Dan Gosling has found it hard to gain the consistency to dominate the manager's thoughts when it comes to playing the central midfield role at AFCB. He did far better than many fans would have expected though last season and as the Premier League site mentions he scored the most goals from central midfield for the team. So is he underrated?
I'd probably say yes, at least in the way the fans think of him, even if the manager knows his full talent. But it is important to recall that Dan did more than just fill in during the Cherries' Premier League debut season. He looked one of the players that was able to get after the opposition and had he managed to improve his finishing, he probably would have ended up with five or more goals rather than the three he did get. Dan's game isn't just about scoring goals though, he is a busy player that does not shy away from the tackles or linking well with the forwards. His defensive positional play is perhaps less noticeable in that he does like to get forward, but there was several times last season when Eddie decided to play five across the midfield and in such a system Dan tends to thrive.
Whether Dan can push aside the claims of Harry Arter and Andrew Surman is less certain. He will have to show the kind of appetite that we saw in early matches to get noticed and yet his record in front of goal is better of late and, even with young Emerson Hyndman joining the club this month that has not particularly strengthened the scoring power in central midfield.
If Dan can just find a cooler finishing head for pr-season and the early matches in the next campaign he could begin to be an AFCB player that turns out to be a stronger player at the top level than fans may have thought previously. I think he has a lot of the attributes to get back to being a star player, and it is not too late for him to push his way into contention for a senior call up to the national squad one day.
Euros 2016 - Wales bow out at he Semi-Finals
I'd probably say yes, at least in the way the fans think of him, even if the manager knows his full talent. But it is important to recall that Dan did more than just fill in during the Cherries' Premier League debut season. He looked one of the players that was able to get after the opposition and had he managed to improve his finishing, he probably would have ended up with five or more goals rather than the three he did get. Dan's game isn't just about scoring goals though, he is a busy player that does not shy away from the tackles or linking well with the forwards. His defensive positional play is perhaps less noticeable in that he does like to get forward, but there was several times last season when Eddie decided to play five across the midfield and in such a system Dan tends to thrive.
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| Dan Gosling with Sylvain Distin. |
If Dan can just find a cooler finishing head for pr-season and the early matches in the next campaign he could begin to be an AFCB player that turns out to be a stronger player at the top level than fans may have thought previously. I think he has a lot of the attributes to get back to being a star player, and it is not too late for him to push his way into contention for a senior call up to the national squad one day.
Euros 2016 - Wales bow out at he Semi-Finals
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