Will Lewis Cook still be behind Surman in the pecking order for AFCB?

The places for central midfield have been more or less set in stone for the Cherries since their league one days. But in 2017-18 there will be serious challenges to the Surman/Arter duo and it will be important that some other players can step in when required. Whether Lewis Cook can oust Andre Surman from the starting line up will be something that fans might well ponder over the summer.

Is Lewis Cook ready to challenge for a starting place at ACB.

For me, I think Lewis is a great technician at the final pass from central areas and he will have been learning from Andrew Surman in the last 12 months. Taking over though is going to need more than a few good games from Cook. Surman knows where to be in the right place, when attacking moves breakdown, and his vision is amongst the best at the club for spotting runners going forward.

Lewis Cook will continue to improve though. The question is how fast will he improve under Eddie Howe? Will Eddie do what Gareth Southgate wants and play England U20 players like Lewis Cook more often? Well, Lewis only played in six games last season, mainly near the end when Surman became injured. It is one thing filling in for an absentee and another pushing them out of the starting line up.

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Lewis still has time to develop further and I'd expect him to target 10 appearances in the league next season and may well feature in a cup run or two. But Eddie Howe may well use him a little more often in the second half of games, if he does believe the ex-Leeds player is ready to start more often. 

I think that is the point at which Lewis Cook is at the moment, but Dan Gosling has been in a similar position for the last few seasons, and it's not easy for players to force their way into the AFCB line up when results have been excellent over the past season.

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