Bournemouth plans scuppered by this week’s manager sacking

Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola has backed to players to deal with the challenge of playing a Nottingham Forest side who have changed manager this week.

Former Tottenham and Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo has replaced Steve Cooper at the City Ground and his first game in charge is the visit of the Cherries on Saturday.

A run of just one win in 13 games led to Cooper’s exit but Iraola expects a different test this time out.

“It’s a difficult situation for us, training-wise,” he told reporters at his pre-match press conference.

“At the beginning of the week, we were preparing for Forest under Steve Cooper and now, we have to think in other situations that we really don’t know.

“They have a lot of players and Nuno has played with a lot of different systems, so we are trying to focus more on ourselves.

“We’re trying to improve the things that we have to improve and, obviously, that will require us to be very quick to react once we know their line-up and see the first minutes.

“We have to be ready for different scenarios – it’s not easy but it’s what we have to do.”

In stark contrast to their weekend hosts, Bournemouth have won four of their last five games – including a 3-0 win at Manchester United.

Their game at home to Luton last weekend was abandoned after Hatters skipper Tom Lockyer collapsed on the pitch and it has since been confirmed that fixture will be replayed in full at some point in the new year.

Lockyer has since been released from hospital as Iraola looks to move forward following the incident.

“After hearing the good news, it’s maybe easier and we need to put our focus again and start thinking about the next game against Forest,” he added.

“Some of our players know Tom better than the others as well as their families so it’s probably been more difficult for them but now we need to keep going and we hope the best for Tom for his recovery.”