How do we solve these home form woes?

Do you hear that? Listen closer…it’s the trapdoor to the Championship, and as an AFC Bournemouth fan I never seem to be able to escape the sound of it constantly creaking ajar, looking to welcome us in. And after this weekend’s defeat to Stoke City I can still hear it looking to tempt us in once more.

Despite a great run of form that saw us lose just twice in twelve league games, back to back home defeats to Arsenal and now Stoke City have confirmed what I always knew deep down but could never really accept – Dean Court is more a charity shop than a fortress.

With just three wins at DC all season, and 13 points gathered from a possible 39, only Aston Villa have a worse record than us when it comes to games played at home. Even they’re catching up with our total after wins against Norwich and Palace now too.

So why are we such a soft touch at home? A large factor is undoubtedly the quality of the opposition we face – I’ve quickly learnt that almost every team in this league seems to have players that can score in a flash, with Stoke’s opener being a prime example of this. When you’ve spent most of your time as a supporter watching League One and Two football it still comes as a bit of a shock.

But the key problem seems to be the change we’ve made to our formation from last season, where we constantly played a 4-4-1-1 – with the now departed Yann Kermorgant playing behind Callum Wilson to consistently devastating effect. Although we attempted to play a similar formation at the start of this campaign, back to back thrashings at the hands of Manchester City and Tottenham saw us revert to a 4-5-1 – which proved effective at the time, and helped put us onto the aforementioned fine run of form.

Sometimes you simply have to be a little braver though, especially at home where you’re expected to take the game to teams – and although we have an abundance of attack minded players in our squad, there’s a nagging feeling that we’re occasionally held back by the formation we have them playing within. The lack of chances created in lacklustre first halves against Stoke and Arsenal are more than ample proof of that.

Yes, there is the fact that opposition at this level have the quality to pick you off if you play two up front and don’t have a strong enough midfield pair – but it’s not like we’ve been stopping the goals from flying in against us at Dean Court anyway, having conceded three goals or more in four of the 13 matches we’ve played at home.

So what’s the solution to this problem? Well the most obvious tactic to make us more of a threat in the final third is to go back to having a dedicated player behind the main striker – yet it’s who would take up these two roles that’s the real conundrum. Afobe would likely be the main striker – he has looked ineffective in the last two matches, but that could well be down to a lack of support – but who would be cast as the man behind him is less clear.

King is likely, especially with his recent impressive appearances from the bench – although Juan Iturbe could potentially benefit a great deal from such a role. He clearly has a huge amount of talent when he’s allowed to run at a team’s back line – so to allow him to focus purely on doing this, and not have him shackled to a wing position (which would require him to fulfil defensive duties) could reap significant rewards. It wouldn’t be hugely surprising to see this tried in our FA Cup match game against Everton either.

Now I will admit this could all well be a bit of an overreaction to a pair of defeats – as in the next league match against Watford we could see Afobe rediscovering his goal scoring touch and our wingers could become consistently effective suppliers again, instead of frustratingly floating in and out of matches. Changing formation could also be a hugely ill-advised tactic considering we’re approaching what is possibly the most significant end of season run-in in AFC Bournemouth’s history too.

Ultimately It’s safe to say I don’t envy Howe in attempting to solving this dilemma we find ourselves in, and I get the distinct feeling we’ll never be able to escape the sound of that trapdoor until the very end either, no matter what we try…