Iraola praises his Cherries side for not making excuses

Andoni Iraola has praised his AFC Bournemouth side for not making excuses, and continuing to fight, despite their injury woes.

The Cherries are on a ten-game unbeaten run in all competitions, even though they are now down to the bare bones in terms of first team players, and being forced to field a bench of mainly youngsters.

Iraola was keen to heap praise onto his players, he said: “They have all the excuses available, but they are deciding not to take them.

“They are deciding to keep going and keep fighting, in whatever position we need them, and I admire it.

“I hope they keep going until we recover more bodies.”

Bournemouth have particular issues at centre forward, with both Enes Unal and Evanilson out injured, but Iraola says there have still been no developments in bringing in a replacement.

He said: “Right now, there is no news.

“It is difficult in the winter market, no one wants to get rid of their number nine, it is a position that you sub a lot and a position that you want to have just in case.

“The club continues to work on it and we still have a lot of days left in the market.”

There has been some suggestion that Bournemouth’s long injury list has been a result of Iraola’s high-tempo style of play, but the Spaniard was quick to reject that claim.

Iraola said: “I have always played this way, and it is the first season I have had these problems with injuries.

“Enes Unal is my first ACL injury, and you never want one of your players to go through these injuries.

“I think its not just us, you see Brentford and Arsenal, they are suffering the same, but in a very short squad like ours, we suffer more.”

In addition to the injury problems, the Cherries manager believes that his side have fallen foul to some questionable refereeing decisions in recent weeks.

Iraola said: “I think we are losing a lot of points because of the mistakes of the referees.

“Decisions are happening that, after two weeks, they (PGMOL) come to us and tell us they got it wrong.

“It’s always said that it balances out at the end of the season, but it will take a lot of balancing!”