Gary O’Neil wants Bournemouth to be the best version of themselves at Leicester
The Cherries are currently third from bottom in the Premier League table.
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Your support makes all the difference.Bournemouth manager Gary O’Neil is hopeful his side are able to show the “best version of themselves” in their clash with Leicester.
The survival fight at the bottom of the Premier League table is heating up with one point separating 14th from the relegation zone, where the Cherries are currently third from bottom.
After beating Fulham last Saturday, south coast rivals Brighton handed them a 2-0 defeat in midweek, but O’Neil is confident his side can cause Leicester some problems on Saturday.
“We need to be the best version of ourselves which we’ve shown quite a lot recently,” he told a pre-match press conference.
“We’ve had a real tough run of fixtures, six games on the trot against top-10 teams.
“We’ve faced them, we’ve picked up points in them and in the ones that we haven’t picked up points we’ve had a good go.
“The same again tomorrow – if we’re a real good version of ourselves and we are full throttle, front foot and well-organised then I’m sure we can cause Leicester some problems, as I’m sure they’ll be thinking the same about us.
“Our focus and what we need to be, we can be the best version of ourselves, go there and have a real good game against Leicester and cause them some issues.”
Leicester are also fighting for Premier League survival and are two points below the Cherries in 19th.
Poor results saw Brendan Rodgers depart last week, but O’Neil is still expecting a tough test when his side visit the Foxes.
“Leicester have got really good players, they perform well in a lot of the matches I’ve seen,” he said.
“James Maddison is obviously an England international, Harvey Barnes is a fantastic talent. They’ve caused teams some problems, scored four against Aston Villa and Tottenham not too long ago.
“They’ve obviously been on a bit of a tough run but the Premier League is like that, you only need to drop your levels a little bit and you can get punished.
“We’ve been on bad runs ourselves and you find a way to bounce back, fight back and put an end to it and Leicester will be looking to do the same.
“I see them as really dangerous at the minute, it’s obviously a dangerous fixture, they’re a Premier League team that have been a Premier League team for a long time who are going through a tough spell.
“That doesn’t mean they can’t turn up on Saturday and put in a real good performance, they definitely can. We’re preparing for the best version of Leicester and making sure that we’re ready.”
O’Neil confirmed Marcos Senesi has a “slight hamstring concern” and will check his fitness after the centre-half was substituted in the midweek defeat to Brighton.
Illia Zabarnyi will also be checked, while Marcus Tavernier is edging closer to a start for the Cherries.