ANDONI Iraola is expecting a tough tactical test as his Cherries side host Chelsea tomorrow night.
AFC Bournemouth come into the game unbeaten in the Premier League and will hope to defend that record against the Blues, who have lost just once, to league leaders Manchester City.
Previewing the Saturday evening clash, Iraola said it is difficult to predict how Chelsea will set up tactically, so it will present a challenge that will see tactics tweaked as the game unfolds.
“I think we will have to be adjusting every minute,” he told the Daily Echo.
“It's going to be tactically very demanding.
“We don't have timeouts here in football and you have to be adjusting live because I think they have, you know, they can invert the left full back, they can invert the right full back, they can put the right full back high.
“They go inside with the ten and the right winger, the ten and the left winger. They use a lot of different things and you cannot prepare the team for everything.
“I think we will have to adjust and I hope we are ready, but I think it's going to be a difficult challenge because we don't want to lose our identity, our nature, but the things we do probably are also good for them.
“If we go to a game that is very, very open, you are risking that they are going to have a lot of chances also.”
The Basque boss pointed to Chelsea’s 6-2 victory away at Wolverhampton to say how the Blues can punish sides when the game is open.
“We could see the Wolves game, where Wolves, I think they were playing quite well, but there is a moment where the game opens and they are very, very good,” Iraola said.
“They are very clinical when they have the chances.
“So we will have to be all the time, sometimes running, sometimes controlling, and it is not going to be easy.”
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Comparing this season’s Chelsea under Enzo Maresca to last season’s under Mauricio Pochettino, Iraola said there are some similarities in terms of personnel, but they must prepare well for Maresca’s tactical setup.
He is expecting tactical twists in the game, even though he and his staff have prepared as much as they can in the lead up to the game.
“They are a team that in these three first Premier League games, they have used three different structures because they have a lot of different players, a lot of different alternatives, according to the things you do, they will do other things and it's not easy to know how they will play tomorrow,” he said.
“We have to prepare for a lot of different options. For me, they've played really, really well.
“They're going to be very good this season, I think, they've lost against City only and I think it's going to be a very, very difficult game.”
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