Match Day Bournemouth v Leicester, Saturday 30th September 15:00

[SALTIRE]

Match chat.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

I missed our last couple of games (cup win v Brighton and defeat v Everton) so I'm dying to get back. I gather we played well v Everton for 70 minutes missing enough chances to put the game to bed, and then of course we capitulated in the last 20. Predictably our team continued to omit Lewis Cook for whatever unfathomable reason, whereas Everton used Cook's u21 colleague Davies to great effect against us. For the love of all that is holy Howe, start using Cook. Central midfield has been a problem all season so far, and we're not using our best central midfielder. Baffling.

Our record against Leicester recently has been good, I don't think they've beaten us in several years. So maybe they're over-due! Neither side has started the season particularly well. It probably has a score draw written all over it, which won't overly boost either side.

The plus points for us currently are Jordon Ibe and Josh King, and even Surman is doing ok. We also have Stanislas back fit who is our main set piece man and without whom all our corners and free kicks are pointless. On the negative, the spine of the side is unsettled and is error prone, we don't know what our best centre back or central midfield is.

An organised Leicester side able to break through the middle well would take advantage of this. Although I gather they might have Vardy missing, but Iheanacho is a useful replacement!

 

[AFCB_Mark]

In terms of a performance you can't ask for any more than that today. We've battered Leicester, had 3 gilt edged chances inside 15 minutes and only really carried on in that style. Unfortunately the composure was non existent. So we've come away with a draw, when last season we'd have smashed 4 or more in no problem.

I'm a little worried at the number of points we're letting slip currently from good positions. Very, very few games at this level are as one sided in our favour as today. Have to make them count.

We'll still be in the bottom 3 after this weekend and all our good play will have been for little, with a nasty fixture list coming up.