorrow.

Cherry Chimes' June Newsletter brings you the best stories on the blog and the thoughts behind them from last month, plus there is a special Newsletter article entitled: Can Grabban be a force in the Premier League?

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