Did freshening up the midfield really work for AFCB?

Bournemouth made a change to the starting line up and the midfield change was perhaps more surprising in that Andrew Surman was brought back into the team. He has the most experience of AFCB's central midfielders and he had a reasonable game, but Eddie had clearly felt that he had to split Gosling and Lewis Cook up to have a better attempt at beating Man United.

Andrew Surman made it back into the starting line up,
 but even with his control AFCB struggled to get a hold of the game against Man Utd. 

Surman said he had been frustrated to be kept out of the team but understood that AFCB had been on a good run with Gosling and Lewis Cook. So to come in and play with Lewis must have seemed like a real boost to Surman. He has made it back into the team before Harry Arter and  with just three games to go, I'm most intrigued who will get the starts in central midfield in those games.

It has been a changeable area of the pitch for the Cherries and while Lewis Cook seems to have everyone's vote as the player who should be starting, there is now an open spot next to him and it may be one part of the team that Howe needs to look at in the summer. Some have suggested Aké could play in midfield, but I feel he is too valuable at the back for the Cherries. Dan Gosling has not done much wrong, but has played perhaps more games than he would have expected and Eddie may not have been particularly keen on dropping him, but felt that he had to change something with points slipping away.

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I'm not convinced of what AFCB's best centre midfield pairing is as we come to the end of the season, and it is possibly one of the reasons why AFCB have not been as confident this season. Arter and Surman were a solid basis and the team was used to playing with them, but when you dismantle a long-term partnership it was bound to take a while for things to settle down again, and while Howe had though Lewis Cook and Dan Gosling was the answer he could now be having second thoughts about that with recent results. 

I felt the Surman Cook combination did okay against Man United. It was better than the game up at Liverpool, but with Surman and Cook our midfield is not potent in goal power and from that aspect I don't think it really works.