Have strikers got to score to stay in the team?

Eddie Howe is adamant that he will pick the best side he can to get a result. That may mean selecting players who are not having a great time in front of goal but who are capable of unlocking defences and creating chances for others to profit from. We saw it last season with Lewis Grabban finding it difficult to score and take his chances and yet he was considered too valuable to they way AFCB were playing to make any change. This season it seems that Tokelo Rantie is the striker that is crucial to the style of play the Cherries are trying to impose on teams while he is not able to get off the mark with a goal.

Tokelo is still waiting to tuck away his first goal.

Even Grabban knows he has to keep scoring.

So at what point do you have to try something new? That is a hard question that will crop up at some time if our strikers continue to draw a blank in front of goal. Yet, looking at our season so far the goals have been coming in most games and through a variety of sources. We all like to see the front two players scoring regularly as that is their main job and it provides the team with a lot of confidence when they do manage to score consistently. Sadly, that isn't going to happen all the time.

Against Bolton Eddie Howe did make a change after the hour with Pitman and Thomas coming on to try and get AFCB on the scoreboard. But that did not come off either. While Pitman did have a half chance after a cross that flashed across the box the Cherries are finding it difficult to get their front men scoring regularly.

Indeed, it is a more difficult division and the chances they get will be fewer. But our strikers have to be confident that they will score with the next opportunity they have. It is when they don't think they are going to score that Eddie Howe may feel he needs to make a change.

Looking ahead to the Burnley match it may be that Eddie decides to just play one up front and to bolster the midfield. Eddie has some interesting decisions to make.