LEE Dixon says Eddie Howe needs to adapt his game plan to bring a halt to Cherries' “astonishing” run of conceding three goals in eight of their past 10 games.

Dixon, four times an English title winner with Arsenal, believes Howe is paying the price for his rigid adherence to an expansive style of football.

Now an authoritative pundit, Dixon nevertheless believes this period could prove valuable in "future England manager" Howe's development.

Speaking ahead of Cherries' home clash with Watford tomorrow (3pm), Dixon told the Daily Echo: “Their recent record is astonishing. I’m a big fan of Eddie’s and the way he’s stuck to his principles.

"But playing an expansive game, with your full-backs getting wide, doesn’t lend itself to keeping the ball out of the net. It’s coming to pass now that they are getting hurt.

“Coaching the art of defending has been left to one side a little bit recently.

“Eddie might be a victim of this, playing in a certain way – and being encouraged to carry on playing that way – has put him in a position where you can question if he is capable of putting a stop to it."

Dixon was part of an Arsenal back four, under George Graham and latterly Arsene Wenger, whose collective names have become a byword for defensive excellence: Dixon, Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Nigel Winterburn.

But he does not identify any individuals in Cherries’ side with the same appetite for defending as that quartet.

"It looks like they don’t have any problem-solvers on the pitch in that defensive area," said Dixon.

“Arsene Wenger doesn’t coach a back four. He doesn’t have the equipment to fix stuff like that.

“As players we used to take control of things on the pitch, regardless of what Arsene was saying. I certainly know more about defending than Arsene Wenger does.

“That's not being big-headed, I grew up doing it seven days a week and he has far more things to consider."

Dixon does not anticipate Cherries being sucked into a battle against the drop. But he says Howe must heed the lessons of this testing experience.

“I’m sure he has a good football brain, I think he’s a future England manager,” added Dixon.

“He's probably thinking 'we’ve done it before and we can get through this'.

“They might do – but after five or six games you would have thought they would have tried to change things for a few weeks.

“But the person this will benefit most is Eddie Howe. It might be part of his learning curve and his education.

“The ability to adapt and change a little bit might be what he needs to develop as a manager and a coach.”