Sunday, 2 December 2018

Is Eddie Howe making his subs too late?

In the last few games Eddie Howe has seen his side stay in games until deep into the second half, but when the goals have turned games it has been the opposition that has been making the subs first, and Bournemouth have been left looking at the games disappear before making their changes.
Where is it going wrong?
I was surprised that Eddie waited as long as the 72nd minute to change personnel on the field against Man City. Having been all square at half-time, he may have felt that the momentum was with the Cherries at the start of the second half, but he didn't want to change the tactic of keeping players behind the ball. The game was going to open up in the second half no matter what and it might have been profitable to see AFCB take the game to City more, rather than standing off.

Bournemouth had an attacking bench with not only Defoe and Mousset, but Stanislas and Brooks might have been given time to change the game in Bournemouth's favour. Instead, Bournemouth didn't take the initiative and tried to play a waiting game against City. It was Delph who came on first for City and their second goal came just three minutes later. It is a recurring theme in Bournemouth's matches to lose a goal in the second half.

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The performance against City though was string from Bournemouth. They were playing the best team in the league and they had hung on well after the first half battering. But I wonder whether Howe is being too reactionary at the moment, and needs to try and take games away from teams by being just a bit bolder with his substitutions.

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