Cherry coach: Ranking second in the standings is definitely unexpected, the gap between the teams is very small

Hupu News on October 31 Before this round of the Premier League match against Manchester City, Bournemouth coach Anthony Illara accepted an exclusive interview with Sky Sports.

At the beginning of this season, if someone told you that you would be ranked above Manchester City, and not only surpass them, but also ranked second in the Premier League standings, what would your real reaction be at that time?

We did not expect that we would have already scored 18 points at this stage of the season, but we also knew that this was just the beginning, just the first nine rounds. I thought the team performed very well.

Obviously, we lost some high-level players, right? These effects can sometimes be felt. But we also have an advantage - we have a group of players on the team who have been with us for three years and experienced three seasons.

These players know our goals and needs very well, not only in their own positions, but also from the perspective of the team as a whole. This helps our coaching staff a lot.

We also have good news this summer. Players such as Antonio and David Brooks, who are very important to us, have renewed their contracts, which shows that they are very happy here. I always try to tell them that what we need is collective success, working together, achieving careers together, and playing exciting games together.

As long as the team performs well, everyone will become better.

Do you think a club like Bournemouth, with a complete system, now has greater potential to win honors?

I find this very difficult, to be honest it is really difficult. We are really getting closer step by step and the gap between the teams is very small. Lose two games and your ranking will drop six or seven places. And in current games, big scores like 5-0 and 6-0 rarely occur. The level of each team is very close. If your form drops even a little bit, you will be in trouble.

We saw Bill Foley come over the weekend and he seemed to be really enjoying this journey of growing up with this sports club. Do you interact with him a lot?

It’s great that he can come here and spend a week with us, watching training and games. He also conveyed a lot of positive vibes to the team. His football knowledge has improved a lot, and now he not only pays attention to our own players, but also asks about players from other teams. You could tell he was enjoying the experience.

Obviously, I've told him many times, he's been successful in pretty much everything in business and sports. So sometimes it's a kind of "pressure" for us - we have to produce results and give him good results, but I think he understands the overall situation of the club very well. I think it would be hard to find a better boss than him.

Do you think a young coach like you now has the opportunity to achieve as much as you did in a wealthy club, or even achieve more in the future?

As a head coach, I often say that we cannot look too far ahead. Your future depends on the outcome of the next game. Next up we have away games against Manchester City and Aston Villa, both of which we could lose. Once they lose, everyone may think, "They played well before, but now they can't." So at the end of the day, you have to keep performing well.

You mentioned the away games against Manchester City and Aston Villa, which seems to have a sense of honor for Spanish coaches. Have you had any communication with Guardiola and Unai Emery? What is your relationship like?

Yes, we will communicate before and after the game. In my opinion, both of them are top managers. Guardiola has been winning since the beginning of his coaching career, while Unai started in the lower leagues, won many honors, improved every season, showed great stability, and achieved much higher achievements in football than me.

Being able to play against such a coach is a huge challenge for me. We have the ability to surprise these teams. As long as we play well and perform well, I believe we can get the desired results.

You have always made it clear that you do not pay attention to the standings, but the outside world will pay attention. Do you think this standings will change drastically?

I think at the end of the season, those eight or nine teams that everyone recognizes will eventually be ranked in the top half of the standings. It's only the beginning of the season, and the teams are still making adjustments. Arsenal is obviously currently ahead of other teams, but there are basically no big surprises in the rankings of other teams.

Perhaps the performance of the newly promoted team is the biggest surprise. They played very well. And teams like us and Sunderland might do slightly better than expected. I think it will be roughly halfway through the season and after 19 rounds of games, before we can initially see the possible final ranking of the team, but unfortunately, it is still too early.

If you want this dream start and this dream season you are enjoying to last until the end, what do you think is the most important thing to stick to?

For me it's stability, consistent stability. We are playing well and getting the results we want, but the challenge is - especially when you are competing against teams that are in the top half of the table all year round, you have to maintain a consistent performance.