Solanke lets Iraola follow Bielsa blueprint
THE spirit of Marcelo Bielsa is back in the Premier League thanks to Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola and he must be thankful to have a striker like Dominic Solanke to help turn his vision into reality.
Though Iraola is Spanish, he’s not all about dominating possession and prettily passing out from the back.
For him, the philosophy is pressing high up the pitch to win the ball in dangerous areas. It requires his team to be super-fit and aggressive. It carries high risk too — in some matches they may get a good beating if teams are good enough to play around them.
Today’s match at Spurs could be any score — except 0-0! Bournemouth will go for it. Spurs are missing their first-choice centre-halves but they won’t waver either.
Iraola isn’t a total copycat of Argentine former Leeds boss Bielsa, He doesn’t go man-for-man all over the pitch. But you can see the influence, and he doesn’t hide it.
They really work hard to win the ball back and it’s triggered by Solanke who is one of the best strikers around in terms of pressing.
Iraola isn’t overly concerned about scoring marks for artistic impression — it’s about creating chances in the right areas. It makes them vulnerable but fun to watch.
The midfield pairing of Lewis Cook and Ryan Christie has given them defensive insurance and last weekend England Under 21 international Alex Scott, who is more forward-thinking, was fit enough to start and excelled in the 3-0 win against Fulham.
The options suggest Bournemouth’s recent run isn’t a flash in the pan and they can continue to do well.
I can’t over-emphasise how fit the players must be to maintain the high press. I’m not surprised it has taken time for the system to work because it needed hours of toil on the training ground first.
Credit to Bournemouth for not sacking Iraola when he started the season winless in his first nine matches. It would have been easy to think they’d made a mistake and changed managers. But they had the foresight t o understand this was a project that needed building.
It reminds me of my spell at Fulham under Roy Hodgson. Though we played a different style to Iraola, Hodgson’s methods also worked best once we’d learned the patterns of play over several weeks.
Roy won only two of his first 13 league games at Fulham in 2007-08 and we were booed after a home defeat against our relegation rivals Sunderland .
The Fulham board kept faith, we stayed up and qualified for Europe and then reached the Europa League final in 2010 . Bournemouth’s f i r s t win against Burnley was a gamechanger. It looked as if the penny had dropped for the players and they’ve been full of confidence since.
Solanke is becoming the striker we hoped he’d be as an emerging player with Chelsea and Liverpool.
Any other team in the bottom half of the table would love a striker like him. He’s been helped by a manager who has a clear identity in the way he wants to play. Solanke is full of goals at the moment.
Bournemouth need good legs and speed. They’ll be involved in highscoring matches and I think that will endear them to the neutrals.
Now he’s flavour of the month, I’ve been impressed by the way Iraola has remained measured.
After beating Fulham, he said the team weren’t as bad as everyone thought when they were in the relegation zone, and they’re not as good as people are saying now.
It’s a sensible approach — dare I say it Hodgson-esque — and it augurs well for Bournemouth’s future. Bielsa will be proud of one of his latest devotees.