Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe is making sure he and his high-flying Cherries squad won’t be underestimating Tony Mowbray’s Blackburn Rovers ahead of tomorrow night’s Carabao Cup clash at Dean Court.
Eddie Howe looks set to name a strong squad for their Third Round clash with Blackburn Rovers in the Carabao Cup tomorrow night. Howe will be keen to bounce back from his side’s surprise 4-0 loss to Burnley at Turf Moor at the weekend, and sees tomorrow’s match up with Rovers as a perfect place to start off.
Howe told the Lancashire Telegraph:
“We’re looking forward to getting back into action and looking forward to having the chance to respond.
“I think we expect a good football match with Blackburn, they’ve done well adapting to life back in the Championship.
“They’re playing with confidence and have kept their momentum from promotion.
“We won’t underestimate Blackburn in any way, as we didn’t for MK Dons, we know we’ll have to play well to get through.
“We have players who are desperate to play and get an opportunity.
“We need to make the right call and we want to progress. It’s a home game and we want to entertain the home supporters, we’ll make the best decision possible.
“No matter the run of results you want players who put the air hands up and want to play, it’s an opportunity for those players to play and show what they can do.”
The English manager has a strong squad at his disposal, with just Charlie Daniel, Dan Gosling and youngster Kyle Taylor unavailable through injury.
On the other hand, Rovers manager Tony Mowbray looks set to give some of his star players a rest, with a 550-mile round trip waiting for them on their way to Bournemouth. Darragh Lenihan, Charlie Mulgrew, Corry Evans, Bradley Dack and Danny Graham could all be given the night off, according to the Lancashire Telegraph.
Games are coming thick and fast until the international break, with four games in the next 11 days for Mowbray’s Rovers side. He said:
“We will make some changes.
“We have players who need some game-time, some young players who did well in the last round, so it’s not necessarily about the game, it’s the travelling and getting back at 4am and then that day is a wash-out as people need to eat, sleep, recover.
“Then Thursday becomes a light day, getting their legs working again, so you end up really with just one morning of preparation on Friday for a big game against Nottingham Forest on Saturday. We will leave some of the senior players behind and try and go to Bournemouth and give a good account of ourselves.”
