Cherries talisman Solanke returned to action during the side’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle last weekend, the striker coming back from a knee injury sustained in innocuous circumstances during training. With three goals and three assists in the Premier League this campaign, the 25-year-old is one of the biggest sources of goals in the Cherries squad. However, the striker also works hard off the ball, often dropping deep to help his side either win the ball back, or provide a passing option to help drive the side forward. Asked about the one-time England international’s work off the ball,
Gary O’Neil said: “I think Dom is extremely honest and hard working, as you picked up, and if anything, his tendency would be to come down too much and want to help. So we do a lot of work with him on the right times to come down. Obviously always working hard, which is a given with Dom, he always works hard. We’re trying to help him with still making sure that we have a threat at the top of the pitch while we’re working hard. Some of the other lads behind him, pushing him forward sometimes and saying: ‘we don’t need you at this moment, Dom. ‘We’re fine, you can stay on the top line.’ So the main thing you have to work with Dom is trying to make him a little bit less for the team, and a little bit more for himself. But he’s been fantastic for us and I like to have him back.”
O’Neil also explained how he was also looking for his side to be “more aggressive” during games, especially when defending.
Gary O’Neil explained: “Disappointed with the goal against Newcastle, but there’s been a lot of work going, not only to the back four, of course, but the boys in front of them. Tendency sometimes in the group is similar to what I spoke about with Dom, really. There’s a real honesty and wanting to help within the group and sometimes that can lead to having a lot of bodies trying to help out behind the ball when sometimes we can still be more aggressive. So a bit of work on that maybe showed up a little bit in the Newcastle game. We tried to stay aggressive in that. We need to keep improving that, really, because when you get yourself in good situations, you need to try and have a good shape and a good structure, but try and stay aggressive from that and still carry a threat.”
