EDDIE Howe admitted "I don't think we learned too much" from his tactical experiment during Monday's FA Cup loss to Arsenal.

Cherries used three different formations in the 2-1 defeat against the Gunners.

Howe started with a 4-4-2, using Ryan Fraser in an unfamiliar role as a centre-forward, while Lewis Cook started on the left wing. When Eddie Nketiah's goal went in to make it 2-0 on 26 minutes, Cherries reverted to type with Dominic Solanke leading the line on his own.

Asked what his thinking was behind the new-look roles for Fraser and Cook, Howe told the Daily Echo: "I don’t think Ryan did too bad. I thought it was more the team wasn’t good.

"It was just something we wanted to look at just in case our strikers got injured. We’re so thin on the ground.

"Can Ryan play up front for us? He’s done it before, but I don’t think it was anything to do with his individual performance, the team behind him weren’t good enough.

"I think you could’ve had anyone up there, I don’t think we would’ve seen the best of them."

He added: "We wanted to have a look at one of our centre-midfielders play wide, because again we’ve only got two fit wide players, so if something happened to them and we wanted to play any system with a wide man, have we got the capability in our squad to cover that?

"We’re looking at various things to not just win the game on Monday, but to help us in the future.

"What did we learn? I don’t think we learned too much because our mentality wasn’t right in that opening period of the game.

"I don’t think it was anything tactical. Yes we improved from a couple of changes that we made, but I think it had more to do with the belief in the group and the way we approached the game was much better."