Eddie Howe has reflected on his side’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester United at Vitality Stadium this evening.
Goals from Chris Smalling and Romelu Lukaku either side of half time sealed the win for Jose Mourinho’s side, as the Cherries remain 11th in the Premier League.
Following the game, Howe shared his thoughts on the following points...
On the penalty incident...
I think Callum [Wilson] has got goalside and has the chance to tap the ball into an empty net. I think he's off balance as a result and for me it's a penalty.
I thought we had a really good spell in the match at that point, but the penalty wasn't given and they then showed their quality on the counter-attack. It was a much improved performance from the Liverpool game.
Against the big sides...
I think we're always looking to try and improve every season, but it gets harder and the margins get smaller and smaller. Even though our record against the top sides hasn't been great, I don't think we've got what we deserved out of some matches.
Games this year have been closer. Tonight we were really in the game and there wasn't a huge gap in performance levels, but we ended up losing. We weren't embarrassed or disgraced.
Attacking play...
The final pass wasn't great today. We got in great positions and our counter-attacks were good.
There were times where you think this is the moment, but you have to credit United's centre-backs, they shut the gaps and handled the pace of our front two very well.
Lewis Cook's performance...
I think Lewis was at his very best tonight. He's had a couple of games where he perhaps hasn't hit the heights from earlier this season.
Tonight, he had a zip to his game, driving from midfield and fronting up United's experienced players. The level of his performance was very high.
