Alex Smith, senior sports reporter at the Bournemouth Daily Echo, explains his expectations for how the Cherries will cope with Saturday’s Premier League clash against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium (kick-off 3pm GMT).
Andoni Iraola’s side are in second place after an impressive start to the season but have been winless since October.
Smith believes Bournemouth will press high and be aggressive, while also posing a threat on the counter-attack.
What do you think of Bournemouth’s season so far?
In fact, it is divided into two parts – the first nine games and the eight games after that. The first nine games were exciting. They lost to Liverpool but played well and then went on an eight-game unbeaten run, a brilliant start that saw them rise to second place.
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But things have shifted a bit since then. It was a poor performance against Everton, but beyond that they narrowly missed chances and lost games they had previously drawn or won.
So, it’s a bit frustrating, but the last few games before the draw with Burnley were encouraging. They produced a good result against Chelsea at home on December 6 and followed up with another strong performance in a wild 4-4 draw with Manchester United.
They hope to continue these performances over the festive period and into the New Year.
Various club records have been broken in the Premier League over the past two seasons. For example, considering they lost almost their entire backline in the summer, do you think fans would forgive if that didn’t happen again this season?
An eight-game unbeaten start to the season raised expectations for the entire season as they played well and everyone seemed to settle in quickly, so the subsequent games brought them back to reality a bit.
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I do think they’ll probably see a similar number of points to last season. At the very least, they hope to break the 50-point mark again.
It depends on whether they can start their form again and it depends on the January window, but I think they can get there.
“The eight-game unbeaten start to the game has raised expectations for the whole season because they are playing well and everyone seems to be settling in quickly.”
All eyes will be on Antoine Semenho’s future in January, but what, if anything, do you think Bournemouth need to do in terms of a move?
Well, a lot depends on Semenho’s future. If he leaves, they will have a lot of cash to spend and they will look to strengthen the squad from there.
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I do feel like they have a good window in the summer. They buy where they need to buy; they try to do most of their buying in the summer and try to limit in the winter.
I do wonder if they will draft another goaltender. They currently only have two senior goalkeepers and they may be looking for others. Djordje Petrović had a decent overall performance, but had some relatively notable mistakes and goals where he could have been better.
He will hope to bounce back and put in some good performances ahead of the January transfer window, but it will be interesting to see whether they consider bringing in a potentially more experienced number two.
Beyond that, I think if they can bring in the right players, they’ll bolster the roster and depth as much as possible.
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Which player should Brentford fans keep an eye on on Saturday?
Semenho is the obvious answer, but left-back Adrian Truvert has been outstanding since joining in the summer.
He could be a new signing.
Can you remind us what Brentford can expect from Bournemouth in terms of shape and style?
Andoni Iraola prefers to deploy a 4-2-3-1 formation, with the No. 6 and No. 8 behind the No. 10 and low No. 9. They pressed very high, were very aggressive and won the ball high up the pitch. That’s the goal.
They will try to be aggressive in that regard and try to create as many chances as possible. They tend to be a numerically superior team that has a lot of chances and scores points.
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They don’t like to sit back and be neutral and let a team play in front of them, they will reach out to them and be aggressive in that regard. They are also very good in transition between offense and defense, and the team’s pace is very fast.
They can break through quickly and look to hit their opponents on the counterattack. The team seems to thrive when the game is a little fragmented and unstructured.
What is your score prediction?
Bournemouth have had a tough time against Brentford recently but I’ll be backing them to break that record and I’ll give the Cherries a 2-1 win.
