AFC Bournemouth closed out the Premier League Summer Series in America with a 2-0 defeat to West Ham United in Atlanta.

Goals in either half from Niclas Fullkrug and Jarrod Bowen condemned The Cherries to a second defeat in the States, but the scoreline flattered the Hammers with some positive to take for Andoni Iraola’s side ahead of the final pre-season double header against Real Sociedad at home next weekend.

Here are five things we learnt from today’s penultimate friendly:

1. Marcos Senesi has had an alarmingly poor pre-season

I have been previously guilty of overhyping players in friendlies, such as the pre-season Messi, Jordon Ibe, and with that in mind perhaps we should not look to either be too kind or too harsh to players before a competitive ball is kicked.

With that said, given the departure of Dean Huijsen and the ongoing speculation over Illia Zabarnyi’s future, now is surely the time for Marcos Senesi to re-cement his place in the starting XI, having been displaced by Huijsen after injury last season.

However, his pre-season performances, especially in the last two games, have been alarming. Of course, friendlies are all about getting up to speed, but Senesi has looked well off the pace in most aspects of his game.

Senesi was caught in no-mans-land for Jarrod Bowen’s goal, watching helplessly as Malick Diouf’s cross sailed over his head for Bowen to convert. Senesi has never been the quickest, but since coming back from injury seems to have lost another yard of pace, and in pre-season has not made up for that with his defensive efforts. Crosses coming into his side continue to catch the Argentine out.

Senesi is likely to start against Liverpool, but will need to up his levels massively from what we’ve soon so far. Hopefully, we look back on this as just a case of a lack of sharpness in pre-season.

2. Hamed Traore could have a future at AFC Bournemouth

It was interesting to see Hamed Traore chosen to start from the off, with most others in the starting XI likely to be regulars in the Premier League, or at least trusted options off the bench.

Traore played in the ‘6’ against Everton, with no Tyler Adams available in that game, but lined up alongside Adams and Alex Scott in midfield today.

Adams started in the deeper role, with Traore slightly more advanced in the ‘8’ and Scott in the ’10’ behind Evanilson – when the line-up’s were announced it was expected to be Traore more advanced and Scott alongside Adams in a deeper position.

Traore has been a ’10’ throughout his career, but as with against Everton, showed no ill-effects playing further back. He was able to show his quality on the ball, playing in somewhat of a ‘quarterback’ role, looking to create opportunities from deep by breaking through the lines and picking out runners. Traore’s quality of passing could be one of the best available to Andoni Iraola.

He is very different to Ryan Christie, and was given much more license to roam in the position compared to the Scotsman. He was not scared to get stuck in, but was obviously not as effective off the ball as Christie.

In the second half, Iraola swapped Scott and Traore, with Traore moving behind Evanilson. Chances were limited in the half, but Traore showed some nice touches and made some good runs on and off the ball, which despite not always coming off, showed his quality.

There has been surprisingly little noise when it comes to a potential Traore departure this summer, but he has done little harm to his chances of working his way back into Iraola’s Premier League plans. Whether Traore wants that or not is a different question.

3. AFCB still lack a clinical edge in the final third

West Ham managed just five shots in the match and still managed to convert two, but AFCB weren’t able to put away any of their 14 efforts. The performance against the Hammers was not bad by any stretch of the imagination, the first half especially was good, but it felt like a repeat of games last season where the Cherries played well enough but somehow came away with nothing.

Evanilson will still be wondering how he didn’t convert from inside the six yard box early on, and the same will be said for Illia Zabarnyi who somehow hit the crossbar with a close range header with the score 1-0 in the first half. Marcus Tavernier and Traore also came close, and there were multiple chances created out wide where no-one was picked out to convert.

If AFCB are going to continue to be as frail defensively as they have shown at times in pre-season, they’re going to need to be much more clinical in front of goal. Hopefully, come the time a competitive ball is kicked, that rust in front of goal will be shaken off and all cylinders will be firing.

4. Andoni Iraola has a selection headache out wide

Dango Ouattara and David Brooks have been the standouts going forward for AFCB this preseason. But will either be starting against Liverpool? Andoni Iraola has favoured Antoine Semenyo, who is surely a lock to start, and Marcus Tavernier on the flanks, meaning whatever happens one of Ouattara or Brooks will be feeling very hard done by.

But given their performances so far, it would be very hard to not pick one of them, whatever wing that may be on. Andre Truffert and Brooks have developed a good understanding so far, but Dango has looked at his explosive best at times, especially in his cameo appearance off the bench. Brooks bamboozled West Ham with some lovely body feints and looked very high quality throughout, unlucky not to contribute to a goal.

Their developments will be intriguing to keep an eye on as the month goes on.

5. Adrien Truffert could be a great Milos Kerkez replacement

Once again, Truffert looked great going forward against The Hammers, threatening on multiple occasions and looking every bit the energetic, chaotic left back Iraola is looking for.

That said, questions could be asked of him defensively, especially for Fullkrug’s goal, where Truffert missed a header from a Diouf cross that allowed Bowen to square it to the German striker for a tap-in.

Kerkez was hardly blameless defensively, but in a league as strong as the Premier League, Truffert might need to up his levels at the back.

On the whole, his play has been very encouraging, and he looks to have settled into the style of play very quickly. For just £14M, he could end up being one of the bargain buys of the summer, and another potential profit spinner for the recruitment team.

There were a lot of negatives posted by AFCB fans after the game, but it’s not all doom and gloom, had chances been converted as expected then we would be singing the praises as we did after the Everton game. As it is, more minutes in the legs, plenty of lessons learned, and another step closer to the Premier League returning.