There has been rather too many pundits telling Eddie Howe the way he should make his team play in the Premier League to get results. "What worked in the Championship won't work in the top flight" we would often here, but the kind of full pelt wide play of his wingers and full-backs ripped through the West Ham lines with exceedingly high regularity last Saturday. Moreover, the 4-4-1-1 (or 4-4-2 if you like) formation did not fail to provide the Cherries with a possession problem when most of the sides in this league have long ago abandoned such a match approach.
The Bournemouth manager simply plays to the strengths that his players have and that is to get the ball wide and switch play from side to side while looking for the penetrating runs of Wilson in particular. AFCB kept it tight against Aston Villa and Liverpool, but in both games they played with a similar desire to get forward and to try and outscore the opposition. These were close games, but the Cherries could have scored three or more goals in their first home game if they had been more successful in front of goal, and against West Ham we saw that their style of play is creating a fabulous amount of chances away from home now.
It was the away performances that really galvanised the team to such a strong season in 2014/15 and on big pitches like Upton Park the Cherries have a pattern to their play that fully suits maximising the space and encouraging midfield players and full backs to push forward. AFCB are not the type of team that play for nicking 1-0 results and why should they? Just because the Premier League has many sides in it that play the percentage football - Jose Mourinho style - there is more than one way of getting results and Eddie Howe has pleasingly always looked to entertain. Yes, it does mean that good sides are likely to have periods when they might get some joy against AFCB, but if the Cherries are creating almost double the amount of chances in playing this way than the opposition why not win games 3-4, 5-2 and 2-4?
The football purists on TV might not like it, but this is an entertainment business as well as a results business and AFCB fans are used to seeing great football - perhaps more teams should take a leaf out of Eddie Howe's book.
I hope you are all looking forward to the home match against Leicester City today - two attacking sides going at it. It should be fun. UTCIAD!
You can catch up with some more of my thoughts on today's game against Leicester City at - Leicester Til I Die.
You can also look back at a Leicester World interview I gave a couple of year's ago on AFCB at Leicester City World FC.
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| AFCB are looking sharp. |
It was the away performances that really galvanised the team to such a strong season in 2014/15 and on big pitches like Upton Park the Cherries have a pattern to their play that fully suits maximising the space and encouraging midfield players and full backs to push forward. AFCB are not the type of team that play for nicking 1-0 results and why should they? Just because the Premier League has many sides in it that play the percentage football - Jose Mourinho style - there is more than one way of getting results and Eddie Howe has pleasingly always looked to entertain. Yes, it does mean that good sides are likely to have periods when they might get some joy against AFCB, but if the Cherries are creating almost double the amount of chances in playing this way than the opposition why not win games 3-4, 5-2 and 2-4?
The football purists on TV might not like it, but this is an entertainment business as well as a results business and AFCB fans are used to seeing great football - perhaps more teams should take a leaf out of Eddie Howe's book.
I hope you are all looking forward to the home match against Leicester City today - two attacking sides going at it. It should be fun. UTCIAD!
You can catch up with some more of my thoughts on today's game against Leicester City at - Leicester Til I Die.
You can also look back at a Leicester World interview I gave a couple of year's ago on AFCB at Leicester City World FC.
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