Eddie Howe has been speaking to the media following yesterday’s 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace, issuing some “good news” on Alexander Isak’s injury and his assessment of our frankly awful attacking display.
Starting with Isak, who was forced off early on with a knock, Howe has confirmed that it’s a “contact injury” not a muscle issue, meaning the Swede is likely to recover quickly as we hope to have him fit for Wednesday’s clash with Liverpool.
On Isak’s injury, Howe said: “It was a contact injury, not a muscle pull, which is good news for us. We hope he will recover quickly but at this moment I don’t know.”
Asked about our performance, which featured just ONE shot all afternoon and zero on target, Howe admitted that we look “low on confidence” and “lacking in cutting edge up front”, but insisted that we did well in the “first two thirds” of the pitch.
“We look a bit low on confidence and losing Alex was a huge blow to that,” Howe said. “Then again we were without a recognised striker so it was important that Anthony did well. The team performed well in the first two thirds and I thought it was a strong performance, only lacking cutting edge up front.
“It was a strange performance from us with the ball because I thought there was a lot of good in the first two thirds but nothing in the final third. A lot of set plays but we look a little bit low on confidence.
“We’re always asking the players to shoot, there is no ban on shooting! We’re just going through a phase at the moment where we’re struggling, but I think we’ll come out of that.”