Benik Afobe looks at home

Benik Afobe his played a couple of games now as the loan striker for the Cherries and while he is said to have preferred playing in a striking partnership the role of being upfront on his own has been profitable for him already. He has said that his challenge has been to understand what other team-mates want from him and what he can give the team.

Benik is already giving the side a lift.

At times Benik was isolated though during the game against Norwich and that is hard for him as he needed to be switched on whenever the team suddenly passed a ball up to him. He has great strength and is able to bring other players into the game well and it is great to see a Bournemouth player who also looks powerful in the box with his heading as well as his feet.

Eddie has changed the dynamic of the kind of striker at the club. With Murray and Afobe he has two strikers that are capable of playing in different ways and as time goes on I am sure that we will see even more from Benik who has definitely added much more of a goal threat to the team.

What I like about Benik is that he is very fearless. He puts his his foot in when in and around the box and tries to be first to the ball. It was that commitment that almost saw Norwich down to 10-men when he beat Declan Rudd to the ball in the first half and while it is important the he does not pick up injuries, AFCB need him to be willing to go for the ball when he might not be favourite to win it. Drawing fouls and getting slightly ahead of defenders is an important part of a striker's game and Benik is deceptively quick at times. 

He'll do the stretching work of running down the wings and down the sides of central defenders but when he is running at speed into the box and he gets first time balls to finish like he did for the third against Norwich it all seems such a simple game. 

FA Cup
Look out tonight for the result between Portsmouth and Ipswich Town who are playing in the FA Cup to see who will face the Cherries in the fourth round.