Gary O'Neil returns to Bournemouth for first time since being sacked in June; O'Neil's replacement Andoni Iraola still searching for first Premier League win; follow Bournemouth vs Wolves in Sky Sports' live blog from 1.30pm on Saturday and watch free highlights from 5.15pm
Saturday 21 October 2023 15:26, UK
Take a moment to visualise yourself as a Premier League manager. What does that first win look like? Surely beating your predecessor is right up there with the best-case scenarios.
But what if the wait for that first win continues to drag on deep into October, while the person you replaced in the dugout has since found a new club and already picked up a famous victory over the current champions? Suddenly, the stakes are a lot higher when you come up against them for the first time.
That is the situation facing Andoni Iraola on Saturday as he prepares Bournemouth for the visit of Wolves. Gary O'Neil is back in town, and the former Cherries boss has a point to prove.
O'Neil's sacking in June less than seven months after he was named permanent head coach was seen by many as particularly harsh, even by Premier League standards. Having guided Bournemouth to a respectable 15th-place finish last season despite his side being widely tipped for relegation, the 40-year-old was replaced by Iraola on the same day as his dismissal.
Ten wins in 34 Premier League games, including landmark victories over Liverpool and Tottenham, and surviving the drop despite being bottom of the table after 25 matches, were not good enough reasons to convince new Bournemouth owner Bill Foley that a change wasn't needed to move the team forward.
"Gary O'Neil's work was excellent," Iraola recently told The Telegraph. "But the change came because the ownership was looking for a different style of play."
Iraola has succeeded in that regard. Bournemouth's style has noticeably altered during the opening months of the season. The Spaniard has implemented a high-intensity pressing game on the south coast, which can be better explained by looking at advanced metrics.
So far in the Premier League this season, Bournemouth rank above Liverpool and Manchester City in terms of high turnovers, while the Cherries are also the seventh-best side when it comes to shot-ending high turnovers.
That's not all. Bournemouth are fifth for pressed sequences, placing them higher than seven of the top eight teams in the Premier League table, and seventh for passes per defensive action (PPDA).
If you use these four metrics to compare Iraola's Bournemouth with O'Neil's Bournemouth, the difference is clear.
"We try to press high, to be aggressive without the ball," Iraola explained to Sky Sports in May while still in charge of former club Rayo Vallecano.
It's a style that produced results for Iraola in Spain. Not only did he get Rayo promoted to LaLiga, but he also secured consecutive mid-table finishes and beat Real Madrid and Barcelona last season - hence Bournemouth's decision to bring him to the Premier League.
Iraola's philosophy is a big-risk, big-reward one, but it isn't paying off at Bournemouth right now. The Cherries are in the relegation zone ahead of this weekend's fixtures and are one of only two sides without a victory.
While Bournemouth are clearly excelling in some areas, others are letting them down. Despite showing all the right signs of being a pressing team, Bournemouth have had the most passes completed between the lines against them this season, which suggests their press isn't working as effectively as it should. They also rank eighth for progress against, meaning most opposition teams are not struggling to move up the pitch with the ball.
It's clear Bournemouth have changed their playing style under Iraola, but they are yet to master their pressing game and it could be what's costing them points. However, the season is only eight games in, and it's important to mention they have faced five of the top seven sides in the Premier League table. It's been a tough run of fixtures.
One of O'Neil's key talents as Bournemouth boss was being able to play to the strengths of his squad and somewhat sacrifice what he truly believed in. His philosophy is "possession-based, high-intensity, attacking football and playing out from the back," Damian McCarthy, a close friend of O'Neil's, told The Athletic in August.
That philosophy is surely one O'Neil would like to have implemented in his first managerial role at Bournemouth, but he knew he could only use the tools at his disposal, so he opted for a style that involved absorbing pressure and playing quick, counter-attacking football instead.
Across the whole of last season, most of which was played with O'Neil in charge, Bournemouth ranked 19th out of 20 clubs for their share of possession, 18th for PPDA, and fourth for direct speed for. Combine those three metrics and that suggests a side content on getting players behind the ball but wanting to counter-attack quickly.
Despite some minor differences, that overall trend of a counter-attacking style under O'Neil has continued at Wolves in the Premier League this term. They rank 16th for pressed sequences and 13th for PPDA, but they are sixth for direct attacks.
As well as this, Wolves are top for high turnovers against and shot-ending high turnovers against, third for press sequences against and second for starting distance against, which all points towards a team that often sits deep in their own half.
O'Neil's current style of play may not reflect his desired philosophy, but he's shown the importance of being "adaptable" - a skill he stressed was vital at Bournemouth last season. That flexibility brought the Cherries results when they needed them - but now it's Wolves who are feeling the benefits.
Since O'Neil replaced Julen Lopetegui in August, an impressive win over champions Manchester City and a draw against high-flying West Midlands rivals Aston Villa before the international break has brought a feel-good factor back to Molineux. The same cannot be said of the mood at the Vitality Stadium.
"We've done really well in moments but that has not got us points and that is what we are here to do," Iraola said in his matchday programme before Bournemouth's 4-0 defeat against Arsenal on September 30. That result preceded a 3-0 loss at Everton, a side that had been beaten in all four previous Premier League games at Goodison Park this season.
Iraola's philosophy has worked in the past and he certainly has the tactical nous to beat some of Europe's best sides, but results so far in the unforgiving environment of the Premier League suggest the Spaniard may need to tweak his methods to be successful, even if that doesn't align with his own ideology.
He desperately needs to find that first win soon because another defeat at the weekend, this time at the hands of returning boss O'Neil, would be particularly damaging. Bournemouth fans would find that outcome extremely difficult to accept.
Follow Bournemouth vs Wolves in Sky Sports' live blog from 1.30pm on Saturday and watch free highlights from 5.15pm.
