Friday 20 October 2017

Does Stokes' recent battering make it harder for the Cherries?

It's not that often that Bournemouth get to play a team after they have been literally torn apart by another team. But Stoke City will claim that they did not have a bad day, they just ran into an exceptional side on the day that played amazingly well. They could be right. Mark Hughes wants that to be the verdict as he wants a reaction in this next game and if he could have picked a team to play, Bournemouth would probably been high up on that list.
Stoke City will be glad to get back to a home match.

Mark Hughes admitted that his game plan didn't work. I'm not sure what his plan was but he soon found out that his team was getting overwhelmed. AFCB have been in that position before with some heavy defeats and if anything it only stiffens the resolve not to get beaten in the next game. But Bournemouth themselves have been on a poor run and need to go into this game with an attack-minded sense of aggression and energy to try and get on top early against this Stoke side.

If Stoke are allowed to dominate and get shots away and feel comfortable against Bournemouth, they will soon forget the battering they had up at the Etihad. Bournemouth need to make them feel that they are still in a sticky situation whenever Stoke set foot on the pitch and gets some doubt running through their mind. If Bournemouth can stand up to the physical battle and start to influence the game with strong wing play then this might be the game that AFCB away fans have been waiting for in terms of points.

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Mark Hughes believes he can lift his players. But Stoke did make mistakes against Man City and AFCB have to put pressure on Stoke by getting them to turn and defend their goal as much as they can. Jack Butland will not be expecting to have a barrage of shots to save, but he won't be confident of keeping a clean sheet either. It won't be an easy game for AFCB but their is a glimmer of hope that Stoke will not be as confident as usual. Bournemouth have been lacking the scoring power to hurt sides and if they can find that before Stoke wake up from the trauma of Man City then Eddie Howe could finally be savouring an away win as well as sucking Stoke nearer to the relegation zone.

Rival Lines: AskFans' Stoke City supporter

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