AFC Bournemouth v Preston N E

billythekid

billythekid

UTC Legend
Preston Better Away Record Than Home

The Cherries came back with a point from Yorkshire after a hard fought 2-2 draw against Rotherham, with our goals coming from Junior Stanislas from the penalty spot and Dominic Solanke’s header. AFCB are back home again for the Tuesday evening game, this time our visitors are Preston NE.

Their manager is Alex Neil who we know previously from his time at Norwich City. Neil joined Preston in July 2017. In his first season in charge his side finished in 7th place in the Championship. In his second season (2018-19) they were 14th at the end of the season and last season they finished in 9th place. In the Summer they signed forward Scott Sinclair from Celtic for an undisclosed fee.

This season Preston have been best away from their Deepdale ground where they have lost their first five games, in the first three they lost 0-1 to Swansea City, Stoke City and Cardiff City. Their fourth defeat was 0-2 against Millwall and the fifth was 1-2 against Birmingham City. They then beat Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 and in their last home game lost 0-1 against Blackburn Rovers. On their travels they have won four games. In their first away game they drew 1-1 with Norwich City. Then came four away wins, first two against London clubs, Brentford 2-4 and QPR 0-2. Then the third win was in Yorkshire against Huddersfield Town which finished 1-2 and then 0-3 at Reading who were the leaders at the time. Their first defeat was against our recent opponents Rotherham United 2-1. Their most recent game at Watford finished with a 4-1 defeat.

The last time we met Preston in the leagues at home was in the 2012-13 season in August at Dean Court, the game ended in a 1-1 draw. It was a game that the Cherries played with 10 men from the 27th minute after Harry Arter received his second yellow card of the game. Despite this Tommy Elphick’s header put us into the lead in the second half, but Preston equalised with a header from Akko Sodje with 15 minutes to go.

In all our home league games against Preston AFCB have W 8, D 2, L 3. In all competitions AFCB have W 13, D 6, L 10.

AFCB Team News
Jack Stacey already out injured with a knee ligament injury. Now we had Arnaut Danjuma with a hamstring injury and Lewis Cook with a infection in his thigh, they both missed the Rotherham game and Josh King didn’t travel.

AFCB Player To Watch
Dominic Solanke, after his goal on Saturday he is our joint leading scorer and also joint leader on assists. Junior Stanislas is another when he stays injury free and in his last two games has scored three goals, including the brace against Nottingham Forest. David Brooks in midfield with his defence splitting passes and coming up with the odd goal or two and also a joint leader with three assists. The Rotherham game wasn’t suited to his style.

Preston Team News
Preston had a good number of players out injured for the Watford game on Saturday, including their full-backs. So they had to adapt players to fit positions they don’t normally play.

Preston Player To Watch
The experienced Scott Sinclair, both strong at finishing from the right or left and a skilful player, scored 5 goals this season so far.
 
Any news on how long Danjuma and L Cook are expected to be out?

I guess King will be reintegrated for this one and wouldn't be surprised if he went straight into the line up on the left with Junior playing the central role.
 
kirsikka said:
Any news on how long Danjuma and L Cook are expected to be out?

I guess King will be reintegrated for this one and wouldn't be surprised if he went straight into the line up on the left with Junior playing the central role.
Click to expand...

Hopefully from what JT said about the infection not too long, maybe Tuesday.

Danjuma slight hamstring strain and rested as a precaution.
 
Nasty gash with stitches and antibiotics for Cook and hamstring precaution for Arnie.
Not sure we want to risk them before the weekend....others need to step up and put a good shift in for the win.
 
Revert to the 4-2-3-1 system we've used recently with Stan central. Rico comes in at LB. Not sure if Cook and Danjuma will be fit, but Gosling and Riqeulme or King to cover if needed.
 
The Barnsley game is Friday night so not many days in between, so can see one or two changes depending on JT thoughts on another away in Yorkshire game again.
 
Don’t want to be negative but I really hope Billing isn’t starting. There’s some serious issues there. He either has a major attitude problem that’s beyond fixing, or there’s a strength issue which makes a 6 4” bloke one of the weakest I’ve ever seen on a football pitch
 
wimborne cherries said:
Don’t want to be negative but I really hope Billing isn’t starting. There’s some serious issues there. He either has a major attitude problem that’s beyond fixing, or there’s a strength issue which makes a 6 4” bloke one of the weakest I’ve ever seen on a football pitch
Click to expand...

