Eddie Howe Admits His Side Lacked a 'Cutting Edge' Following Bournemouth's 2-0 Defeat at Wolves

Eddie Howe admitted that his side did not make the most of their superior possession after Bournemouth fell to a 2-0 defeat away to Wolves on Saturday.

The Cherries were largely dominant in the match in terms of their retention of the ball, but Wolves’ high-intensity and pressing approach stifled the visitors from putting their command of the ball to any real use.

Wolves hit Bournemouth with their renowned pace and energy on the counter-attack to seal victory for the home side, and Howe admitted after the match, via Bournemouth’s official website: “We had a lot of the ball but just didn’t find that cutting edge.

“The only really clear-cut chance we had was Joshua King’s early one, so we have to credit Wolves defensively. We’re kicking ourselves with the goals we conceded defensively though.

“You don’t like losing and the players have done well historically at bouncing back when they’ve been out of form, but we have to rise to the challenge again.

“If you look at today’s game, we made a bad mistake for the first goal but we controlled the match. We back our attacking quality to do better than we did.

“I didn’t see a team lacking in identity as we have our way of playing, but I always back us to come good eventually.”

Whilst the defeat was a disappointing one for Howe’s side, one of the more damaging aspects of the game was the injury setback for Tyrone Mings. The defender has been plagued with injuries during his time with Bournemouth but was able to start at Molineux.

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However, Mings was injured and forced off just over half an hour into the match, and Howe was left to rue his side’s luck with injuries after Saturday’s defeat.

“We’re in a difficult spell with injuries, we lost Simon Francis this week and Tyrone Mings during the game.

“There’s no other way but to drag ourselves out of it and we need a win soon. He was in a lot of pain, I haven’t spoken to him before this press conference but it’s a knock in his back but it left him in a lot of pain. Hopefully he’ll be OK.

“The last thing he wanted to do was come off, there was no way he could continue. It’s a difficult spell for us, we’ve lost key players and we’re stretched defensively but it’s a challenge for us to rise to.”

The fixture list does not get any easier for Bournemouth in the coming weeks, as the Cherries are faced with a trip to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the quarter final of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.

Premier League clashes against Brighton, Tottenham and Manchester United follow soon after in the festive period for Howe’s side, who must overcome their injury struggles swiftly.