AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe has confessed that he should have rotated the side more against Southampton.
The Cherries started the game against Southampton with ten of the same eleven players, who had beaten Leicester City at Dean Court in midweek.
The only change had been striker Callum Wilson stepping back into the side with Benik Afobe dropping back to the bench.
AFC Bournemouth looked off the pace in comparison to their most recent displays with a lack of intensity off the ball, opting to sit back rather than press the visitors.
Despite the poor performance, AFC Bournemouth had initially taken the lead when Nathan Ake scored a superb diving header after just six minutes. But once Southampton had equalised through former AFC Bournemouth loanee Ryan Bertrand, the visitors would go on to comfortably take all three points following a brace from Jay Rodriguez.
Following the game Howe told Sky Sports…
‘Credit to Southampton, they played well today and deserved to win, We weren’t at our best physically or technically today so there’s a lot to learn from…’
‘…When you look back perhaps the Leicester game took more out of us than we realised, After three games in eight days, perhaps we could have rotated more. These are all things I’ll think about.
‘I and hopefully the players don’t need reminding how difficult this league is, it’s incredibly tough and the intensity levels are extreme.
‘The players have to go through a lot physically over 90 minutes. It’s a bad day at the office for us but we’ve got to bounce back.’
Your Say…
Garbo wrote…
We just looked off the pace …maybe we are expecting too much from our relative my small squad of players?….saints were much sharper on then ball and closing down play than we were..only Cook,Ake and Wilshere looked at the races….Callum has lost his edge at the moment and Smith looked lost for most of the game…Arter played like someone who did want a booking and lost his bite…Pugh looked a championship player and King has lost his mojo since Wilson came back?…so all on all a disappointing afternoon against the scum… – Join the conversation here.
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