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.

Is Distin the best route to a clean sheet?

The Cherries are letting in a fair number of goals - nine now in five league games. The back four has only seen Adam Smith replace Charlie Daniels and we've had a short view of Tyrone Mings, but no other changes at the back. Whether Eddie Howe looks on this area no as him having to make a change to stem the flow of goals is a key decision. 

Sylvain is the obvious choice but would it be better to see how
he goes in the Preston game first before bringing him in to start against Stoke if
Elphick and Cook have a difficult game against Sunderland?

Tommy Elphick and Steve Cook are the young and energetic centre back pairing that he has favoured. They have played well in the back four and have held the line well to catch many players offside in games. There have been mistakes and the team is now being closely scrutinised in its defensive strengths and weaknesses like never before. Whether that means a change is necessary is really only Eddie's call of course.

AFCB have a top rate centre back ready to play his part. Sylvain Distin could come in and no doubt do a good job, but would it be more damaging to drop one of the current centre backs than helpful in the long term? Distin would bring some calm and perhaps some better decision making and if the Cherries continue to let in two or three goals a match I think we will see Sylvain come in, but at the moment I'd argue that it is too soon and that Cook and Elphick should be given the chance to put in a performance and to get that first clean sheet. Distin would gain match sharpness in the Capital One Cup match against Preston and would be ideal to play up against Peter Crouch at Stoke City. 

Just like Chelsea though, the midfield players in our team have to do their defensive duties better than they did against Norwich. Once the midfield had been bypassed there was often a big gap that the Canaries could exploit. I'd argue that a more settled team is what the Cherries need with the understanding between the players working better. Sadly injuries are not making that easily to achieve at the moment.