Bournemouth Fan View: Eddie Howe must shoulder the blame after Arsenal horror show

As a Bournemouth fan in North London this Saturday I just wanted the referee to blow the final whistle after fifty minutes. Largely so I could go home to do something better with my time. Like catching up on Celebrity Masterchef or smashing my head against a wall.

You could tell straight away in our 3-0 defeat at Arsenal that we weren’t up for the game. Any fight we showed in our impressive display against Manchester City last month had clearly evaporated during the international break.

We were clueless, disorganised, and toothless. And I think Eddie Howe has to take a fair portion of the blame for that.

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Formation frustration

I think we were at a distinct disadvantage against Arsenal from the off due the formation we employed. In the first two games of the season we went 4-4-2 and looked completely ineffective as an attacking force.

Then we switched to 3-5-2 against Manchester City and everything suddenly clicked. We looked better at the back, and a threat up front.

To change from that set-up for the Arsenal game would have been madness. So, of course, that’s exactly what Eddie did. Why, I do not know.

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A complete mess

We instead lined up in a truly bizarre formation which could perhaps be best described as a 3-4-2-1. Maybe. Even now I’m not sure. When the team was announced it caused coos of optimism amongst much of our support, but in the main I found it rather befuddling.

When the image laying the team out (see below) seems in itself confused, it’s never a good sign. And so it proved. We looked outnumbered by Arsenal players in almost every part of the pitch. Our players seemed unsure of when to move forward and when to sit back.

It was just a huge mess, and I had the displeasure of watching it for a truly excruciating ninety minutes. So with the way the players seemed unclear on what they were supposed to be doing I can only point an accusatory finger at Howe. What was he thinking, and why did his players look so lost in a formation that he had surely trained them in for the past two weeks?

Eddie Howe Four-lorn

With no points from four games we’re now suddenly looking down the barrel of a relegation battle. Which isn’t particularly pleasant.

To help turn the ship around the players need to show more fight – that’s a given – but also belief. To build up the latter they need to be given a helping hand by Howe – mainly by him picking a formation that works, and then actually sticking with it.

If the opening four games of this season haven’t shown it clearly enough, we do not have the talent in the squad to play two in midfield. To persist in doing so is sheer madness, especially when one of that two isn’t Lewis Cook, one of the few players we have that has the guile to pick open defences with a forward pass.

Whether it’s stubbornness or blindness, I’m not sure. But it’s a concern that Howe hasn’t seen something that’s staring the rest of us squarely in the face.