Has there been any surprises?

AFC Bournemouth travel to Manchester United on Sunday for the main event on Sky Sports Super Sunday programme.

The Cherries, however, have lost 8 of their last 10 games, conceding 22 goals.

Written by AFCBade

Re this tough period AFC Bournemouth is going through, I am not sure there are too many surprises:

1. The fixture list looked really daunting November-December
2. Always expected heavy defeats vs Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool
3. Always felt winning home games with Brighton & Hove Albion and Huddersfield Town was vital
4. Was hopeful of points at Newcastle United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, but knew it would be tough if they got the first goal
5. Given the crazy fixture list always expected injuries would happen
6. Thought we should be aiming at trying to be best of the rest and we are 2 points off 7th at the halfway mark.
7. Hopes we could reach at least League cup quarter final but needed luck to progress if we played a top side.

All the above has happened so not sure why fans should be that down. Been unlucky with the duplication of positions where injuries have struck and a few games we have not had the luck of the bounce but we will get things going our way again in the second half of the season …….. so bring it on!

AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe told the Daily Echo…

“I don’t think we can go too deep in ourselves. The next game is going to come round very quickly.

“We are in a key stage of the season and we have to make sure we keep our focus and not get too down on ourselves.

“We have Manchester United away in our next match so we can’t spend too much time dwelling on (the 5-0 loss at Wembley).

“We have to try to learn the lessons from the Tottenham match and try to put it right.”

Your say…

red_house wrote…

Some positives. Junior Stanislas appears to be slowly getting up to pace (until his next Injury). Jordon Ibe has put in a couple of decent appearances, likewise Lys Mousset. Jack Simpson looked accomplished against Chelsea.

Simon Francis has exceeded expectations this season, you could argue that Dan Gosling did at the start of the season. However, did we really expect them to be an integral part of the team going into 2019? Fair play to them for getting stuck in but if that Sunderland documentary was anything to go by Gosling was on his way out last year and we thought Franno might be heading towards retirement. The big loss for me was Adam Smith. I think Lewis Cook just ‘broke’, his form had dipped and he was busting a gut to make things work.

If anything we have strength in depth, much more so than previous years and that lineup and bench still looks pretty decent, defence aside. Talking of defence I think Eddie Howe has some kind of mental block on that side of things. We are always one injury away from a catastrophe every season.

Plenty to be positive about, a few things to be worried about but a loanee or two In January would be nice. – Join the conversation, click here.

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