Eddie Howe has revealed that our performance against Nottingham Forest was the perfect example of how he wants us to play on a consistent basis this season.
The boss believes we were “brilliant” from “start to finish” against the newly-promoted side, praising our dominance and discipline; saying it was great to see us remain patient after failing to unlock the door in the first half.
Asked about transfers, he’s revealed his “love” for the current squad, but accepts he will continue to search for that added bit of “quality” in the final third – which as the only thing missing at times from Saturday’s 2-0 win.
Howe has drooled over moments of brilliance from Fabian Schar and Callum Wilson which made sure of the points, but you wonder how many we would’ve scored in that first half with a bit more cutting edge in attack.
Here’s what the boss had to say on the impressive performance, our two goals and more…
Howe on 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest:
“I think today’s performance would be a great example of where we want the team to be on a consistent basis.
“As I keep saying, we’re in a difficult league, and every team we play will set up to try to stop us. You have a battle to try to impose your style on the opposition, and today, I thought we did that well.
“We saw our style come out, and although there’s no guarantee that will be a constant theme, I want it to be. It’s what we’ll be working towards, but every game is different. You have to find a way to win sometimes, and I have no problem with winning ugly. Whatever it takes.
“We’re not the finished article yet, we’re still very much in the growing phase, but I was very pleased with what I saw.
“We needed to be patient. It was a brilliant performance from us, I thought. From start to finish, I was very pleased.
“But at half-time, that game was still very much in the balance despite our dominance. We hadn’t scored. Nottingham Forest had defended well, and we hadn’t been clinical enough in certain moments, so the main aspect of my team talk was to make sure that we didn’t lose our discipline and search for that goal in a disjointed way.
“Thankfully, we didn’t. The players went out in the second half and the flow of the game was very similar. We got rewarded in the end for that patience.”
Howe on potential incomings:
“I’m not aware that anything has changed on that front, and I don’t anticipate that to be the case because everyone has been concentrating on the games, and rightly so.
“I don’t think today changes anything from my view. My squad is an excellent squad of players. I love the individuals we have, but I’d like to add some more quality to that if possible.”
Howe on Schar’s wondergoal and Wilson’s superb finish:
“It was an incredible strike from a player [Schar] that does the unconventional, really. A centre-back shooting from that range – I probably wouldn’t have reached if that was me playing!
“But he’s capable of doing things like that, special moments. I was questioning his decision as he lined up to hit it, but I was delighted to see it hit the net!
“We sort of needed a goal like that to break the deadlock because we had created a number of chances and hadn’t taken them, and it took a long-range goal to get us going.
“His [Wilson’s] finish today was just pure Callum. It was an excellent finish from a very difficult angle, and that’s what he’ll bring.“
