Is Jack Stacey ready to dominate AFCB's right-back position?

While Simon Francis still has days when he is happy to fill in at his old right-back position, there is a new king in town and he is called Jack Stacey. Simon Francis may hope to still get games at centre-half, but his time of flying down the right wing are probably over. AFCB have adequate cover with Adam Smith and Jack Stacey, and now it looks like Jack Stacey is going to be the player to dominate at right-back for some time to come.

Jack Stacey can make the right-back spot his own.

I wasn't too sure about how Stacey was getting on when he first came to AFCB. He was stepping up two leagues and he had a lot to learn very quickly. But in recent games he has been pretty much outstanding, when he has played, and he has become an excellent first-time crosser of the ball, which is starting to bring him assists.

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Even so, Stacey has only made 12 league appearances this season. It has been a transition season for him where he has started to get used to the pace and physicality of the top league. Now he looks more in control and assured in his game, and his first thought is usually to try and get forward in support. Eddie Howe has already started to mould him into an attacking right-back, and the omens are good for Stacey to see further improvement.

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He reads the line well and is usually not the player to be caught out by keeping a player on side. His speed is good enough to get back when he has been caught out and he keeps things simple. Stacey is probably AFCB's best signing since David Brooks, and it demonstrates that Bournemouth can still find players in League One, and the Championship, who can take less than a season to step their game up to the top level.

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In other news, a night of celebration was epic to relive on AFCB's YouTube channel on Monday with the replay of AFCB v Bolton Wanderers from 2015, and the knowledge that Premier League football was pretty much guaranteed with just a game to play.

Previous post on Cherry Chimes - Is Stanislas a player likely to leave AFCB?

Is Stanislas a player likely to leave AFCB?

I have been a big fan of Junior Stanislas. I like his nimble feet and his desire to go at defences. But even I have to admit he just doesn't play enough games. and every season is a battle to get him fit. He is one of those players who just seems to be unlucky when it comes to injuries. At the age of 30 I wonder if Junior is going to be able to play out his playing years at AFCB.

Junior has made less appearances in 2019-20 than any other season he has been at AFCB.

This season Junior has managed six appearances in the league and of his four shots two have been on target. Stanislas is a player who is good at working the keeper, and that is why I think Eddie Howe has always been reluctant to let Stanislas go.

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Compared to the 2018/19 season though, AFCB haven't got much value from Stanislas in this current season. In 2018/19 he made 23 appearances, scored a couple of goals and was on the winning side eight times. There were 19 appearances in 2017-18 for hime and 21 appearances in AFCB's second Premier league season of 2016-17 when he scored seven goals. Even in the 2015-16 season, he managed 21 appearances and three goals.

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Somehow AFCB need Stanislas as an option. If he is fit, he has an impact and I haven't even mentioned the assists he makes. But have AFCB seen the best of Stanislas? It is likely that he has had his best seasons behind him. It is clear though that Eddie Howe doesn't push players on that quickly when their time could be up, unless he has problems with them in attitude or effort. Stanislas is a trier and as such I think he may yet be around for a couple of more seasons. We just need him to spend more of that time on the pitch, which is going to be tough for him with the likes of David Brooks vying for the right-wing starting place. As a sub though, I still think Stanislas has a part to play in games and could be a great player to bring on for set-pieces.

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Previous post on Cherry Chimes – Money before reason for quick Premier League return

Money before reason for quick Premier League return

Although talks have been taking place behind closed doors about when the Premier League could return, according to The Sun newspaper, I can't see there being anything but big risks if it does return as soon as 8 June, as has been proposed. Playing behind closed doors is still going to mean some 250 people being tested each game, and the safety of players, the police and ball boys etc is still going to be at risk.

It will be a long time before we see handshakes for sure.

To me it talks of money being put before the lives of many. We all want football back, but like Georgie Bingham on TalkSport, I don't really think it can be done safely while social distancing is in place. What choice to the players have in this matter? I suspect none at all. It will be down to the Premier League and Chief Executives or Chairman if each club to say of they can play or not, and there will be pressure put on everybody to go along with it.

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However this season is completed it will always be a season that has been disrupted and for that reason is not going to be a totally true reflection of what might have happened, if games had bot been postponed. We can pretend that playing behind closed-doors makes little difference, but we all know it will take some teams more time than others to get a good feeling about that situation. The winners will be those who adapt quickest to this new non-atmosphere football. But there will be a bitter taste for the losers.

