After AFC Bournemouth had lost four consecutive games, coming up short against Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle United and Manchester City, the Cherries hosted Huddersfield Town at Dean Court on Tuesday night.
Two early goals from Callum Wilson and Ryan Fraser were enough to secure the points, but it didn’t tell the full story.
Written by tednphil
That was probably the worst AFC Bournemouth team display and worst individual performance for a number of players, since we’ve been in the Premier League.
Once we took a 2 goal lead, we became overrun in midfield; passes were often misplaced; players were so often caught in possession; and we looked knackered as early as half-time. It was crying out for tactical substitutions, but no, Cherries manager Eddie Howe delayed his substitutions longer than his usual timings.
To me, Tyrone Mings should have replaced Lewis Cook and should have switched to a 5 man defence, to counter Huddersfield Town’s effective wingers and add height at the back of the Cherries defence.
AFC Bournemouth just about scrambled over the line to take all three points, but the statistics show :
Possession 33% – 67% in Huddersfield’s favour.
Shots. 6 – 23 in Huddersfield’s favour.
Corners. 4 – 8 in Huddersfield’s favour.
But we won, so was Eddie right or just lucky?
AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe told afcb.co.uk after the game…
“It’s a big relief to get the win. We anticipated it would be a very tough game. Huddersfield play a good brand of football and press very well. We got the dream start and looked in total control, but they threw caution to the wind, put a lot of bodies forward ahead of the ball and played very well so credit to them for that.
“Credit to my players as well for how we responded in the second half and how we managed to contain their aerial bombardment in set-plays and long throws. We dealt with that really well.
“We always want the ball and it’s unlike us at home to be without it for long periods. Whether the score-line or our recent run of results affected that I don’t know, but it was uncomfortable and that’s where I credit the players because they didn’t panic, and we managed the second period excellently. Some of our defending was superb and our goalkeeping played a big part in that.
Your say…
blandford_cherry wrote…
No, he Eddie Howe didn’t get his tactics right, we couldn’t counter their height or dominance especially down the wings. I think we were crying out for a change at Half Time. – Join the conversation, click here.
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