Gradel can take pressure off of Wilson and King

Every player wants to be the first to get AFCB off to a good start. Callum Wilson certainly had the chance to do that against Aston Villa but could not manage to take his chance. A poor second touch made the angle narrow and Brad Guzan pulled off a good save. But if that is a chance that Wilson would have slotted home last season it could be that the pressure to score is something he needs to find ways of relaxing from and I can see no better way than to feed Max Gradel the ball a bit more often when he is on the pitch.

Max Gradel needs to get his sharpness and to play in a way
that fits AFCB's style. Having spent most of last season up front he had
a fairly good debut on the wing for the Cherries against Villa.

Gradel has a natural instinct to put the ball away that served him well at st-Etienne and while it does not matter how AFCB score it is key that they can get a goal as soon as possible to give the whole team that lift that they are improving and starting to get things right. If Wilson can get the first goal, then all well and good, but Pugh and Ritchie as well as Gradel should be looking for chances to get on the score sheet and by having Gradel on the pitch against Villa it was immediately felt that there was a different kind of threat that Villa had to deal with.

Don't get me wrong, Josh King played well enough but with Wilson and King being a new partnership and both of them learning their craft in the Premier League there is a lot of pressure on them. I believe it is a different kind of pressure on Gradel who at least has played for the Cherries before and knows he already has the home fans backing him to the hilt and he'll be given time.

An instant click between King and Wilson would be great but they have to work at it and that means minutes on the training pitch. If the players can keep their enthusiasm high and start to enjoy the football they are playing above everything else then it won't be a problem going to these big grounds, knowing that they need to score because they'll be confident that they have done the work on the training ground and it's just a matter of delivering that on match day.