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Likely strengths
Scott Parker’s team had the best defence in the Championship last season, lost the fewest games and trailed for the shortest time of any team. Exactly half of their games contained two goals or fewer, so we should try and forget the image we might have of Bournemouth as a cavalier, expansive team under Eddie Howe that often got punished on the break.
While both Fulham and Nottingham Forest have lost several players this summer, either sold or due to loans ending, Nat Phillips’ return to Liverpool is the only absentee from the promotion campaign who leaves a hole (although Gary Cahill has also retired). Parker will aim to make his team difficult to beat and then progress quickly up the pitch when they win the ball.
No promoted team can make guarantees about the strength of their attack, but there are reasons to have great faith in Jaidon Anthony and Dominic Solanke. Both are still young (22 and 24 respectively) and Solanke enjoyed the breakout season of his career last year with 30 goals in all competitions.
Anthony stepped remarkably easily into the gap created by Arnaut Danjuma’s departure to Villarreal. He played 69 league minutes in 2020-21; just the 3,264 in 2021-22. Kieffer Moore is the foil: a bruising, burly striker of the type that has often flourished for a while after promotion. And they now have Marcus Tavernier as an extra winger too.
If the movement of that pair can cause opposition defences enough problems to allow Philip Billing to get forward from central midfield rather than being preoccupied with fighting fires, Bournemouth can win games. But it will not be easy.
Likely weaknesses
For a team that banked on its central defence last season, losing Cahill and Phillips (if that move is not made permanent) is an issue. Lloyd Kelly and Chris Mepham are a perfectly serviceable partnership, but they are the only first-team options in that position. They were the backups when Bournemouth were relegated (behind Nathan Ake and Steve Cook) – are they a step up?
In central midfield, Bournemouth will certainly be combative with Billing and Jefferson Lerma alongside Lewis Cook (they must be careful about suspensions, given Billing and Lerma shared 22 yellow cards last season). But again, it’s the depth that is lacking. The three most-used central midfielders after that trio last season were Gavin Kilkenny, Ben Pearson and Todd Cantwell – two of those three have left the club.
More broadly, there is a vague suspicion that Bournemouth are sleeping a little on their promotion. Recruitment has been slow, money does not appear to be in great supply for investing in the squad and you wonder if Parker is getting a little frustrated. A quick start is certainly a must to dissuade such talk.
Summer business so far
“In an ideal world I’d spend £100m, but I can’t do that,” Parker said in mid-May. “In an ideal world we’d have a bigger training facility with more pitches, bigger pitches, where we can develop more. I’d like to think if I could spend £100m, I’d give it a right go, recruit and get it right.”
If that didn’t sound like a man prepared to invest heavily in his squad, you’d be right. Bournemouth have made two new signings – Joe Rothwell does add some depth to midfield and Ryan Fredericks is a clever pickup at full-back – but both of them were free transfers.
Tavernier arrived a few days before the season started, and may provoke a run of deals, but the squad is small, contains several players who can be no more than emergency options at Premier League level and Bournemouth are being linked with conspicuously few players in comparison with their promoted peers. Is this another Norwich, saving money to bank the broadcast revenues and then going again?
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Parker has earned plenty of faith from supporters for his ability to get Bournemouth to the front last season and then keep them there when things got a little sticky towards May. It’s still difficult to work out quite what Parker’s managerial ethos is, but that’s not necessarily a criticism – better versatile than stubborn.
But we have to take into context Parker’s slight weariness over transfers. If Bournemouth do indeed start slowly, expect to hear the manager making the point on the difficulty of acclimatising to the top flight without investment. He will not want a second relegation in two Premier League seasons on his CV.
Prediction
Bournemouth are favourites to go down, and with good reason. 20th
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The post Bournemouth predictions 2022-23: What fans can expect from a Premier League season as relegation favourites appeared first on inews.co.uk.
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