Let’s just enjoy the ride

The Cherries travelled to Old Trafford in midweek to face Manchester United.

AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe opted to continue with a 4-4-1-1 system, but decided to rotate his squad in both midfield and attack.

Asmir Begovic stayed in goal behind the familiar back four of Adam Smith, Simon Francis, Nathan Ake and Charlie Daniels with Steve Cook dropping back to the bench.

In midfield, the wingers selected were Ryan Fraser and Junior Stanislas, but the recent central pairing of Andrew Surman and Lewis Cook were both dropped in favour of Dan Gosling and Harry Arter.

Up front and Joshua King kept his place in the number 10 role, but Jermain Defoe dropped to the bench following his brace against Crystal Palace in favour of Callum Wilson who hadn’t started since the end of November in the defeat against Burnley.

The only goal of the game came via Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku who beat Nathan Ake in the air following Juan Mata’s cross on 25 minutes.

AFCB Vital User thoughts…

afcb.czech

A pretty good performance overall. Needed to take a few extra risks towards the end and pressed a little harder. Arter and Gosling both played well, but due to their yellow cards I would have thought it would be better for Cook to come on sooner. King gave his all and was effective for 70 mins, but at that point really should have come off instead of Stanislas.

lofty1971

When I saw the line up I was a bit ‘uh oh` but fair play to Eddie and the players selected, that was some performance against Man United, yes that`s Man United who haven`t lost a game at home in over 250 games when leading at halftime according to Sky!

Not really a performance to nit pick over….

Neil Dawson

Very proud tonight. You cant ask for more than that…although not enjoying the traffic out. We were a couple of final balls away from winning and De Gea…

It is always great seeing us boss possession at these legendary grounds. I wonder what Fergie made of them time wasting against Bournemouth…he must shudder! Thought Ake was sublime and Arter looked back to form. King clever and Charlie and Wee man very lively. Stan and Calum quiet.

Top showing as defeats go.

canadiancherry

What a great game! That’s the Bournemouth I love to watch!
They were lucky to get the goal they did, but given that Rashford hit the crossbar I suppose we can’t complain much.
Some points that struck me:
1. Arter looks like he’s back. Great performance from Harry, the bite is back in his game.
2. Francis looks a couple steps quicker than before. He outpaced Rashford at one point. Or maybe that was an optical illusion?
3. Ake was great once again.
4. Smith needs to quit his diving and theatrics. After seeing the replay it doesn’t look like Martial touched his face at all, yet there’s Smith lying in the fetal position clutching his face. He’s cost us goals before with his acting and I wish he’d knock it off.
5. Stanislas is not in full match form. He did well getting into the right positions, but at least 4 or 5 times his poor final ball gave up possession after a promising build up. I know he has the potential for great ball delivery so hopefully he can get that part of his game back up to its previous standard.
6. Overall, as a team, we played great. Lots of playing from the back, with pace in attack!

GARYafCb

Bloody disappointing – ManUre were there for the taking.
I was confident that Eddie would swap Gozzer forLewis at half time. A bit of creativity needed and killer balls from midfield would have seen us get something. Sadly he left it till the last 10 mins.
An opportunity lost.

Also the coldest, wettest walk to a game for many years – it really is grim up north.

Druss_the_Legend

We said when we came up that many people would never be happy unless we won every game. We are not one of the 3 worst teams in the league. I wonder what people want. Last season, despite all the moaning, we finished in the top half, just shows that the boys and Eddie can never do enough to satisfy some people.

corfe_red

Much better performance than the Swansea game where we got a point……

If we go down playing that type of game, so be it…..much much better IMO than the WBA & Stoke approach…..

It’s suppose to be entertainment, let’s just enjoy the ride..