Bournemouth's Tyrone Mings has accepted he and his team-mates were "flat" throughout Saturday's FA Cup third-round defeat to Millwall and that none of those selected can expect to retain their place.
Cherries manager Eddie Howe made 11 changes to his team, presenting an opportunity for several fringe players to earn more regular first-team football.
Mings, 23, was prominent among those. The £8million defender was making only his second start of the season after he spent 2015/16 injured, and with Chelsea recalling Nathan Ake needed to impress.
The Dutch defender had made 12 appearances for the Cherries but the Blues activated an option to recall him from his season-long loan and he will return to Stamford Bridge with immediate effect.
Mings was directly at fault for none of Millwall's goals - scored by Steve Morison, Shaun Cummings and Shane Ferguson - but told his club's official website: "We should be able to put together a performance capable of - no disrespect - beating a League One team.
"That's based on the faith that the manager has in us and individual abilities.
"It's difficult (for players who aren't regular starters) but at the same time we are signed to a Premier League team, we train every day as a squad, we do different passing drills and matchday situations as a team.
"I just don't think it clicked as a team.
"We were very flat, we weren't patient enough in the final third. We didn't stretch them enough and we rushed things. It was a mixture of things.
"The manager obviously wasn't happy because he gave us an opportunity to go out and play, and all of us didn't take it.
"It's difficult for those of us who aren't playing to go in and say we should be because we just lost 3-0 to Millwall."
The hosts' performance was perhaps their finest since Neil Harris' appointment as manager in March 2015, and the 39-year-old revealed the blueprint for their victory had been provided by former Millwall team-mate Sean Dyche.
Bournemouth last month lost 3-2 at Dyche's Burnley, and Harris told Millwall's official website: "We watched their game against Burnley, against Dyche's team, and how Burnley set up very similarly to us, and thought we had to attack the game like that.
"We knew the possession would be way in their favour, but what we do with the ball is key, and where we win the ball back.
"We wanted to win the ball back really high, around their area, or defend well and break.
"We scored three excellent goals for different reasons, and were probably unlucky not to have two or three more."
Source: PA