Think if Billing really put his mind to it he could be a good player, we have seen flashes of it since he has been at our club.

As for attitude, if a player thinks they should be playing regularly or a league higher, they need to show it on the pitch in the Championship.

David Brooks is a PL player, but so far not seen any attitude problems from him, just unlucky with injuries.
 
Last edited:
Not meaning to go OT too much here, but this whole 'Billing' thing is becoming a bit of a mystery to me... He's picked or not picked on how he trains... OK, so he's not playing much so you can instantly get he is behind both L.Cook and Lerma...

However, a quick look at his stats on Saturday and he did no worse than a lot of players... In fact he was pretty much middle of the pack for most things... Mr Surridge, with a decent 30 minute run out, came bottom of the pack with a very disappointing 5.1 (Billing 6.4) yet we still seem desperate for him to play more...

... and when you look at things like the 'errors' column, Billing was quite low down with 10 in 90 minutes, yet the likes of Kelly (a mahoosive 26 errors), Brooks (with an equally large 18), S.Cook (15) Stanislas (14) seem to escape much criticism at all.

https://www.footballcritic.com/cham...c-afc-bournemouth/player-stats/2149373#errors

Don't get me wrong, I do actually think Billing should be behind Lerma and Cook, but I don't see he is as dreadful as some make out on here...
 
When that ball was pulled back to Billing 10 yards out and he swung that left boot at it, knowing he can hit 'em, a smashing goal flashed before my eyes and I saw the start of some proper form from him.

Then he skied it into row Z, sadly. Did ok otherwise but I do wish he'd assert himself more.

He is a mystery of a player. Looked a world beater on his debut.
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
Not meaning to go OT too much here, but this whole 'Billing' thing is becoming a bit of a mystery to me... He's picked or not picked on how he trains... OK, so he's not playing much so you can instantly get he is behind both L.Cook and Lerma...

However, a quick look at his stats on Saturday and he did no worse than a lot of players... In fact he was pretty much middle of the pack for most things... Mr Surridge, with a decent 30 minute run out, came bottom of the pack with a very disappointing 5.1 (Billing 6.4) yet we still seem desperate for him to play more...

... and when you look at things like the 'errors' column, Billing was quite low down with 10 in 90 minutes, yet the likes of Kelly (a mahoosive 26 errors), Brooks (with an equally large 18), S.Cook (15) Stanislas (14) seem to escape much criticism at all.

https://www.footballcritic.com/cham...c-afc-bournemouth/player-stats/2149373#errors

Don't get me wrong, I do actually think Billing should be behind Lerma and Cook, but I don't see he is as dreadful as some make out on here...
Click to expand...

Going back over the years there were certain names on the fans ‘hit list’, not long back it was Solanke.

Going back the Big Man was on it, look how that finally turned out.
 
Some Rotherham fans highlighted Billing as our best player so it’s interesting how opinions differ.

I think there is perception bias in the way we view our players. He was poor in the first half and that hardened opinion on him to such an extent no one noticed he was actually pretty decent in the 2nd half.

Also noted him and Lerma swapped positions at half time. Perhaps that’s what made the difference or just took a while to shake of some rustiness due to a lack of games recently.
 
northstandmark said:
When that ball was pulled back to Billing 10 yards out and he swung that left boot at it, knowing he can hit 'em, a smashing goal flashed before my eyes and I saw the start of some proper form from him.

Then he skied it into row Z, sadly. Did ok otherwise but I do wish he'd assert himself more.

He is a mystery of a player. Looked a world beater on his debut.
Click to expand...

he's not been the same since he saw the chief execs girlfriends car ;)
 
My issue with what Billing does has never been his passing, interceptions, blocks tackles, heading etc. It’s been about tempo. How quickly he recycles the ball etc.

That to me has been his main issue. He’s excellent to have as the first man defending a corner or set piece. He wins everything in that role. He also showed against Manchester City last season how he could be utilised further advanced as a target.

When he wants to be he’s an excellent central midfielder.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

;