Eddie Howe talking about Bournemouth looking down on the face is not a fun watch.
Bournemouth will be relegated from the Premier League if Watford ties or wins against Manchester City on Tuesday, as the Cherries are three points clear with one game to go and no longer control their own destiny. Time and time again Bournemouth has altered the odds, but now time is running out.
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After a five-season stay, the Premier League fairy tale for Eddie Howe and Bournemouth is almost over, but the highly praised coach is hopeful in his relegation battle. He has been here before when he rescued the South Coast club from -17 points in the fourth division in his first season in charge in 2008-09.
Fast forward 11 years and the Cherries lost 2-0 at home to Southampton and now their fate is out of their hands in their last game of the season as they are three points clear and four goals worse than Watford, who have two games remanning though against Man City and Arsenal.
ProSoccerTalk asked Eddie Howe after the loss to Southampton if the possibilities they had created and the way they had been playing filled him with hope before the last day of the season.
“That gives us hope, of course it does,” Howe said. “Next week, obviously, we still want to be there with an opportunity. It is out of our hands and we depend on other teams, so we will have to see how the week progresses. ”
Howe admitted that he may not watch Watford’s game against Man City on Tuesday, and that Bournemouth simply hasn’t been so free this season with exhausted goals and until recently his creativity was lacking in textbooks. They scored in the 95th minute but it was ruled out by VAR and they never took full advantage of the promising opportunities.
Howe isn’t sure why that keeps happening, but ProSoccerTalk asked if his forwards are now taking advantage of opportunities because they have had a lot of opportunities this season.
“We have generally been a free scoring team, a free play team that has created a set of possibilities over the course of a season. For this season, for whatever reason, that did not happen in the early stages of the campaign. and goals were very important to us, “Howe said.” We’ve worked on a lot of different things to try to change and probably the best spell has been in these last few games for us, where it looks like we’ve gotten it back. “Today were the opportunities. lost, but I think that’s a very good sign for us because that’s how we’ve always been. Maybe you’re right, maybe there’s an element where the forwards haven’t had those moments enough during the season, and it’s not just them “If not the whole team, they have become a little unskillful against the goal. That is the high pressure game we are in.”
The stakes are not much higher than this and if Watford loses to Man City on Tuesday, Bournemouth has a chance to enter the ‘last chance room’ at Everton next Sunday. Given the way they’ve played and the way Everton has struggled in the past few weeks, you’d like Bournemouth to get the victory they need and then expect a miracle.
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On the other hand, Bournemouth’s neighbors are now 11th in the table and have their highest score since 2016, as only Liverpool have accumulated more points along the way compared to Ralph Hasenhuttl’s team this season.
ProSoccerTalk asked Hasenhuttl about his excellent visitor form this season, which is his best on the road in a high-flying campaign.
“I see the whole season and perhaps it is a coincidence that at home we have conceded a goal immediately and immediately we are a little calmer, but especially since the closing where we have no public in the stadium there is no real difference between home and the visitor”. games, ”said Hasenhuttl. “We go everywhere to win, even at home. We don’t play differently, we don’t fight differently. We changed a few things after the close, so now we have a little more success at home and we won against Man City, which is definitely one of the biggest victories we have achieved since I’ve been here. We don’t think about this. They are more statistics for you and for us, now it is important that we have 49 points and this is incredible. “
When asked about the possible relegation of the Howe and Bournemouth situation, Hasenhuttl sympathized with them as their team was on a relegation relegation earlier this season, but it has miraculously changed things.
“It is difficult to understand why they are where they are at the moment because we have had two very difficult games against them.” I see them as someone very well organized and fighting very hard, they have quality in every position. But you know, this is the Premier League and we also had that moment and we were on a downward spiral. It is very difficult to get out of this. For us, maybe it was this 9-0 that gave the turn in which we had to completely restart and, from that moment, it improved and we returned to our philosophy. This is the key, in the end, this is what makes the league so interesting. You can do a fantastic job and even then you will not be successful. Everything is possible.”
Howe and Bournemouth know that anything is possible because they have made the impossible possible many times in the past.
With a little help, they can still do it again.
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