HEAD coach Scott Parker admitted Cherries were “ultra-light” at centre-back, with just two weeks to go until the start of the Premier League campaign.

The Cherries boss was speaking after his side’s 1-0 defeat to Bristol City in a friendly at Vitality Stadium on Saturday.

With Lloyd Kelly not risked after picking up a minor injury, Parker named centre-backs James Hill and Chris Mepham alongside midfielder Jefferson Lerma, having wanted to play five at the back with Adam Smith and Jordan Zemura as wing-backs.

Smith and full-back Jack Stacey then filled in as centre-halves as changes were made throughout the contest – with Cherries sticking to the same shape.

The Dorset club lost central defenders Nat Phillips and Gary Cahill this summer, after the expiry of their loan deals and contracts respectively.

Put to him that centre-back was an area which needed to be strengthened, Parker told the Daily Echo: “It’s definitely an area. We are ultra-light in that area.

“There’s Lloyd Kelly, who got a slight niggle and didn’t play, so we’ve got him to come back in but I’ve tried to work on things this summer in pre-season to try to work out how we are going to move forward.

“But of course, they are challenges. It’s definitely an area, along with other areas, where it’s clear to see that we are very short.

“We are playing players who are not naturally there to play that. We will have to address that accordingly, depending on what happens over the next few weeks really.”

Cherries brought in no fewer than five players on deadline day back in January to help bolster their squad and seal promotion from the Championship.

Asked whether he had to trust the club’s recruitment to get players through the door, Parker replied: “Not just the recruitment. It’s not just down to that. All of us work together. There’s different situations.

“It’s not just about getting players in. There’s a lot of reasons behind certain things really and we need to try to work out what the best way is and how we can do that, to be progressive.

“While it’s difficult and there has been some challenges in terms of the summer, in terms of that - in January we needed to get some players in to strengthen us and to get us over the line and we did that pretty well.

“Hopefully we can try to do that in the coming weeks to help the team now.

“It’s clear for you guys to see there’s clear holes in this team at the moment where we are really, really short.

“Players have left the football club and at this moment we are short in certain areas and hopefully we can try to do something about that in a few weeks.”