Monday 23 October 2017

Stanislas is making AFCB tick

I was maybe a bit hard on Junior Stanislas in not giving him my man of the match against Stoke City. He was the important factor in just about all Bournemouth's attacking moves and if he had not been on the pitch it is unlikely that AFCB would have got the win up at Stoke.
Junior Stanislas added the quality AFCB have been lacking in the final third.
Junior was excellent in getting into good positions and when he is in the hole or around the box he has excellent vision to play in players, as he did with Surman and later Afobe. He took three players out of the game when drawing them in before his pass to Surman - it's that kind of play that gave AFCB the edge. AFCB's players are often making the wrong decisions around the opposition box, but Stanislas gets it right regularly and his influence on the team is huge when he is on form.

I also see Stanislas as being well respected in the team as a senior player. Benik Afobe might not have wanted to let anyone else take the penalty at Stoke but seniority won out. It's debatable whether Stanislas should have taken the penalty, but by putting it away he capped a very good performance. I actually believe Stanislas is most effective on the right side, but he uses whatever space he has well no matter where he plays. He might not have had many attempts on goal himself in this last match, but he also has that in his game and if Stanislas can start putting some chances away it's hard to see him coming out of the team.

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What Stanislas does well is link the attack with the midfield. He is probably the most creative player that Bournemouth have and we are only just now reaping the benefits of him having been out for a long time and coming back refreshed.

I heard he gave Steve Cook a bit of a walloping in the boxing ring recently and his competitive nature is the edge that Bournemouth need to make them a winning team at times. He may be slight in build and his name might not get sung out that often, but he made Bournemouth tick up at Stoke and I'm hoping he can keep that kind of form going all season.

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