After their performances against Manchester City, Antonio Iraola was gushing over his centre-back combination of Marcos Senesi and Illia Zabarnyi.
For the majority of the ninety minutes, the two were excellent at keeping the City attack line quiet; the champs didn’t score their first goal until the eighty-minute mark.
With just one goal in five meetings versus Bournemouth, Erling Haaland maintained his comparatively poor goal-scoring form against the Cherries, failing to add to his 74 goals in 76 Premier League outings.
“I think they’ve been very brave because it’s difficult to play with the spaces we’ve had behind all the game, against Haaland, because he’s always a threat,” Iraola answered when asked by the Daily Echo how impressive Zabarnyi and Senesi’s efforts were.
“It was a different game at the end, where they were pushing us and we had to defend crosses and deal with challenging situations. They put the centre backs there, too, and everyone was pushing there, not just Erling.”
“I think they did a really, really good job with the fundamentals of the defence.”
In response to a question regarding the Argentine and Ukrainian partnership as it evolves at the core of the Cherries defensive prior to the City match, Iraola stated that the two are performing admirably.
“The rear centre,
- Marcos and Zaba are forcing me to give minutes to the others, which makes it difficult, even though I occasionally feel unfair to them.
The team benefits from this since we are playing well at certain points.
“They have excellent possession skills.
“I believe Zaba in particular is getting much better at making his initial decisions with the ball.”
Additionally, they are playing excellent defence and mastering the fundamentals.
“I would say that they are also gaining some leadership in that they are concerned about the structure as a whole rather than just their position.
“And I’m quite pleased with them.”
“He can give a lot, so we demand a lot,” Iraola said about the amazing Semenyo
In their ten games this season, the Cherries have given up 12 goals while maintaining one clean sheet against Arsenal.
Iraola’s team has only given up twice in the last three games, which have been against Champions League opponents, the Gunners, Aston Villa, and City.
Huijsen has started twice this season, against Nottingham Forest and Liverpool. The Basque manager previously informed the Daily Echo that he chooses his starting lineup according on the opposition they are up against.
However, Zabarnyi and Senesi are in such good form that it is hard for Iraola to think about dismissing either of them.
