Bournemouth finished sixth last season, their highest-ever Premier League finish and qualified for Europe for the first time in the club’s history.
Just how special was last season and has that success changed expectations among supporters?
What an incredible achievement last season was. It was an odd one, with a great start, a terrible middle and an unbeaten end. There was even a sense of what could have been, given Champions League football was on the cards for a brief period. But these are levels
of success supporters at this club could not have dreamed of in our recent history, let alone its 100+ year existence in the bottom two tiers of the Football League.
This season I think a lot of fans would take a 17th-placed finish to have a deep run in one of the domestic cups and the Europa League, and that feels like the basket where most of our eggs are likely to go this season. Others will disagree, and the squad quality has not fallen off at all, but we are playing a lot more games this season which will take its toll.
Andoni Iraola left Bournemouth for Liverpool during the summer after three hugely successful seasons.
How difficult was it to lose him and what have you made of Marco Rose as his replacement so far?
It is him and Eddie Howe sitting at the top table of Bournemouth managers and no one else comes close, so obviously the news that he was going to leave was awful. But as you’d expect from him, he continued to work hard and finished the job with a huge amount of respect from all Cherries fans. I don’t think I’m alone amongst Bournemouth supporters in wanting Liverpool to do well this season because he’s their manager.
Marco Rose made a good impression in pre-season and a lot of the noise from players is that he’s a good man to work for and the atmosphere in the club is generally really good. There have been some frustrations with aspects of his work, in particular that he has not been using his bench enough, though that did change against Sturm Graz, so hopefully he’ll keep doing that going forward.
Despite last season’s success, Bournemouth are still searching for their first Premier League win of the campaign and currently sit 18th.
What do you think has gone wrong domestically so far?
Well, this did happen in Iraola’s first season too so we have seen this before. But Rose is starting from a much better baseline than Andoni was, so there are certainly some dissenting voices on social media already.
In the first few games it was late goals that were an issue. Conceding four goals from the 84th minute onwards in the first three games is pretty shocking. But we were close to getting something against City and Liverpool, whilst we were easily the better side against Newcastle, Everton and Brentford.
Heck, even against Chelsea we had the better xG, I honestly don’t know how, despite losing 5-1. But really, the finishing of the forwards has been poor, the defence are getting punished for any and all of their mistakes and the midfield is now missing Alex Scott. Kroupi being out for a while doesn’t help either.
Bournemouth were beaten 5-1 by Chelsea in their last league match.
Was that simply a bad day, or did the performance highlight some wider concerns about the team under Rose?
It was a particularly bad day for Antonio Silva, who is our Senesi replacement and, up until that game, had been very impressive.
But this was also where I feel the loss of Alex Scott was really felt in midfield for ball winning and retention. Outside of that, we were behind so quickly that they could just settle into a mid-block and force us to break them down.
At times we were successful in this but they didn’t need to move out of second gear besides short bursts. It was a poor performance all round but they were so clinical that the score doesn’t feel like it flattered them, despite them barely getting over 1 xG.
European football has been a very different story, with Thursday’s 3-0 victory over Sturm Graz making it two wins from two in the Europa League.
Why do you think Bournemouth have looked more comfortable in Europe than in the Premier League?
The level of the competition is lower. It’s a harsh reality that a lot of teams in Europe have to deal with. A stat doing the rounds was that Bournemouth’s squad value on Transfermarkt is €600 million. The value of the entire Austrian Bundesliga is €400 million. That’s a staggering difference.
I would say that we rode our luck a bit against Sociedad, but we were the dominant side against Sturm Graz, particularly once we used our bench at the 60-minute mark.
But compared to Chelsea the team felt much more confident, so hopefully we can take that into this weekend’s game.
Bournemouth have had to rebuild again following Iraola’s departure and another busy summer.
How happy are you with the squad now and which of the summer signings has impressed you most?
Well, it wasn’t as busy as most of our recent windows. Senesi left on a free and Jimenez is best removed from the club’s history. Any other outgoings were back-up players.
The incomings were Silva to replace Senesi, Alvaro Rodriguez to replace Enes Unal as a striker option, and Juanlu Sanchez to replace Jimenez as an RB option. Replacements were the order of business, not necessarily strengthening much.
Silva has been good, Alvaro has been okay to poor, and Sanchez hasn’t been seen much. Alvaro did get his first goal from the spot against Sturm Graz, and I think Sanchez will be good, but he’ll certainly be needed. You can’t expect the 35-year-old Adam Smith to play every game this season.
I’m relatively happy with the squad but we really need Kroupi and Scott back ASAP.
Rayan and Evanilson both scored against Sturm Graz, while Bournemouth also have players such as Justin Kluivert in attack.
Who do you think represents the biggest threat Sunderland need to be wary of?
Evanilson, Rayan and Kluivert have not been clinical enough at all so far and Kroupi is out, so I’m looking at our left side for us to attack down with Truffert and Tavernier.
In fact, Tavernier is our top scorer in the league so far with three goals. He’s liable to drift a fair bit during the game and turn up wherever he wants to, so I think he’s our most dangerous player at the moment.
Rayan may not have a goal in the league yet but he has three in the cups and is someone who can produce something if given a little bit of space.
Alex Scott recently made his senior England debut and then earned his first start for the national team.
How important has he become for Bournemouth and how high do you think his ceiling is?
He has become vital to the team. It took him a while to get into the starting XI regularly, but last season he went from strength to strength.
As has been highlighted by people more qualified than me, he’s kind of a jack of all trades, or maybe a Swiss Army knife to be more positive. He is good at everything and great in a lot of things, but doesn’t necessarily stand out statistically in any one area.
His passing is okay, but not often progressive. His ball winning and aerials have really improved. His dribbling feels like his best attribute but again he doesn’t show up as outstanding statistically.
This is not to put him down, but merely to say that I think in a better team he could shine more, and there are a lot of top-level sides that want someone with his level of technical ability that could fit into multiple tactical systems effortlessly.
Real Madrid were linked to him recently, but Liverpool feels like a really good fit for him right now with their midfield problems and meeting up with Iraola again.
If there was more than two years left on his deal I think we could get £100m for him easily, and that is apparently what we would need in January to let him go. We will have to see whether that transpires.
Iraola’s Bournemouth were renowned for their aggressive pressing and intensity.
How has the style changed under Marco Rose and where do you think Sunderland can cause Bournemouth problems?
The pressing hasn’t changed, though I do feel that the structure isn’t as strong in that press as it was under Andoni.
Intensity is still the name of the game, but the late goals we’ve conceded and lack of our own late goals tells a tale of what that is doing to the players’ energy levels during a match.
Right now the midfield feels too easy to play through and cutbacks to the edge of the box are available for players to try and get a goal from.
Both Bournemouth and Sunderland played in Europe on Thursday night before meeting on Sunday.
What sort of game are you expecting at the Vitality Stadium and what is your score prediction?
I think that there will need to be a bit of rotation from both sides and with key injuries in both squads it will be interesting to see who the most cohesive team can be.
Of course, your opponent on Thursday was from the Portuguese second tier, but you probably had to work harder to get the win so fatigue will be interesting later on in the match.
We didn’t show up very well in both games against you last season, so this needs to be a chance the players take to correct that poor record.
Having said that, I really like the Sunderland team and you only need to look at the xG you created against Man City to know that you are a very difficult team to stop.
I have to have some level of confidence that we can get something from this game. My head says 2-2 draw, but my heart is begging for a win. I’ll say 3-2.
