Is Ritchie best on the left?

It has been noticeable in recent weeks that Matt Ritchie is spending almost as much time on the left wing as he does on the right. Matt is left footed and usually cuts in well on the right but perhaps teams have been getting wise to this and have been making it more difficult to get the space he wants on the right wing. Eddie Howe has switched things around a couple of times trying to get Matt more into the game on the left and against Sheffield Wednesday it resulted in a cross for Yann Kermorgant to score.

Is Matt doing better when he switches wings?

Marc Pugh has been the player who has not been managing 90 minutes on the wings of late and when Ritchie comes over to the left it usually means Adam Smith coming on in the right wing position. I know many of AFCB's players are adaptable and can play in many number of positions and we have even seen Matt at left back in the past, but when he plays on the left wing he does tend to cause lots of problems for the opposition.

I expect him to stay on the right side with Simon Francis out of the next game as it is important to keep some similar shape to the team. For many players though we don't see much difference when they switch wings but Matt comes alive when playing in front of the Main stand and perhaps that is something that has been noted by Eddie. As long as AFCB choose the Ted MacDougall stand to kick towards in the first half, by starting on the right and switching second half, Matt will always have the Main stand right at his side which seems to suit him.