Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth are enduring their toughest stretch since being promoted to the Premier League in 2015.
The Cherries lost 2-0 at Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday to leave them perilously close to the relegation zone as scoring goals and defensive injuries have become a problem for Howe’s side and their players, fans and staff looked dejected at the Amex Stadium at full time.
Speaking to the BBC after the clash, Howe admitted it was a tough day for the Cherries who have now won just one of their last nine games.
“That was a tough day today, we know how good Brighton are with the ball and we gave ourselves a mountain to climb and didn’t settle in the first 10 minutes,” Howe said. “We did recover and did well in the remainder of the first half. What was most disappointed was the second half where we needed to get on the ball and we didn’t have the composure to do that.”
With Callum Wilson and Ryan Fraser coming off the bench and David Brooks out injured, Bournemouth have looked surprisingly lackluster in attack all season and they lacked creativity against Brighton and never looked like dragging themselves back into the game.
Howe is determined for Bournemouth to not start feeling sorry for themselves as they now face a key stretch of games as they play West Ham, Watford, Norwich, Brighton and Aston Villa.
But he admitted they could have lost Josh King and Jack Stacey to injury, as their long list of absentees continues to grow.
“The most difficult is the run or results but the strength of the squad has been knocked and that allows a feeling sorry for yourself if you don’t get the results you want,” Howe said. “But we have to go again, find the inner strength and keep going... You know with a small squad the Christmas period is ultimate test and you need to rotate players, it’s very difficult to ask players to go twice in three days and it looks like we’ve lost Joshua King and Jack Stacey so it is not a good day. The games come thick and fast and this was one of the games we needed to get something and we didn’t. We need to learn our lessons.”
