Cherries fashion their own Total Football style

I noticed that in his post-match interview after the Scunthorpe game that Eddie Howe made reference to the rotational position play of the team on the field. It was clearly seen at several parts of the game when Elphick or Cook for example would go up for a corner. O'Kane was usually playing the role of covering defender, while Arter sat quite deep for a lot of the game. At one stage we could see Marc Pugh scrambling back to mark Scunthorpe's centre forward and usher the ball out to safety when he became a make shift centre back.

It is a credit to Eddie and Jason and to the team that the players feel comfortable enough on the ball to be able to be able to do this. I don't think many sides will play in this way in League One. It is clearly part of Eddie's philosophy which includes playing the ball out from the back as much as they can. Bournemouth fans are really treated to seeing a good footballing side and at the moment it is also a winning one.

It was a fact not lost on Brain Laws who commented how it was easy to see why AFCB is at the top end of the league. I feel a lot of the confidence in the side comes from the current back line with Elphick and Cook winning the headers at the back while Francis and Daniels are formidable players in defence and spectacular going forward on the overlaps.

We may not have big bustling forwards or hard, physical centre backs but the agility and touch that the players are showing at this level on the bobbling pitches at this stage of the season is fantastic.

The Dutch philosophy of Total Football seems alive and well on the south coast.