Mepham will have fond memories of Wolves

Chris Mepham made his Bournemouth debut against Wolves last February in a 1-1 draw. So there is a fondness about this weekend's opponents for Chris. Back in February Mepham was pleased just to get through his debut, after he handled in the box, but got a way with a decision against him, even if Raul Jiménez ended up scoring seven minutes to time. Sadly, Josh King couldn't put his second penalty of the game away and the points were shared.

Chris Mepham is doing well for Wales but is on the sidelines at AFCB.

Looking at the games Mepham has played since, I wondered whether he has been a success at AFCB yet? I see him as one of the most naturally gifted central defenders when he is on the ball and in possession. He turns quickly and has good vision when looking for passes. Where he has found it difficult is in dealing with some of the best Premier League attackers on the move. The Leicester match earlier this season was the last time Mepham had a start, and he was shown to be caught out of position against Vardy on the sprint.

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Perhaps he was unlucky coming up against one of the best teams as we now know. His season started much better than that with an early second half goal against Sheffield United that helped the Cherries get a share of the points on the first day of the season. Chris has found it hard to force his way back into the team with Steve Cook regaining fitness, and Bournemouth's formation that rarely allows for three at the back.

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We do need to see Mepham getting game time though. Four appearances so far this season is not what I am sure he expected. He at least is playing for Wales and that should given him some confidence, but he needs to be pushing Steve Cook as hard as he can, as he will be the next defender likely to get a run of Aké or Cook do get injured. But not playing has a tendency to wear players down and I expect that Chris' Bournemouth career is not yet going as well as he had hoped. If he can cut the positional errors out though, AFCB might find that Mepham will benefit from getting more experience. Seeing Wolves run out on Saturday should remind Mepham that he'll want more games behind him before he sees wants to see those yellow shirts again.

Last night Chris Mepham played 90 minutes in Wales' 2-0 win of Hungary and Harry Wilson came on in the 88th minute for Gareth Bale. Nathan Aké also played 90 minutes  and scored in the Netherlands' 5-0 win over Estonia. Jefferson Lerma played 27 minutes for Colombia in their 0-1 win over Ecuador.

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