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Of course, if the Premier League goes ahead there will be mounting pressure from the English football league to play out their remaining games. How easy will it be to allow all clubs to complete their fixtures? If it is difficult for the Premier League it is going to be even harder for the lower leagues, who just don' have big operating budgets. Will their safety be as tight as the barriers that will be put in place by the Premier League?

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My big worry in all this is that the fans will just have to lump it, whatever is decided. Fans won't be able to travel to games, or cheer on their team. Perhaps they will be able to see it on terrestrial TV, but what happens for those TV companies that have exclusive rights? The whole thing is quite a mess and with players contracts running out on 30 June, I wonder how much of the general chatter is more desperation knowing that the time has pretty much run out to get football back. The Dutch league has already abandoned the season and if more leagues go that way, questions will be asked over the safety of any attempt to try and resurrect the game before social distancing has been removed.

Previous post on Cherry Chimes  – Is Howe right to play Adam Smith on the left ahead of Rico?

Is Howe right to play Adam Smith on the left ahead of Rico?

Eddie Howe's player selections some times raise eyebrows, but we are getting used to some of them. One I always wonder about is the choice of selecting Adam Smith in the left-back slot, when his preferred position is right-back. I am sure any player would rather play out of position than not at all, but does it really give AFCB a boost to do this?

Ready to go on the left, but Adam really that good at left-back?

Adam Smith has been one of he injury victims and it is possible that Eddie has just been trying to get his appearances back up after such a long time off. Smith has accumulated 18 appearances and has four wins under his belt. His crossing is higher than one a game at 21 and his passes average out at 36 a game. Where he does score highly is in duels won at 109 and a tackle success of 70 per cent.

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When Adam is switched to the left it has been Diego Rico that has missed out. Still Rico has played in 21 games and has been involved in six of AFCB's seven wins. You might have considered him a good omen then, but Howe has not always picked Rico to start when he has been available. What I like about Rico is he gets forward and he has a staggering count of a 122 crosses from his 21 games and averages 40.81 passes per game. Rico has also made 62 interceptions compared to Smith's 19.

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At this point it already looks that Rico is ahead of Adam Smith. But where Smith out does Rico is on the tackling front. Rico has 92 duels won and a tackle success rate of 62 per cent. I find it hard on these stats though to see why Adam Smith should get the left-back spot over Rico, unless Howe is looking to be more defensive in games. By trying to make the team more solid at the back, it has lost something going forward and of course the best balance for AFCB has been Charlie Daniels. Without Daniels it has been perhaps too much trial and error at left-back and maybe Rico should have been given a few more games.

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Previous post on Cherry Chimes - Why has Solanke found it so hard to score? 

Why has Solanke found it so hard to score?

I don't assume that scoring Premier League goals is easy. You have to beat the best defenders and goalkeepers in the world. They are professionals. They work hard to stop attackers, but as a Premier League striker you have to have something about you - a cocky arrogance if you like. So, has Dominic Solanke got that in his armour and what does he need to start scoring goals at this level for AFCB?

When will Solanke hit the back of the net?

I have been looking at Solanke's stats. They show that he has had some opportunities, perhaps more than I had suspected, even if some appearances will have been quite brief. So far he has made 24 appearances this season for the Cherries in the league, but his contribution has been minor with just an average of 13 passes per match. This indicates that the time on the pitch for him hasn't been long. But what did take me by surprise is how unlucky he has been when you consider that he has had 22 shots and five of them have been on target.

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What does not read so well is that he has had four missed big chances to score in 2019-20. I thought it might all be about getting that first goal for AFCB but he did that against Luton in the FA Cup, and we haven't seen much more of Dominic since then. While Callum Wilson and Josh King have dominated the forward positions, I do think that Solanke hasn't had enough time to make a partnership with either one of them. He has been a lone striker if you like and I don't think that has helped him at all.

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It may be that Josh King moves on this summer and that will open the gate for Solanke and perhaps Sam Surridge to see who can support Callum Wilson best. But while Eddie Howe may be willing to take his time in seeing Solanke make the grade, I do wonder what it is doing to Solanke's self-confidence. Has he got a killer instinct in him? Perhaps he shows it in training, but for the fans to get more behind him we need to see more on the pitch and in my book, I think Sam Surridge is more likely to make a Premier League striker  than Solanke at the current rate of progress.

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In other news Philip Billing lost 4-2 in the EPL invitational Tournament to Neal Maupay of Brighton.

Previous post on Cherry Chimes - Are Lerma and Billing the best central midfield choices for AFCB?

Are Lerma and Billing the best central midfield choices for AFCB?

