MIDFIELD talisman Harry Arter insists the reputation Cherries have gained for all-out attacking football is unfounded.

Cherries' style of play has been the subject of fierce debate since the start of the season with opinions intensifying during the current seven-match winless run in the Premier League.

Eddie Howe has been routinely questioned on his team's approach in recent months and Match of the Day pundit Martin Keown suggested on Saturday that the Vitality Stadium boss "might have to change his philosophy a little bit" in order to counteract a disappointing defensive record.

However, Arter feels that the attacking instincts of Cherries have been overstated, arguing that the Dorset side prefer a more measured approach with a primary focus on ball retention.

Speaking ahead of tomorrow's home clash with Everton (3pm), Arter told the Daily Echo: "I do think people concentrate on us being an attacking team more than we actually are.

"I feel we play possession football more than always attacking and that's the way we want to go about things.

"I think you have to be clever. If you are being ridiculously gung-ho and trying to score on every occasion then you are going to have problems if you concede possession too early.

"People say we are attacking but we dominated possession against Swansea and Newcastle. There is an element of it where we do attack but possession-wise, if we have the ball then the opposition can't score.

"We want to try and play football and play it the right way.

"If we cut out a few silly defensive errors and keep our minds on not conceding then we will definitely pick up some positive results."

In a pre-match press conference last week, Howe was quizzed on whether he would consider a switch in style.

And while he admitted that slight tweaks were a possibility, Howe maintained that his side's approach would remain fundamentally the same.

Howe said: "I'm going to sound like a broken record on this question because I get asked it a lot.

"We're not going to change our ideals, our way of working and our way of playing for various reasons.

"One, we have players who are very good technically and have been used to a way of working with me for three years. To suddenly change things totally would not be beneficial.

"Also, when you are telling players to work, to improve and to learn one way of playing, to suddenly throw that out and bring in another way of playing would undo all the good work that you had done.

"We're going to work hard to improve the philosophy that we're delivering and we will learn and develop as we go."