Peter Neil Bell's Blog: Cherry Chimes, page 59

Can AFCB take advantage of Man Utd heavy programme of games?

It will be windy today, and AFCB will be a showcase as the early game.With only two places between Man Utd and Bournemouth we could expect a tight game in this early kick off. United will be thinking they have overcome their bad run of form with a good win against Norwich last weekend, and a strong Carabao Cup performance to knock Chelsea out away from home. But three games in a week might mean some changes for Solskjaer to contemplate and Rashford is not going to score free kick rockets every time he steps out on the pitch!

The real plus for Man United last week was to see Anthony Martial not only come back, but to link up really well with Marcus Rashford. Man United had a potent attack again. Once United had a focal point they looked a much better side. The fears and in complacency might not yet have faded from their game completely though. If they find AFCB hard to breakdown then they could yet go back into their shell again.

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Solskjaer probably hopes that by playing game after game he will get his team to run into form. It has been happening so far this week, but what happens when they don't find things easy? It was pretty much a full strength side against Chelsea in midweek. Brendan Williams might not get a start, but we can expect Martial to be pushed up front to start against Bournemouth and Fred is likely to start in midfield. Pereira was also a sub in midweek and could come into the starting line up.

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But this is not a Man United that should hold too much fear for the Cherries. Pogba is out until December with an ankle injury, so they don't have quite that same central power unit. But McTominay has been sensational for them. The defence has also started to do better with a goal a game conceded. United's record is pretty similar to Bournemouth's start so I wouldn't be overly shocked if Bournemouth drawing record was continued for another game. But one home win is something that Eddie Howe would of course like to improve on.

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Man Utd Away
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AFCB Home
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Possible AFCB line-upAFCB Subs: Boruc, Francis, Kelly, Surman, Billing, Danjuma, H WilsonAFCB TV PREVIEW

Can Eddie get Ryan Fraser to sparkle again?

The AFCB fans have always been pleased at how well Ryan Fraser has played and how he has progressed under Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall's teachings. We all know that there needs to be a level of trust and friendship, and not just professional work ethic to make relationships work. The transfer issues that arose in 2019 over Ryan's Fraser's future have stifled his game and there needs to be a real desire from Ryan to enjoy what could be his last season at AFCB, if Eddie and Jason are going to get the best out of this talented winger.
Can Ryan get his goal scoring up from one goal this season?I don't blame Ryan for keeping his options open to see what clubs might come in for him. He had a terrific season in 2018-19, but he risks losing it all if he doesn't get back his performance levels. I thought he did okay against Watford, without pulling up any trees as they say. He was in and out of the game a bit, and that's been true of a few games this season. He hasn't really started as many games as he would have liked I am sure, but keeping him on the sidelines doesn't seem to have done the team much good at various times either.
A flying and fully fit Ryan Fraser is as good as any left winger in the league and I miss not seeing him rip teams up in the manner to which we have been accustomed to. He can take games away from teams with his quick bursts and his eye for goal, but we are just not seeing it at the moment. It's no doubt more frustrating to Ryan than anyone else, but if Bournemouth want a good placing this season they need to find a way of getting Ryan back concentrating on his game.

Advertisement Eddie Had a Dream is on sale now!It probably hasn't helped that Scotland have also been performing under par and Ryan is not seen as a new player at that level anymore. He needs to be playing regularly for AFCB and chipping in with some goals and assists. Well, he won't get a much bigger stage than when Man Utd come down this weekend in the early kick-off. This could be the game we have been waiting for when Eddie Howe rally does get Ryan to play some sparkling football again. 

Are Man Utd back on form?

No Score draw?Bournemouth don't often get Man Utd when they are in a downward spiral. Yet again we have seen them gain encouragement from their last outing against Norwich City at home and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be expecting his team to start picking up back to back away points, and a trip to Bournemouth is not going to be a game where they would expect to find it overly difficult to get the three points if the Man Utd of old turn up.

The good point for Bournemouth is that perhaps the pressure has come off Solskjaer and his players a little bit since they did win against Norwich. It might not have been a massive test for Man Utd going 0-2 up in half an hour away at Norwich and it will be down to Bournemouth to play with more defiance to not go down early against this Man Utd team. The player that seems to be playing with more determination than anyone on their side is Scott McTominay to me. He is scoring goals and making the tackles that are giving United a platform and he is clearly starting to play well with Maguire as he gets to know his game better.