The season quickly got away from AFCB. The injuries have limited the choices that Eddie Howe has had, but Lerma has played 24 games and Philip Billing has racked up 27 appearances this season. Are these two players the best two central midfielders or the best combination for AFCB?

Lerma and Billing have been central pillars for AFCB in Howe's thinking.

I'd like to think that Eddie Howe knows his best team. He clearly has indicated by his selections that he values Jefferson Lerma and Philip Billing as his best two central midfielders. But how good are these two players? Billing has had one goal and one assist, having had 29 shots, creating 12 crosses, four blocked shots, 88 clearances with 49 headed clearances and 59 interceptions, according to the Premier League stats.

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Compare this with Jefferson Lerma's record. He has one goal and two assists, with 21 shots, creating nine crosses, four blocked shots, 34 clearances, 22 headed clearances and 44 interceptions, according to his Premier League stats. It would appear by this that Billing is the stronger player in what he offers the team in performance stats and as a pair we might assume they are the top choices that Howe could make.

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But other players like Dan Gosling, Lewis Cook and Andrew Surman might have been hard done by. Dan Gosling, for example, has made just 16 appearances this season and yet he has two goals from his nine shots, although he has made just one cross. But his 20 clearances and eight headed clearances certainly start to rival Jefferson Lerma, although his interceptions are less than one a game at 12. Andrew Surman may have only made five appearances but three of those games AFCB have won, and he made three crosses in those five games, while his clearances are minimal at four and three headed clearances.

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Lewis Cook is an interesting one as may fans favour his attacking play. He has 20 appearances with 6 shots and one on target, but managed eight crosses and 14 clearances, eight clearances were headed and interceptions were at 15 which is well below the rate of Lerma and Billing. 

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Passing ratio and tackling are also big stats to look at but out on top come Lerma and Billing for passes per game Gosling makes 22.75 passes a game, Billing 37.7, Lerma 43.13, Cook 26.8 and Surman 25.4. On the tackling form, Gosling has a success rate of 34 per cent, Lerma 59 per cent, Billing a majestic 65 per cent, Lewis Cook 53 per cent, and Surman 50 per cent.

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It's striking to me that Billing has perhaps been a stronger player than I would have believed in 2019-20, and that the tackling of Dan Gosling, low clearances of Lewis Cook and passing ratio of Andrew Surman have perhaps held them back from being more front line choices ahead of Lerma and Billing.

There are many more stats you could look at and this is just a quick observation, but it also tells me that Lerma might not be as dominant a player as I would have expected him to be, even if his passing ratio is higher than most.

In other news, the replay of AFCB 4 v 3 Liverpool last night was joyous just to see Steve Cook's turn and volley to bring the scores level - does he every score ordinary goals? 

Previous post to Cherry Chimes - How fit can the Cherries be for the resumption of games?

How fit can the Cherries be for the resumption of games?

With some five weeks already passed since the last Premier League games and the players left to their fitness programmes, it won't escape anyone that it will be hard for the players to be ready to pick up on games as soon as the Premier League wants to resume. Listening to Dan Hodges, Head of Sport Science, on AFCBTV monitoring of the stats has become a touch more difficult.

Dan puts the players through their paces pre-COVID-19.

Dan himself admitted that the challenges include keeping in touch with the players. The Kitman app seems to be the easiest way that the club can keep tabs on what the players are doing, but with no team ball work the focus can only really be on fitness. I read that Burnley have put GPS trackers on their players to check what they are doing.

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I like the idea of the challenges for bike rides and having leader boards to add some competitiveness into matters. Nobody wants to be at the bottom of the board and knowing AFCB they probably have some forfeits for players in those places.

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It seems like the uncertainty of things is really the enemy at the moment. If everyone had a goal to work to it would be a lot easier. But there is no end in sight and without a fixture timetable, I imagine there will come a point, no matter how professional the players are that they get a bit bored of the routines and will want to do something new.

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I don't think AFCB expect the players to be as fit as they would be having played a few matches, but if this is an extended pre-season it is vital that they come out of it in the best condition they can. While some might have big back gardens I imagine finding space could be awkward for some and local parks won't be good for players to visit to often where they are likely to be recognised. It's a tough time for players but I congratulate those that are sticking to their personal schedules.

In other news, it was good to hear Philip Billing progressed in the ePL invitation tournament beating the Saint's Angus Gunn 4-0. This is where we are with football now - it's thumbs and fingers only!

Previous post on Cherry Chimes - Who has the toughest run-in among the bottom six