Premier League: Bournemouth’s Centre-back team up Steve Cook and Nathan Ake proving effective

With a whipping wind and torrential rain, the weather was dire on the south coast on Saturday. Throughout this game, rubbish was strewn across the Vitality Stadium pitch. But enough about Manchester United’s midfield. Football fans can book Premier League Tickets on our website on exclusively discounted prices.

Insipid as his own team’s performance might have been the real reason Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s mini-revival ground to a halt in Bournemouth was the nature of the opposition. Just as their rugby-playing contemporaries had done in Tokyo, Manchester United ran into a brick wall of defence.

As uncompromising as any Springbok rearguard, the Bournemouth backline gave a masterclass in the stubborn refusal to yield. Eddie Howe’s problems this season have stemmed from his side’s failure to score Bournemouth had not netted once in October.

But why they were not in the kind of freefall that might generally be associated with such return, is that for three matches on the trot they have not conceded a goal. How Solskjaer must look on with envy. He spent over £100million trying to shore up his defence this summer.

Yet this was the eleventh away league game on the bounce in which his expensively assembled back five have failed to register a clean sheet. At the heart of the Bournemouth, resistance was a Centre back pairing as effective as any in the Premier League.

Steve Cook and Nathan Ake were towering against United, nullifying a forward line that in their last couple of outings had looked as if they might spark. Very different players from very different footballing backgrounds one the no-nonsense strongman who made his way up from the lower leagues.

The other the smooth intelligent sweeper schooled at Chelsea (who still retain a close interest in him) the two complement each other perfectly. A cookie is very aggressive aerially loves to defend, is very good on crosses their manager Eddie Howe explained after the pair’s demonstration of their value.

Nathan reads the game very well he’s got, you notice immediately. They’re playing very well together and long may it continue. What was particularly impressive about the pair’s understanding was the speed with which they adapted their tactics.

More than once in the first twenty minutes United’s fleet-footed front three threatened to take advantage of gaps opening up behind the Bournemouth midfield. But Cook and Ake quickly worked out a way to stop it happening. And once they did United had no answer.

They picked the second ball up quite a few times and broke and had space Cook who was making his 150^th Premier League appearance explained. So we had a quiet word came up to condense the pitch and I think that nullified [Daniel] James quite well [Marcus] Rashford and [Anthony] Marital are top players and in really good form.

So we felt that if we dealt with those two we’d go a long way to winning the game. We showed them wide kept them on their weaker foot and fortunately, I think we limited them to not many shots. It is the kind of clear-headed reasoning that has enabled Cook smoothly to advance from League One to becoming a Premier League stalwart.

It shouldn’t be underestimated how difficult that transition is it’s very difficult his manager insisted. And Cook’s ability to cope with upward mobility so effectively suggests he is ready to take another step. Given the manner in which he effectively shackled a current England starter several times sliding in at the last to stop Rashford having a sniff of goal, an international call u is not inconceivable.

After all, at 28 he is in his prime. Gareth [Southgate] leaves no stone unturned said Howe when asked if the England manager had been in touch about Cook’s excellence. All he’s got to do is perform at his best for us. Displays like that today where he was for me faultless throughout the game will do his cause no harm.

The truth was their visitors had no answer to Bournemouth’s defensive bulwark. And Joshua King made use of some lacklustre defending at the other end to snap up the only goal of the game with a sharp finish that left Aaron Wan-Bissaka a flat-footed bystander. With Cook and Ake in such imperious form behind him against opposition as hollow as this King’s strike was always going to be enough.

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