Dominic Solanke a massive player says Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe

Published 12/07/2020 at 21:23 GMT

Bournemouth manager praised two-goal striker Dominic Solanke after his first goals for the club helped them to a 4-1 win over Leicester City.

Bournemouth

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The win gives Howe a chance of staying up at the end of the season while Leicester's place in the top four is under threat when Manchester United play Southampton on Monday night.

Speaking after the game, Howe praised Solanke, saying: "I thought he was very good today. He took his goals very well, both showed his qualities. I always believe Dominic is going to be a massive player for us in the future and that will do his confidence the world of good.

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"Dominic is a very unique player, he has attributes we really like and value and I think he's done very well mentally to make sure outside noise doesn't affect him.

I felt we needed to win today for sure. We will try and win every game. We are still in it and can still survive, It will be very difficult but we've shown our supporters we are in there fighting and that's all we can do.

"We needed to change things at half-time and had the mentality that we had to go for it. Thankfully we were able to swing things round, we had tactical issues in the first half but the main change was mental.

"It was almost the situation was as bleak as it could be, we had to find something, no fear. We did that right from the off and it vastly improved our performance."

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Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers believed his side paid the price for complacency after their early season form tailed off after the winter break.

"I didn't see that coming but we are not good enough to get too comfortable. We were in control of the game, Bournemouth changed their shape and you expect a 10-minute spell when you are up against it. But we let them into the game with a penalty and I was very disappointed with how we played from there. It's not like us, we are a team that is strong mentally and we don't concede many goals," he said.

"It's a red card. We should defend the goal better but [Soyuncu]'s lashed out. You offer the referee the opportunity to send you off. It's massive to lose him for the next three games.

I've always said it's a dream for us to finish in the top four but we have to worry about playing well. At the moment, since we came back we have been playing for 45 minutes in games and that's not enough. We will finish where we deserve to.

"If you think about what is at stake you have lost your focus."