Bournemouth's Brilliant Bench

Brazilian striker Evanilson managed to score with the last touch of the game yesterday, earning a point for the Cherries away at Villa Park. Many Bournemouth fans were shocked when the starting lineup was announced, that Andoni Iraola had chosen to put Evanilson on the bench in favour of starting Enes Unal, who had yet to make a Premier League start this season.

The Importance Of Substitiutes

On numerous occasions, Iraola has talked about the importance of his bench and how sometimes he doesn’t start with his strongest team, but ends with it. This is evident through some of Bournemouth’s results under him. Last season, his side were 3-0 down at home to Luton at half time, but after he had made some changes, Bournemouth came out on top 4-3.

Meanwhile in the Premier League:

45+1'—Bournemouth 0-3 Luton
83'—Bournemouth 4-3 Luton pic.twitter.com/I3DLMesR7Z

— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 13, 2024

Similarly, Bournemouth scored three times in the last nine minutes against Everton earlier this season to win 3-2, and in the last two weeks, all of Bournemouth’s goals have come well into the second half.

How Many Goals Have Been Scored By Subs?

Six of Bournemouth’s 11 goals this season have either been scored or assisted by a substitute, and two of them have been both. On top of this, Dango Ouattara would have given Bournemouth another goal from a substitute against Newcastle, had it not been wrongly disallowed by VAR.

In fact, in the Premier League season so far, only Aston Villa have had as many goal contributions by substitutes, and that is mainly down to Jhon Duran’s incredible performances off the bench.

Justin Kluivert had just 6 touches of the ball against Arsenal — he scored and assisted.

Effecient. 😳 pic.twitter.com/PgjoGMPRoZ

— Statman Dave (@StatmanDave) October 19, 2024

So do Bournemouth have a bench player that they turn to when they need a goal? Not really. Of the eight goal involvements from the bench, only Luis Sinisterra and Justin Kluivert have two, and each of theirs came in the same substitute performance, Sinisterra against Everton and Kluivert against Arsenal.

Along with those two, Dango Ouattara, Ryan Christie, Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson all have one each.

Are Substitutes Becoming More Important

For a while now, Premier League managers have had the luxury of using five substitutes in a game rather than three. This means that naturally, substitutes and having larger squads is going to be more important, as 50% of the outfield players could change during the course of a match.

Substitutes are particularly important to Iraola as he likes his team to press aggressively to force high turnovers. Last season in the Premier League, his side covered more distance than the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea, and Dominic Solanke covered more distance than any other number nine, and was inside the top eight for all players in the league. This play style means that subs are necessary to keep the pressure and the intensity high.

Catching up on football and Iraola speaks about football so well. His English is brilliant and tactically he breaks down the opposition in such an easy-to-understand way. No wonder the players have bought into it.

— h (@htomufc) October 20, 2024

On top of this, Iraola likes to go all out for a result, even if that means leaving the back door open for a counter-attack. Yesterday against Aston Villa, Iraola substituted Milos Kerkez off for David Brooks, a full-back for another winger, simply to try and get a point.

Even when Bournemouth were 1-0 down to Manchester City last season, Iraola favoured to finish the game with just two defenders on the pitch rather than let City away with an easy three points. While Bournemouth were unsuccessful in getting a result on that occasion, it demonstrates his mindset, that any game is winnable at any time, something that has been showcased by Bournemouth’s remarkable comebacks under his leadership.

Iraola's former club Athletic Bilbao are in action tomorrow against Mallorca.