Chaplin: Bournemouth a Team I Really Like to Watch
Saturday, 7th Dec 2024 06:00
Town forward Conor Chaplin believes this weekend’s match against Bournemouth will be a different type of game to the Blues’ previous two matches against Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace.
The last two outings, which both saw Town lose marginally 1-0, were not filled with a huge number of chances against sides who are among the Premier League’s lowest scorers and better defences.
Bournemouth matches have tended to be more high-scoring, particularly away from home where there have been 11 goals across the Cherries’ last two matches on their travels.
With the Blues still the only side in the division without a home victory this season, Chaplin sees Sunday’s first-ever top flight meeting between themselves and Bournemouth as an important one but cited the challenging task given Andoni Iraola’s side enter off the back of victory over Tottenham Hotspur in midweek.
“It’s definitely a big one for us,” he said. “A really tough opponent again, everyone who has seen them recently and watched the game on Thursday night would say that as well. But it’s a chance at home for us.
“It didn’t go how we wanted it to the other day, it was a tight game that we came out on the wrong side of the margins. It’s going to be another one at home that we want to create a really good atmosphere and we want to be front-footed.
“It’s going to be a different type of game with the way Bournemouth play and it’s one that’s hopefully going to be a good spectacle.
“They’re a really good team. They’re a team I really like to watch personally – they’re brave in possession, they press really well, press relentlessly and are probably very similar to ourselves in terms of the way they’re coached and the way that their players have been through the leagues and a lot of players that I’ve played against a lot.
“It’s nice to see a club like that a little bit further on in the progression from where we want to be. That’s just time, they’ve had their spell in the Championship and they look as if they’re established themselves in the last couple of years really well in the Premier League and they’ve got some really good players. I’ve got a lot of respect for the way that they do things.”
This weekend’s visitors boast a number of players who are performing well, particularly in the forward areas. Brazil international Evanilson is beginning to adapt to the Premier League since his move from Porto which saw him become the Cherries’ record signing to replace the outgoing Dominic Solanke.
Justin Kluivert and Antoine Semenyo are perhaps two that jump off the page, though. Kluivert scored a hat-trick of penalties in last weekend’s trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers while Semenyo has been one of the stars of the season so far.
“I don’t think it will be me and hopefully it won’t be me directly against them,” Chaplin said of facing them. “I think we’d have done something a little bit wrong if I was defending one-v-one against people like that!
“It’s going to be a good battle with the two wingers and they’re in good form. They’ve got attacking players in good form and they score a lot of goals at the moment. We feel like we’ve got a lot of goals in us and we’re a threat as well like they are on transition, there’s a lot of pace and power in each team.
“It’s a game where there’s going to be a lot of running, a lot of transitional opportunities to score and to have big defensive moments in.”
After Bournemouth’s impressive midweek victory over Spurs, Chaplin says one performance less than 72 hours before a match has no bearing on changing any of the Blues’ preparation for the Cherries’ visit.
He said: “No different than it was before the game on Thursday night. That’s outside noise, I don’t really think that’s something that comes into our thinking and nor should it.
“The game plan doesn’t change on the result on Thursday, it’s thought about long before that. The coaching staff here and the rest of us work too hard to be reactive off of a game that happened on Thursday.
“We know their threats and we like to think we know where we can hurt them as well. We like to think we know what sort of game it’s going to be — they’re a team that runs a lot, we’re a team that runs a lot so it’s going to be an open, attacking game with big transitional threats. It’s definitely not something that changes on a result.”
Asked if a more open game might suit Town better, Chaplin said: “Potentially, but that’s the challenge and it’s a different challenge each and every week in the Premier League. Maybe it does, it’s similar to the way we want to go about things and maybe a more open and hell-fire game would suit us more.
“But we need to find a way and back ourselves to score goals and keep clean sheets when it’s a tight game, both teams aren’t giving up much and there’s not much quality in the match because teams are defending really well. We also need to find ways to win games like that.
“It’s going to be a different game to the last two I think, maybe I’ll be wrong. Time will tell and we’ll see on Sunday.”
Town’s rise to the Premier League has come more rapidly than almost anyone could have predicted. Chaplin was asked whether his move to Portman Road from Barnsley three years ago was a gamble that has significantly paid off.
“It was a big decision at the time, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t,” he considered. “I was at a club with not loads of ambition and hunger to improve and be better.
“Ipswich was a club that showed that to me straight away as soon as I started speaking to them so it really matched my own personalities, ideas and the way that I wanted my career to go.
“It was probably a risk in some sense but speaking to the hierarchy at the club and the management at the time it was a club that I knew didn’t want to be there for long and matched my ambitions. It was a calculated risk, you could say.
“I thought that we’d be back in the Championship in the first season or second season, it ended up being the second season. After that I couldn’t have seen it happening this quickly.”
Chaplin is not the only member of the Blues’ incredible double-promotion winning squad to have made the jump, with six of those who featured in Tuesday’s defeat to Crystal Palace having played for Town in League One.
Leif Davis, Harry Clarke, Sam Morsy and Wes Burns all started, while Chaplin was joined by Nathan Broadhead in coming on as a substitute.
Reflecting on those teammates, Chaplin said: “Very proud but it’s not something that I actively think about. I’m speaking for myself here, I don’t know about the other boys, but I don’t really give it a thought before or after games about the journey or anything like that.
“It’s just controlling what you can control at the moment. There’s time for sentiment maybe in the summer weeks or when the season has a break for a bit of reflection, but when you’re in it and you’re training every day I think it’s important to focus on what you can do to get better and where you are at that minute.”
Only Fulham have scored fewer Premier League goals this season from set pieces than Town, while the Blues are one of only four sides in the league yet to score from a dead ball situation at home.
When asked about the importance of making the most from set piece situations, Chaplin cited Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side as one to take lessons from in that respect.
The 27-year-old said: “You see it throughout the league, I was watching Arsenal-Man Utd the other night and Arsenal are probably the best in the league at it. After a while when you score a few you get a bit of fear factor and I could probably see that watching that game.
“They’re massive, it doesn’t matter what level of football they’re such big moments and we did really well last year in scoring a lot.
“Penalty against Forest, we had a huge chance on 44 minutes when Harry Clarke had one saved on the line against Palace. If that goes in everyone thinks it’s a good half of football, it doesn’t go in and everyone thinks it’s not a good half of football. It’s one of them where they really can be big moments.
“We really feel like we’re close to scoring off a set piece and we feel like we’re doing the right things – the delivery has been good, the runners have been good, the blocks have been good. We feel like we’re really close to scoring, we just need to make sure we take the next step and reward ourselves.”
Chaplin is a self-confessed football obsessive, but away from the game he has found great joy in welcoming his first child into the world last year and revealed a second is on the way.
Asked about how he spends his spare time, he said: “Just family, I’ve got a young one and another one coming soon so a lot of dog walks and a lot of family time, it’s the best thing in the world.
“I just enjoy that as much as I can and have as much time with my son as possible – going on walks, taking him swimming and going to the park. He likes to be outdoors so whatever we can do outdoors whether it’s rain or shine we’ll try and do that. I love dogs. They’re probably my favourite thing in the world, they’re amazing.”
_TWTD_
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