Andoni Iraola admits to ‘difficulty’ with Chelsea tactics preparation

Andoni Iraola has described Bournemouth’s preparations to face Chelsea as ‘very difficult’ due to the wealth of attacking players in Enzo Maresca’s side.

Chelsea, who drew 1-1 at home to Crystal Palace before the international break, resume their Premier League campaign with a trip to Bournemouth on Saturday.

Bournemouth, meanwhile, staged a brilliant comeback from two goals down to beat Everton 3-2 at Goodison Park in their last match.

Maresca could hand a debut to Jadon Sancho, who joined on loan from Manchester United, while Cole Palmer is expected to start after missing the international break due to a minor injury.

Joao Felix, Pedro Neto, Noni Madueke, Nicolas Jackson, Christopher Nkunku and Mykhailo Mudryk are also pushing to be part of Maresca’s attacking line-up.

When asked how tricky it is to prepare his side to face Chelsea because of their attacking options, Iraola replied: ‘For me it’s very difficult.

‘It’s a very difficult game for us, tactically, because they have so many different ways to do what looks the same but depending on the players they use – outside, inside, it changes a lot, how we defend, so we have to prepare for a lot of things.

‘It’s also a tricky game because a lot of things we normally do they’re are not bad for Chelsea.

‘If we put a high line and go and press them they are very good. Sometimes they want you to press and so they attract players and they are very fast at exploiting the spaces.

‘They are quite comfortable in these kind of scenarios but we normally like also.

‘It’s a tricky one, you don’t want to lose your identity, you want to do the things you normally do but you have to be aware that they are also comfortable in these scenarios.

‘We’ve had a lot of time to analyse their games but for sure they have another thing ready, another twist and we have to adapt during the game.

‘The coaching staff finalised everything, we know everything, but a lot of players will train today as their first day, or yesterday, so it’s not too much time, you don’t want them to spend two hours looking at the video, so we try to do the best we can and we see tomorrow if it’s good enough.’

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