HEAD Coach Andoni Iraola said his side “had to risk at the end” of their 1-0 defeat to Manchester City, explaining why his side finished with two natural defenders on the pitch.

Cherries had a host of second-half chances to cancel out Phil Foden’s 24th minute strike at Vitality Stadium, but could not find an equaliser.

In a bid to find a goal, Iraola introduced Romain Faivre and Luis Sinisterra for defenders Marcos Senesi and Milos Kerkez respectively, with the Basque boss feeling that City “were not creating so much offensively” in the closing stages.

Midfielder Lewis Cook and Dango Ouattara were deployed as "false defenders" in Iraola's words, covering the spaces left by the two missing defenders.

Iraola explained: “I think it's a matter of what we feel.

“I was feeling that we were playing really well, we could survive with less defenders because they were not creating so much offensively.

“We tried to finish with two number nines, with Romain (Faivre) more in the inside, even Lew (Lewis Cook) and Dango (Ouattara) playing like false defenders, let's say.

“We had to risk at the end. We were really close to getting something from the game.

“We had some chances - the last one from Enes (Unal), but we couldn't do it.”