Monday 22 April 2019

Simpson will improve with games

It would be easy to give Jack Simpson a hard time over his mistake to give Mitrovic a game winning penalty in the last match. However, I hope Eddie Howe is not so worried about the fact that Jack was unlucky to catch Mitrovic and encourages him to keep working at getting tackles right in his own box. It is a difficult skill and we saw a masterclass from Steve Cook in the first half on Mitrovic, which could easily have gone wrong and given Fulham an earlier penalty.
Simpson can keep adding to his experience if he gets games.
The main thing is that Jack Simpson is being given an opportunity at the end of the season when it can't hurt AFCB as much as it might. He is only going to improve quickly by playing in games at the highest level now, and was a pleasure to see Jack come on against Fulham, even if it was only because Junior Stanislas injured himself.

Eddie Howe seems to hold young players back more than Gareth Southgate is doing for England, and I suppose few of the Premier League managers are quick to let players under 23 get their game time at this to level. David Brooks is an exception, but it would be pleasing to see more youngsters come through and these players can't be frightened of making mistakes.
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Jack Simpson is clearly a good defender who could be playing at a high level every week. But he has been kept at AFCB without getting many opportunities. While he is training with Premier League players, I wonder if the learning curve would be quicker if he was playing for say Huddersfield next season or Fulham in the Championship? If AFCB want to see more players coming through, they have to be getting game time, and if Simpson is now kept out having made a mistake or two it could be more harmful for him. I think the pressure of coming in for just one game is perhaps harder for these young players and maybe Eddie has to keep reassuring Simpson to get the best from him.

Eddie may well think that he expects some mistakes from Simpson and that it is a process the player needs to go through, but it is a hard way to go about character building and I just hope Jack is up to taking the knocks and can bounce back quickly. He needs to be aware that mistakes will happen and that it's a whole new game next match, where he could be needed again.

1 comment:

  1. Not sure if I agree with you on playing more youngsters in the team also comparing England young player's against Bournemouth young player's is a bit ridiculous ..the premier league is worth well over a 100 million pounds a year so you can't just throw on young player's you won't be in premier league long doing that..but I would say when we play the top six and they are flying maybe put some in the team then and rest some of the first team but if a top six is struggling then go for it ..a sample on this year form man city/Liverpool no chance of winning against so put out the second team with a couple of young player

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