Mings could play crucial role against Stoke City

The visit of Stoke City represents a major problem for AFCB in the area of height advantage. Stoke are a big team and it will be difficult for AFCB to defend high balls, which is something that the side has not come up against too much of late with the games against the top sides in the division.

Tyrone will be to get any pitch time before the end of the season.

Stoke have been getting the most out of Peter Crouch by starting him on some games and bringing him on as a second half sub in other games, like they did last weekend against West Ham when they needed a goal. The size of Crouch is an immediate problem for any side and AFCB will have to work out how best to keep him at bay. If AFCB have managed to get themselves ahead in the game it may be that Crouch will appear as a sub and at that point Eddie may well consider that the best player in AFCB's ranks to match against Crouch is Tyrone Mings, but Mings will probably be on the bench. The Bournemouth centre-half has not had any match practise for a month now though and Steve Cook and Simon Francis have been doing well ahead of him and are expected to keep their starting places. But to have Mings available to come on to play against Crouch has to be a prospect that may materialise, if AFCB need to protect a lead.

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AFCB don't tend to play negatively and usually go straight o the attack, but we have seen with Man Utd that when they put on a player like Mario Fellani, it is possible to stop the opposition effectively with a big man plugging the holes. Thinking smart is becoming the norm when planning ahead in Premier League games, and I hope that the Cherries do mark out Crouch as a danger as he is unlike any other forward in the division. It's not just his aerial play that is excellent either as he holds the ball up well and helps runners like Marko Arnautovic and Joe Allen coming from deep.

AFCB have been warned and they have the player at their disposal to make it difficult for Stoke City to get a boost when Mr Coruch comes on to stretch his legs.