FORMER defender Eddie Howe admitted his dislike of facing pace as a player had informed his decision to unleash it as manager of Cherries.

The Dorset club have plenty of speed in attacking areas with the likes of Ryan Fraser, Callum Wilson, Joshua King and Jordon Ibe particularly rapid.

Howe said: “Coming into the Premier League, it was something we identified we needed more of given the number of transitions and the number of moments which are dictated by the pace in the team.

“We weren’t a counter-attacking threat in the Championship. We were solely a possession team and that was something we needed to change coming up to this level.

“We’ve tried to recruit the players to do that and I think it’s the biggest part of our game which has improved since those days.

“As a centre-half, the one thing I didn’t want to play against was pace so maybe I’ve used that in terms of how I’ve built my teams.

“It’s a massive commodity in football now and in the future it will only go more that way. You need that in your team and we are lucky to have it in a few areas.”