After picking up a point on the road, Villa will look to gain a second consecutive home win against Bournemouth. The Cherries will be no pushover, as they will be buzzing from their 1-0 win against Liverpool. Bournemouth will be looking to climb out of the relegation zone with a point.
I spoke to Kirk Tovey from Cherries Red Army to find out more about Bournemouth’s season so far.
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Bournemouth currently sit 18th in the league with the joint-worst goal difference in the league. It’s clear that the defense is where the issues lie with Bournemouth. Is the defense dodgy due to individuals not being good enough, or is it down to the system Bournemouth play?
The nine-nil at Liverpool will always hurt any teams GD and some other damaging results where we set up negatively with a system that is unnatural to our players which subsequently caused errors in the game which is disappointing but overall some of our best players this season have been defenders. Chris Mepham has been magnificent when picked, On Loan Stephens and new signing Senesi have been faultless at times bringing different attributes that compliment each other well and that was for all to see in our 1-0 win over Liverpool last weekend.
A lot was said when the Cherries opted to appoint O’Neil as manager earlier this season. Since then, Bournemouth have been involved in one of the most entertaining relegation battles in Premier League history. Do you think that would have been different if O’Neil wasn’t appointed?
The Appointment of O’Neil most definitely split the fan base, some wanted to back a young Coach being given a chance and some were against with the facts on the table that Gary O’Neil has never physically managed or been a Head Coach at any level out side of his playing Career and lacks real experience and knowledge of being in different types of scenarios throughout the season.
This obviously means that Gary O’Neil is learning on the job game by game and we have seen that both positively and negatively, we were in unique position under a New positive ownership where Bournemouth could have taken a leap of faith and hired an experienced head with a wealth of knowledge and worldwide networking that our club may never have seen before.
That said the club promoted within which we have seen many times before under previous ownerships and we will find out in May whether it was a good decision or a missed opportunity, what I can be sure of is that the majority of fans in my opinion will back the team to hopefully achieve survival.
Whilst Bournemouth’s defence is a consistent risk, their attack looks a lot more appealing. Who would you say is Bournemouth’s most underrated player?
From an attacking point of view we are a different animal now since we added real quality in the January Transfer window with the likes of Dango Ouattara, Hamad Traore although he might not be fit for this fixture to compliment our current squad with players like Tavernier, Solanke, Rothwell etc.
A player that sometimes goes under the radar is Philip Billing, a turbulent start to his Cherries career with his playing style sometimes providing false information but he came into his own last season with 10 goals and 10 Assists in the Championship and this season he is our top goal scorer with 6 and scored the winner against Liverpool.
He is player that thrives in a role with freedom, can link up in different positions and has an eye for goal inside the box and also outside the box, we know Billing is player we might struggle to keep hold of at the end of this season.
Finally, what’s your score prediction?
We have a chance to do a double over Villa and I always believe in most games that we can win but I think Villa are a better team under Emery and a cracking 2-2 draw could be on the cards.
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OPPOSITION FOCUS | BOURNEMOUTH 1-0 LIVERPOOL
Bournemouth currently sit in the third of the three relegation spots with the joint-worst goal difference in the league. A large proportion of the blame can be placed on their 9-0 defeat to Liverpool towards the end of the season.
However, their turnaround in performances is best shown by the fact that they beat the team that thrashed them earlier in the season. Bournemouth’s win against Liverpool shows that Bournemouth haven’t given up and will fight for their place in the Premier League.
In this opposition focus, I’ll be concentrating on that Liverpool game. I’ll look at the game plan, key players, and how this could effect Saturday’s game. Additionally, I’ll be looking at the Cherries remaining games for the rest of the season and assessing their survival hopes.
But why was there so much emphasis on the left side of midfield? It’s simple really. They played on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s high positioning and poor defence. Bournemouth overloaded the left wing of that pitch without compromising the position of the left back, Kelly. They did this by bringing Billings and Solanke over to assist Anthony on the wing. This was effective as it overloaded Liverpool while also enabling Kelly to deal with any potential break from Trent.
So how could this impact Villa on Saturday? In short, I can’t see it having much effect. This is as usual under Emery’s system, where the right back (in recent weeks, Cash) is the more reserved full back. This means that their overloaded left wing system won’t be as effective. But what about if they overload the right instead? Whilst that’s completely feasible, it would be a simple enough situation that we’ve seen Emery turn to before. Putting Digne in as the more reserved full back and letting Cash forwards
Overall, I think Bournemouth may struggle to stay in the league this season. Whilst they have undoubtedly improved in January and have had a positive run of games (6 out of 12 games against relegation rivals), I just think that Bournemouth aren’t better than three other teams and are really risking facing the drop.
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MY PREDICTION
Bournemouth will be keen to build on their form following their well-fought 1-0 win against Liverpool last Saturday. As well as this, after Bournemouth’s recent run of games against the likes of Newcastle and Manchester City, they will want to climb the table. Having said this, Villa is playing well. They look to have found their feet slightly more under Emery and are now putting in good performances. This is a perfect opportunity to turn a good performance into a good result. I’m predicting a 3-0 Watkins double with McGinn.
AUTHOR | ELLIS BURNETT
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