Thursday 4 May 2017

Afobe's injury makes it difficult for Cherries

AFCB have not had a lot of luck with injuries again. While the midfield has been severely weakened, it is now the strikers that are running low on options. Benik Afobe's pulled hamstring may see him out for the rest of the season and we may see Lys Mousset start his first Premier league match next week, unless Eddie Howe decides to play Junior Stanislas behind Josh King.
Afobe could miss the rest of the season.
It will be an interesting team selection for Eddie to make against Stoke City. They are a big team and losing Benik Afobe at this time is not a great help as he does win a fair amount of headers in AFCB's own box, but he won't be dong that at the weekend. AFCB will rely on Steve Cook and Simon Francis to win those headers at the back, but do AFCB need to think about how they line up in attack?

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I assume that Junior Stanislas will be the man to join Josh King as he has the experience and is fresh. I did not see that Junior did that much in the game up at Sunderland when he came on for Afobe in the second half, but he will need to make himself available to receive the ball just in behind Stoke's midfield, and when he has linked up with King in the past it has been a much quicker movement up front. Stanislas has had another disjointed season because of injuries and yet his record of four goals in 18 games is pretty helpful for the team, add in the five assists he has made and it has to be said that a fully fit Junior Stanislas has the quality to keep his place in the starting line up of Eddie Howe's team.

Stanislas has not had many games to play in the number 10 position, but he is a player that can go both ways and he has a shot on him that is powerful. He also brings some free kick specialism to the side, so while AFCB will be giving away some height in their team without Afobe, they may have another dimension in their play with Stanislas.

In other News, sadly former club captain Roy Gater has passed away. Meanwhile,  AFCB and Sunderland are charged by the FA on not keeping their players under control.

1 comment:

  1. Junior is an ideal replacement, with similar goal to game ratio. Benik does not seem quite the freakish, courageous player he was last season. we need to look on the bright side and push for a hat trick to finish the season

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