Andoni Iraola
AFC Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola has stressed the importance of clinical finishing as his team prepares to face Newcastle United this Sunday. The Magpies have been formidable defensively this season, conceding the fewest expected goals against, just 0.89 across four games. Iraola is aware that taking their chances will be crucial against Eddie Howe’s side.
Andoni Iraola said: “In football, if you don’t score goals, it doesn’t matter what else you do. We can focus more and it’s easier to improve the amount of times you arrive than the actual poor finishing strike. Because it depends on the ball striking, the small things that we have good players and they know as good as I know how they should head the ball, how they should strike the ball. And for me this is going to be important, especially against Newcastle. If you see the stats they have, I think they’ve conceded like something like six shots every game or something like this. That is ridiculous. So I don’t expect to have a lot of chances on Sunday. So the times you arrive, you should punish them because they are not going to give you no, we arrive, we don’t score, we arrive, nothing happens. Probably we are not going to arrive as many times as we’ve arrived in other games. So it puts you a little bit more pressure every time you have a proper chance.”
Reflecting on last season’s impressive 4-1 victory over Newcastle at St James’ Park, Iraola acknowledged the need for a strong performance and depth on the bench. The previous encounter saw Bournemouth capitalize on their opportunities, despite having limited Premier League experience among their substitutes. Iraola is optimistic about the increased depth in his squad, which could prove advantageous in the upcoming match.
Andoni Iraola said: “I think everything worked that day and we played really, really well. They were flying in that moment and it was a great, great win. But it doesn’t give us any guarantee for Sunday. It’s going to be the same difficulty, the same challenge or even more because they’ve strengthened the team, they have new threats we’ve talked about Woltemade and talk about Elanga, the centre backs. They’ve added big quality players not to a very good team and we will have to be ready.”
This season, Bournemouth has secured three victories, each by a narrow one-goal margin, indicating the need for more convincing scorelines. As they prepare to host Newcastle United at Dean Court, Iraola’s focus on finishing could be pivotal in overcoming a defensively robust opponent. The match is set to kick off at 2 pm on Sunday, September 21.
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