Bournemouth’s pre-season is well underway, and new boss Andoni Iraola will be using this time to introduce his ideas and tactical vision to the squad.
Bournemouth striker Dominic Solanke has given an update on how the transition to life under Iraola Andoni is going for the Bournemouth first team. As quoted by the club’s official website, Solanke said, “obviously we’ve had a change in manager so we’ve been trying to adapt to each other. It’s still early days so we’re still not 100% but we’re working, learning every day, and, yeah, we’ve still got a lot of games left in pre-season to put that work in.”
The Cherries succumbed to a defeat in a friendly against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Marbella on Sunday. The Israeli side came away with a 1-0 victory, but Iraola won’t care about the result. The coach will be pleased to have been able to give minutes to so many of his first team players, including versatile new boy Justin Kluivert.
Iraola needs to get Solanke firing
Solanke himself also played the first half, and Iraola will be heavily reliant on the 25-year-ld English striker if the south coast club are to repeat the success of last season and avoid relegation from the Premier League.
Iraola has big shoes to fill in replacing Gary O’Neil, who was a popular figure at the Vitality Stadium. However, the club’s hierarchy will be hoping he can make the club more consistent on the pitch and a more potent attacking force. If he can, then Solanke stands to benefit as much as anyone. The once-capped England man will be aiming to better his top flight goal tally of 6 last season this time around.
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