Online-Bookies.org.ukMan Utd managed 21 shots against Norwich, so Ramsdale might well expect a busy afternoon. It is the early game in the afternoon, which can make a difference when it comes to how the players are feeling, but Bournemouth have to take it on as a positive and not a negative that they are playing early. The must try and take on board that United are not the team they have been in past seasons and are a bit shaky if they are tested. I don't believe United are a fixed item yet, even with Rashford and Martial getting among the goals last time out in the league. But I have to confess, their away form is improving as was shown with the 1-2 away win in the Carabao Cup against Chelsea in midweek.

Advertisement Eddie Had a Dream is on sale now!A win against such a team would really get AFC Bournemouth's season up and running again and would make the disappointments of the last few weeks more bearable. The Cherries need a solid result, and if it comes against Man United then Howe will have done his work well.

Score Prediction Competition for T-Shirt
Send in your score predictions for AFCB v Man Utd to @CherryChimes. We will pick a winner from the correct scores to win a Cherry Chimes T-Shirt. All tweeted predictions get posted on the blog. Best of luck!



Cherry Chimes Newsletter - out today!
Cherry Chimes' November Newsletter brings you the best stories on the blog and the thoughts behind them from last month. It's out today, with special stories - Where will we be in another seven years and can we be pleased with the start of the season?

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Lewis Cook's time is coming

It doesn't take a lot to see that AFCB have some potential suspensions coming up in central midfield with both Philip Billing and Jefferson Lerma on four yellow cards. The likelihood of them both avoiding a card against Man Utd, in the next game, is probably pretty low and this may give Eddie Howe the chance to give Lewis Cook another start.
Lewis Cook is likely to have a busy November.Lewis didn't have an inspired game against Norwich City when he last played and Eddie decided to change things for the Watford match. The Billing and Lerma combination has been the most popular choice, so far this season, but there is going to be a time when it has to be given a rest. While Lerma missed the Norwich game, his energy and control is very much needed by the team and against Man Utd, I'd certainly not like to see him rested.
We haven't seen Lewis Cook and Lerma play together, so far this season, but it's the combination that I most want to see, and I expect I'm not alone there. Lewis Cook is great at picking out forward passes and Lerma is the general on the park who has fantastic positional play to stop attacks. For me they should compliment each other well, but Eddie has stuck with Philip Billing, as a more physical presence, and I wonder if he is going to be forced to rethink that, rather than doing it from a personal desire.

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Lewis has obviously got to come back gradually from his injury, but he hasn't been overly pressed so far. How quickly he does get up to speed is going to need Eddie Howe to trust and rely on him at some point. It could come as early as the next match, and if it does come then, I will be expecting Lewis to put in one of those special man of the match performances, as he tends to raise his game against the big teams.

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Eddie Had A Dream: A move to Portsmouth should have been the start of something big for Eddie Howe

There was little doubting that Eddie Howe was one of the star players in a Cherries' team that was bumping along in League Two in 2001-02. It wasn't long before other clubs were looking to see if they could take Eddie and play him at a higher level, and on 28 March 2002, Eddie Howe left AFC Bournemouth to join former AFC Bournemouth manager Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth FC. It should have been the transfer move that made Eddie Howe's career take-off, but the fact that it didn't turn out that way wasn't a opportunity to be wasted.


Eddie Had a Dream is on sale now!Here is another extract from
Eddie Had A Dream
Chapter 4: Playershare power and Financial worries (2002-07).

Portsmouth came calling for Eddie Howe, after Harry Redknapp became Pompey’s manager. In March 2002 Eddie signed for Portsmouth on a three-year deal for £400,000. It should have been the making of the centre-back, but it turned out to be a frustrating period with Howe only making two appearances for Pompey, as he sustained a knee injury in his debut against Preston North End. Eddie was injured after 51 minutes of the game which Pompey lost 2-0. That would have been a crushing blow for any professional footballer, but Eddie is a man who considers and ponders his every move. For him, the period in rehabilitation gave him a chance to see how Harry Redknapp and Kevin Bond worked with players. Howe was once asked whether moving to Portsmouth had been a bad decision? It certainly wasn’t for Eddie in terms of personal development. He viewed it as a chance to learn from others and to find something that would add to his own makeup.


Advertisement                           Eddie made his comeback over a year later, on 10 August 2002, when Portsmouth played Nottingham Forest. The match was another devastating blow for Eddie, who lasted just nine minutes before his knee went again. It was only Eddie’s second game for Portsmouth and he would not play for them again.
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You can pick up your copy of Eddie Had A Dream on Amazon/Kindle as a £9.99 ebook or a £13.49 paperback.
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version -available now!

