The Bournemouth midfielder Matt Ritchie claims that his team will not compromise their passing principles in the Premier League but must develop a ruthless mentality in front of goal to flourish.
Eddie Howe’s newly promoted side have yet to score or record a point in the Premier League having lost at home to Aston Villa on the opening weekend and to Liverpool in controversial fashion on Monday.
Bournemouth produced an encouraging display at Anfield with Ritchie, a Scotland midfielder, impressing and going close to levelling Christian Benteke’s contentious winner with a shot that shaved Simon Mignolet’s post.
The 25-year-old insists the first two matches have given Howe’s team no cause to change the style that delivered the Championship title last season. “We won’t veer away from our style, we don’t know how to play in any other way,” he said. “Since I arrived at the football club when we were in League One I’ve never played even 10 minutes for the gaffer when he has wanted us to pump it or play direct. We have always believed in what we do, passing the ball out from the back, working our patterns and partnerships throughout the pitch. That’s what we are best at and we won’t wander away from that.
“We’ve put in two good performances now, which is a positive note, but on a negative one we need to work the [opposition] goalie a little more. We had a couple of half-chances against Liverpool but nothing that you could say was an absolutely great one. We’re under no illusions that it will be tough this season but we have belief in the dressing room. We feel we can create chances and although we have had two defeats, we have learned a lot.”
Bournemouth lost eight of 46 league games en route to winning the Championship and Ritchie believes coping with a winless streak could be key to the team’s survival this season.
He explained: “We’ve come up from the Championship which, no disrespect, is easier than the Premier League, and it’s a massive challenge.
“We need to not get down on ourselves or each other. We have good quality in the group and if we continue what we do best we will be fine. It is a mental challenge this season, definitely.
“We’ve done OK for two games but only created six or seven chances and that’s not as many as we’re used to. So it is a mental challenge. When we are on top in games we need to be ruthless. Being ruthless is not a quality it’s a mentality – when you get in the box, you hit the target, you find the corner, you score goals. That’s what we need to do.”
Bournemouth left Anfield “feeling hard done by”, according to Ritchie, after Tommy Elphick had an early goal disallowed for a foul on Dejan Lovren and Benteke’s winner was allowed to stand by the referee, Craig Pawson, despite Philippe Coutinho being offside.
Ritchie said: “At every free-kick or set piece there is someone pushing or someone climbing. The ref has a tough job but if that is given against us then I don’t think you’ll see a header go in from a set piece this season that is given. It’s soft. Lovren’s done well in the way he’s played it, that he’s been fouled and the way he reacts after the ball has gone in. The ref was a bit fooled by that.”
