Eddie Howe Left Frustrated With Defeat But Encouraged by Bournemouth's Performance

Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe was left frustrated after his side were forced to leave Old Trafford empty-handed. The Cherries chose not to sit back and soak up the pressure, instead opting for a more attacking mentality. 

Speaking on his game plan, Howe told the club's website: "With the ball, we wanted to be as brave as we could and try to dominate possession. I wouldn’t say we dominated possession, but when we had the ball I thought we were good and our passages of play were strong."

The trio of Callum Wilson, Joshua King and Junior Stanislas posed constant problems for the Manchester United back line, though, their efforts were met by the resistance of David de Gea in goal. 

Howe was full of compliments for Manchester United's goalkeeper after his side's failure to find a way past him. Howe said: 

"They [United] have an outstanding goalkeeper [De Gea] who made a number of good saves and maybe we could have done better in and around their box, but when you consider the opposition and where were playing, I was very pleased with players."

Romelu Lukaku's first-half header was enough to ensure the hosts all three points, but Bournemouth continued to impress throughout the game, creating more chances than United, which pleased Howe.

Howe added: "We’re disappointed because we’ve been beaten, but I’m really pleased with the performance. I thought we were very good today and were very disciplined out of possession. 

"We were also very good with the ball and created numerous chances.

"We really did establish ourselves in the game very early and there were some really good individual performances today. The team functioned very well."

Bournemouth's tough schedule shows no signs of easing, as they face both Liverpool and Chelsea in their next two league games. However, based off Wednesday night's performance Howe will be buoyant that his side can muster something out of those games.