Bournemouth boss Rose urges Cherries to bounce back from Chelsea 'slap' / Photo: Glyn KIRK - AFP
Bournemouth boss Rose urges Cherries to bounce back from Chelsea 'slap'
Bournemouth boss Marco Rose hopes getting a "real slap" in a 5-1 defeat at Chelsea will spark a positive reaction from his players in the club's first home European fixture against Sturm Graz on Thursday.
The Cherries marked their Europa League debut with a 2-1 win at Real Sociedad.
But they slipped to a 1-0 loss to Liverpool before Saturday's comprehensive defeat at Stamford Bridge, where they conceded two goals in the opening three minutes.
Bournemouth finished an impressive sixth in the Premier League last season under former manager Andoni Iraola, now in charge of Liverpool.
But they are currently a lowly 18th in the table and without a win from their opening six games of the new Premier League campaign ahead of this week's game at home to the Austrians.
"We want to show, and we have to show, a reaction," Rose told a pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
"For me the only good thing out of this (Chelsea) game is that we got a real slap result-wise.
"It is a tough challenge there (at Stamford Bridge), but if you start like we started, the task is getting much more difficult.
"After the game, everyone was really disappointed. The games before we always talked about our performances, how good they were and how we had not got enough points out of it. Now we got a real slap and now we have to show a reaction."
The German added: "We are in not so comfortable a situation points-wise in the Premier League. We know that we are able to get points out of games and that we can perform well."
Justin Kluivert and forward Amine Adli, yet to feature this season because of a calf injury, are both expected back in the squad.
L.Lewis--PI
