Andoni Iraola has admitted that he doesn’t have an exact replacement for Marcus Tavernier, after the attacker picked up a muscle injury that will keep him out for several weeks.
Tavernier has been the Cherries’ most creative player this campaign, with four assists in the Premier League already, but could miss more than five games over the busy Christmas period.
Iraola believes that despite not having a direct replacement for Tavernier in his squad, his Bournemouth side are more than capable of adapting, he said: “We don’t have an exact player who can replace him, but even if we are quite thin, we have options.
“We have players that can play on the wing or in the ten, and I think Brooksy (David Brooks) and Dango (Ouattara) are doing very well in the minutes they have had from the last games.
“We also have the option to use Justin (Kluivert) wide and sometimes last season we used Milos (Kerkez) more offensively.
“I prefer not to use Ryan (Christie) further forward, but he can do it because he has played a lot of his career there.
“Tav (Tavernier) is a player who has played every game that he has been available, so it’s normal we miss him, but also we are good enough as a team to make it work without him.”
Despite having confidence in his squad, Iraola does appreciate that Tavernier is very important for the Cherries, he said: “On the ball he has his quality, giving us assists and helping in set plays.
“Tactically he’s very smart so we can use him in lots of different positions, on the wing or in the ten, even the other day playing as an eight I think he did very well.
“He’s a very good player for me.”