As of Saturday, after 11am - or late morning, local fans can also pop along to the In off the Far Post shop, at 901 Christchurch Road, Pokesdown, where Paul Orchard will be happy to sell you the first copies of the book that will be available locally.

I am rushing a delivery down to him and aim to be there by late morning, so - fingers crossed - he can sell some copies before and after the start of the match with Man United - do drop in and see him. He has some fantastic stock of AFC Bournemouth books and programmes and I used a lot of his information at the shop as reference for Eddie Had A Dream. You might even get a signed copy if you bump in to me!


ALSO DON'T MISS THIS! Jack Kitson at The Sack Race interviewed Cherry Chimes about Eddie Had A Dream and he has a competition give away - to read his interview and enter the free to enter competition -  click this link to the Sack Race website .

Jumping on a few years from Eddie Howe's playing years, here is a video of the period when Eddie Howe left AFCB to join Burnley FC as their manager. 


Eddie Had a Dream: Chapter 8 Farewell to the Cherries 2010-11
Cherry Chimes Newsletter - out tomorrow!
Cherry Chimes' November Newsletter brings you the best stories on the blog and the thoughts behind them from last month. It's out tomorrow, with special stories - Where will we be in another seven years and can we be pleased with the start of the season?

To sign up for the newsletter just complete the form below - like all good things it's free!


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When will AFCB hit top gear?

It has been hard to watch the Cherries of late. It is not that they haven't been trying, but they have looked nervous and fragile when they don't want to do the wrong thing. It may just be holding the players back. They need to play without fear and to really go at teams if they are to play at their best.
Bournemouth need to play without fear.We have been waiting for the Cherries to hit top gear for a few weeks now. It's not been happening. I don't see it being down to any one player in particular, but as a team focus thing. Eddie may have switched the players minds to a more clean sheet mentality which previously been hard to come by. Now the team seems to have lost something going forward. There is a switch that needs to be flicked somewhere, but finding it is definitely eluding Eddie Howe at the moment.
I don't see the players getting the ball forward as quickly as we know they can and by slowing things down they tend to be less sure of their passing. It is when stretching the opposition that AFCB always play at their best. The speed of Fraser and Adam Smith was certainly there on Saturday against Watford, but they couldn't deliver the quality crosses to cause real mayhem in Watford's defence.

The way King delivered his cross for Danjuma's chance though may make Howe reconsider where Josh King plays next time. It was pin-point and getting the best out of Josh King is certainly needed to get AFCB firing.
Advertisement Eddie Had a Dream is on sale now!Callum Wilson cut a more puzzled figure to me when he was subbed for Dominic Solanke. He just hadn't seen as much ball as he would have liked and more importantly not in the areas where he could really do any damage to the opposition. I can't see Callum being dropped from a starting spot, but Eddie Howe must be running out of ideas as to what he can do to get the forwards in more of a goal scoring mood.

Steve Cook - is he one of England's best defenders?

I gave Steve Cook man of the match at Watford. It was pretty much the full performance form him. He was firs to pretty much every tackle and the cross bar is probably still rattling at Vicarage Road after his high leap and header that beat Ben Foster, but not the framework of the goal.
Steve Cook is playing well again.In the last month we have seen Tyrone Mings get his first England cap and yet Steve Cook is still being overlooked for a call up at national level. It may not bother Steve that much but if he keeps paying as he has since his return from injury, he will surely get that elusive opportunity one day to join the England squad. In a way the fact that Mings has made it should give hope to Steve that he can also get that recognition.


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The important thing for AFC Bournemouth fans though is that Steve keeps playing with the kind of authority that he showed at Watford. Steve never hides from a challenge and he enjoys coming up against top strikers. He didn't have Troy Deeney to battle with but he had the pacey Geard Deulofeu to keep tabs on, which he managed fairly well.
Online-Bookies.org.ukThe visit of Man United will be another challenge. Both Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial are looking to get Man United back on track and new signing Daniel James also looks a handful. So Steve Cook can't as for a much bigger test in the next game to try and keep the clean sheets going. If he manages it he might have more cause to hope that Gareth Southgate is starting to see that he is one of the best English defenders available to him.
Eddie Had a Dream is on sale now!

