Showing posts with label Jaidon Anthony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jaidon Anthony. Show all posts

Monday, 7 December 2020

Bournemouth are finding the back of the net from all angles

The goals for column for Bournemouth is starting to look impressive. It is not just that the Cherries's strikers are scoring a lot of goals, most of the outside players have contributed and have got off the mark. That makes it really difficult for opposition teams knowing who is going to be best to mark and it is a sign that the team is playing for itself and sharing the goals around.

Sam Surridge is making his way into AFCB's starting line-up.

It is all the more pleasing as Josh King has hardly been involved. While the Norweigan striker may yet have something to add before a likely exit in January, Bournemouth don't seem short of strikers that can do a job. Sam Surridge has finally been given his opportunity, which I have been calling for over the last month and he is only going to get more confident and more integrated with the team the more often he plays. I don't see him coming out of the team for a while, and that should be an incentive to Jaidon Anthony, knowing that if Solanke or Sturridge take a knock, he is likely to get his chance.

Advertisement
The Disrupted Season (2019-20) completes the story of Eddie Howe's reign at AFC Bournemouth 
- it's available now for £11.49 as a paperback - visit Amazon to order

I would be pleased if Anthony and Surridge can be given the game against Oldham in the FA Cup to start together. It would be good to see how these two young strikers would play together and I have no doubt they are good enough to cause problems for a League One side. While Bournemouth will have Danjuma and Stanislas looking to get more minutes, I think it is important that Bournemouth start to bring Surridge and Anthony through now as next season the club could be in a higher division, and if these players have a good grounding now they may be able to step up. Playing them now also puts them in the window and would raise their price and increase their experience. It's harder for players to learn in the Premier League when there are fewer games and you have fewer chances to get it right.

While Sam Surridge may well play so well now that clubs start looking at him, that is something that Bournemouth will just have to deal with when and if it happens. It is better that he plays now and enjoys scoring goals so that it becomes more and more natural to him against good teams. If Bournemouth do well enough that they get out for the Championship at their first attempt, then there will have to be serious discussions about what they do over the striker positions. Is Solanke good enough at Premier League level? Could Surridge or Anthony score at the very top level? Do Bournemouth need to go and get another proven striker? It may seem far off in the thinking but it was a January window is when Bournemouth bought Solanke into the club and we have another such window coming up. 

At the moment Bournemouth are on target for getting near the 99 goals they scored in the 2014-15 season. But goals can dry up with injuries. The ability to bring academy players up though the ranks is working well at the moment, but we will have to see if they are players that can take Bournemouth back to the Premier League. At the moment the signs are good.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Thursday, 3 December 2020

A difficult game for AFCB protégés

Playing against Preston North End might not have seemed like a bad prospect pre-game, but it turned out to be the hardest game Bournemouth have had at home so far this season. With Preston streaking into a 3-0 lead, there didn't seem much hope of a comeback or any kind of effective response, but the Cherries managed to get a couple of goals in no small measure to the younger members of the squad.

AFCB's young recruits do extremely well in
a difficult game against Preston North End.

Of course, it was a full starting debut for Rodrigue Riquelme. He played for the first 45 minutes but didn't have a lot of joy in the few moments when he did get n the ball. It must have been quite a big game for him and it will be difficult for him knowing he was subbed at half-time. Jason Tindall said it was just down to a change in formation to get another striker on, but Riquelme will have to pick his head up and show in training that he is worthy of starts in games when needed.

The man who came on for Riquelme was Sam Surridge and he made the most of his time on the pitch. I think he should really be pushing to be in Tindall's mind for potential starts himself and he has shown he can make an impact from the bench. His heading ability is something different for AFCB and he showed that he is very capable in the box of creating space and getting away from defenders to score important goals.

Advertisement
The Disrupted Season (2019-20) completes the story of Eddie Howe's reign at AFC Bournemouth 
- it's available now for £11.49 as a paperback - visit Amazon to order

Jaidon Anthony was perhaps even happier in coming on to provide the assist for Sam Surridge. He may be annoyed that he didn't keep calm when he had a good opportunity to score himself but that will come with more game time. 

Advertisement

Jason Tindall was brave to make the changes he did when Bournemouth were trailing so heavily. The subs worked better than the half-time talk and it will have impressed Tindall that his youngsters took the game to Preston North End. The team as a whole might not have played their best football, but there are good young players coming through and if they can provide competition to the more established players we could see the starting 11 change a bit more as the season progresses.

Advertisement
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
tag: