GO... DANGO
Bournemouth team-mates joke that the only English words new signing Ouattara knows are ’back post’ – but the message getting through is ’he can make us buzz’
BY
BOURNEMOUTH roared a message of defiance despite being robbed of two points by a late Forest leveller.
The Cherries are in the relegation zone with just four Premier League wins from 20, but full-back Jordan Zemura insists the only way is up for Gary O’neil’s men. “We’re just two wins from 13th spot, where Forest are,” said Zemura. “By the end of the season we’re going to be in a good place.
“That’s the beauty of it. You go on a good run, maybe win three games on the bounce, and you can easily find yourself in the top 10.”
The positive noises from the south coast owe much to the arrival of Dango Ouattara.
The £20million signing from Lorient provided the assist for Jaidon Anthony’s 28th-minute goal despite having time to train only once with his new team-mates. And the Burkina Faso international is not exactly as fluent in English as he is with a ball at his feet.
Zemura (tussling for a loose ball, above) said: “The only English words he knows are ‘back post’ so the gaffer has been speaking to him this week in hand gestures.”
But it was clear against a Forest team now unbeaten in four league games that Ouattara gives Bournemouth’s attack another dimension. “When he came in on Thursday we could see he was something different,” added Zemura. “Those players give you a big buzz.”
Manager O’neil was a little more measured in his praise of Ouattara but the sense of buoyancy was the same.
“He’s performed well given the circumstances and the week he’s had,” said the head coach before making an unusual critique of the 20-yearold’s performance.
“We saw how willing he was to track back to help out, but sometimes he was too willing – in the second half we ended up with him deeper than we would have liked.
“There are bits we can fix but, as far as a debut goes after not training much in a new country and with players he had never met, he brought positivity.”
O’neil is confident that new faces will arrive on the south coast in the next nine days.
The 39-year-old is also looking forward to having almost a fortnight to work on the training ground before their next game, away to Brighton on Saturday week, by which point he expects to have some key players back from injury.
Dominic
Solanke, Marcus Tavernier and Philip Billing are close to being ready, while Welsh winger David Brooks is working towards his long-awaited return.
“We have huge players coming back. I’m sure after this month it will look very, very different,” added O’neil, who looked gutted when Sam Surridge netted an 83rd-minute leveller for Forest.
There is still plenty of work to be done at the Vitality and O’neil should be concerned by the chances Kieffer Moore and Ryan Christie spurned on a day when Nottingham Forest controlled the tempo without threatening too much.
Yet he is ready to channel the spirit of previous Bournemouth teams and embrace the underdog tag under the club’s new American owners.
The former Boro and West Ham star said: “This club has always performed remarkably well as an underdog, going back to when it nearly went out of business and what it took for everyone to pull together.
“But the future is really exciting for us.
We’re looking forward to it.”