Written by paul49
What we have seen because of all AFC Bournemouth’s injuries is a sort of enforced resort to squad rotation in certain positions. At least Eddie Howe has now discovered that we do have players that can come in and do a job.
Could this squad rotation be a good thing I ask? Perhaps playing week in week out to our first choice eleven has made them more susceptible to injuries.
It will be interesting to see our team for the FA Cup game versus Luton. Does he bring back any of our first teamers who might be fit again, keep the current eleven for consistency or will we see the team made up primarily of our under 21’s?
Having said that Tyrone Mings went out on loan because there was no squad rotation or regular quality under 23 games and at the time we were relatively injury-free. Which is also why our year 3 academy players go out on loan.
The basic problem does go back to our meteoric rise to the Premier League on the playing side with our Academy still being equivalent to League Two status. The problem will only really be solved when the Canford facility is up and running and we attain Category 2 status so we have regular Premier League 2 games for our fringe players and U21’s.
Tinpot Club added…
Just to pick you up on this slightly, while being pedantic you are correct, our academy has a very good standing in the game and considered far superior than our Category 3 status would suggest.
There was a great feature in The Athletic last week about how our academy might soon overtake Southampton’s Category 1. This is not just in terms of results, where we’ve had the upper hand, but in terms of recruitment too.
Southampton has long been seen as one of the elite finishing schools for young footballers on the up and up, but might Bournemouth's academy be catching up?
Here's a collaborative piece with @peterrutzler on the tussle on the South Coast. https://t.co/1kB0WSazqL
— Carl Anka (@Ankaman616) December 24, 2019
I can’t link the article directly due to the paywall but the summary was we have been able to differentiate ourselves by providing teenagers with an excellent education. We are also the ‘go to’ academy for lots of agents where their clients have been released from top Category 1 academies. We can get talent that might otherwise have gone to Category 2 or lesser Category 1 academies due to our reputation.
Of course, when we get the facilities to match, we should be in a very healthy situation.
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