AFCB's defence is gaining in confidence

While there have been problems with AFCB's last few games, the defence has to be pleased with just conceding one goal in their last three games. Keeping teams out is not usually Bournemouth's strong point, so it is good to see that finally we can see that this part of the team is finding a bit of form at the back.
Ake has been making a lo of clearances and blocks to keep back-to-back clean sheets.Most pundits have put this down to the solid centre-half partnership between Steve Cook and Nathan Aké. However, while this is no doubt true to some extent, we have seen a remarkable rise in improvement in Diego Rico's game and Aaron Ramsdale has been sensational in goal. We mustn't forget that Adam Smith has also returned and has made the right side of defence far more solid.

There is no need for Howe to make any changes to his back four for the moment and Ramsdale is starting to look unbeatable. He did amazingly well to keep out shots from Pereyra and Hughes at Watford, and he is starting to make the really difficult saves look effortless. If he keeps this up, then the big teams will become rather interested in such a good young English keeper.

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Steve Cook has added much more organisation to the defence as well. He is not worried about taking responsibility for decisions and while he made not always get it right, the players around him seem to listen to him. I was really amused when Rico was told, in no uncertain terms, that he should buck up his ideas, by Steve Cook, after he tried an audacious back heeled pass in the box that saw Watford regain possession in a shooting position on the edge of the box.
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eBook version -available now!Aké is also winning the aerial battles and with Rico playing such a pivotal part for the team in supplying crosses and corners, it's hard to see how Lloyd Kelley is going to get many starts this season when he is back fit, while Rico is available.

Danjuma's first start could have been so much better

I wondered how Arnaut Danjuma felt when he stepped off the field on Saturday to be replaced by Harry Wilson. He had just completed his first start for his new club and knew that he could have been a match winner, if he had just reacted better, when Josh King had laid on an exquisite pass for him, across the box, that he would surely normally have knocked in.
Danjuma has o take his chances when in front of goal.The day started brightly enough at Watford for Danjuma. He was perhaps criticised a little by Jason Tindall for not getting back and helping out Diego Rico enough, but Pererya was causing problems all afternoon for Bournemouth and all the players were wondering where he would pop up next.

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Once Danjuma had got his passing better, he did get into some great positions, and there was no better one than at the end of that first half, when he looked certain to score. It looked like he had made up his mind early to keep the shot low, as Foster came rushing out. It was a shame, as if he had lifted his head and just chipped the ball, he probably would have given AFCB a half-time lead.

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fans should get hold of this Christmas!Now he will look at this week wondering why he didn't do that. He will be fighting for his place again and he'll have to show some sharp shooting this week in training, if he is to retain his place. I have been pleased that Danjuma is making the right kind of runs and is creating space for himself to get shots away, but he just needs to find more accuracy and confidence that he is going to score.

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It's strange how confidence and surroundings can make such a difference. Look at Lys Mousset now,. He can't stop scoring for Sheffield United, but he's still the same player he was at Bournemouth. But having people believe in you makes a lot of difference.

Why have the goals dried up for AFCB?

I'd like to put my finger on exactly why AFCB have suddenly found scoring so hard to do. The team did change against Watford and Howe must have thought that Solanke needed to be taken out of the firing line. As it was, he was probably doing no worse than any of the other attacking players who struggled to really create clear enough chances that they could simply put away.
Callum Wilson cut a disappointed figure when he was subbed early.I think Callum Wilson is perhaps seeking the ball too much and drifting out wide, because he is not getting the ball in the box, where he wants it. In a way it is good that he stretches the central defenders, but how many times do we see him regain the ball on the wing and have nobody to target in the middle because that is where he should be? Last season the connection between Fraser and Wilson was fantastic, but you hardly see them get a pass to each other now. Fraser was brought back into the team, but he played mainly on the right in the main and isn't having quite the impact we are used to seeing from him yet.
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The debate about where Josh King should play will probably go on and on. I'm not certain if he actually knows his best position, and yet I think he is best when he plays consistently in one position. All this switching can't be helping him. Eddie Howe must be praying that David Brooks is back soon, as he has that gift to do something special. It appears that Jordan Ibe is out of favour or must have a knock, as he is not getting in the squad at the moment. The options could be better for Howe, but he just has to try and get the team working better in front of goal.

Online-Bookies.org.ukThere will be a huge incentive next weekend with the visit of Man United. This will be a very good opportunity to get a result against one of the biggest names in football, and Bournemouth could even start favourites at home with their home record.

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Eddie Had a Dream
eBook version -available now!