Friday 16 February 2018

AFCB England hopefuls may rue Huddersfield performance

It is not that clear who Gareth Southgate wanted to watch above all others at the Huddersfield game. If he wanted to see AFCB operating well though he was going to be disappointed. I wonder how much a manger can take from watching one game anyway and how does he know which game to pick to see a player at their best or worst? 
Has Lewis Cook missed his chance?
Well, if Gareth was watching Lewis Cook in midfield he may have gone away thinking that this was not the best match to see what Lewis can do, or he may have gone away thinking I see how he plays now when his team is behind and are finding it hard to get back into a game. Just because Bournemouth lost the game doesn't mean Gareth necessarily left with a negative attitude about a player. Still, it is human nature for players to be excited when they know someone like the England manager is at the game and that they have a chance to impress upon him if only for 90 minutes.

If Southgate was hoping to add some defensive options to his England squad he may have been less than impressed by four goals conceded by the Cherries. Steve Cook and Charlie Daniels have never managed to catch the international eye yet, and I suppose Bournemouth players are unlikely to get even the merest of looks if they can't start working towards more clan sheets.

The other possibility from a Bournemouth point of view could be that Gareth wanted to see whether Callum Wilson was worth revisiting. Callum has at least been scoring a few goals and Huddersfield had been a team that he had always done well against. Gareth will have seen the energy and running that Callum put in on an afternoon when not a lot fell for him but I'm not sure it would have told him anymore or less about Callum. 

Strikers are always going to be noticed if they score though on a regular basis and while Callum had a quiet game he has 11 games now to try and get his name up on the scoreboard as many times as possible. Hopefully, he and Lewis Cook can look past the Huddersfield defeat and look forward to the games to come as their chance may not have totally disappeared yet.

In other news, Eddie Howe is named Premier League Manager of the Month for January 2018!

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