Monday 2 March 2015

Wilson is adding muscle to his game

It has not been the best of times for Callum Wilson of late. He has found it more difficult to get on the goalscorers sheet and that in someways is credit to Huddersfield, Brentford and Blackburn. But AFCB's slow haul of points in recent games has coincided with Callum's dry up of goals and the team simply needs him to keep scoring.
Callum is proving that he can battle well against defenders.
Most fans will have seen quite a transformation in Callum's game since he has been at the Goldsands. He often used to get pushed off of the ball by big defenders and he did not use his weight that much when trying to protect or win the ball. But he has become one of the strongest forwards in the Championship and it is now part of his game to use the shoulder charge to get the better of opponents. While this has resulted in more than one defender looking down at the turf and wondering what has hit them, the refereeing on such instances has been a bit inconsistent from what I can tell. While some see nothing wrong in the old fashioned shoulder charge, others see it as a clear foul and blow their whistle at the sight of seeing a defender go sprawling. Football is a physical game though and some times the officials need to remember that. It is not a foul to use a shoulder to shoulder charge as long as it is not deemed excessive force, and it is the excessive part that I am sure some referees pull Callum up on when the opponent is not expecting a shoulder charge and often goes to ground. 

I am sure that Callum will continue to use the shoulder and will often get his rewards for using it like he did up at Watford earlier in the season, but it is such a fine line that he may not even get 50 per cent of the decisions when he does try and win the ball in that way, especially if it leaves him in the clear afterwards. Against Blackburn I saw at least one time when Wilson was adjudged to have fouled in using the shoulder charge but when he gets it right he is really difficult to stop.

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