Thursday 11 February 2016

It's too early to judge Juan Iturbe

There have been reports this week that Juan Iturbe has been sidelined by AFCB perhaps too often and could make a return to parent club AS Roma in the summer. From what Eddie Howe and the club have been saying though it is far too premature to judge Juan Iturbe's future just yet.

In midweek Juan played a very important part in an 8-3 win against a Leyton Orient side in an U21 game managed by Stephen Purches. Eddie Howe was more than pleased by Juan's efforts which included a hat-trick, the second time he has been in the goals in such a match, following on from his impressive showing against a Colchester U21 side last month. So why should articles be suddenly appearing questioning whether Juan is a right fit for AFCB?
Juan is still getting used to AFCB. He needs time to shine. 
Eddie Howe has stated that it will take time for any player let alone a foreign player to come into this side that has been together for several years. He also pointed towards Juan's fitness levels not quite being high enough for him to challenge for place yet, but he has shown in the Development games and in the match against Portsmouth that he can be a threat in front of goal and can be very good on the ball, even if the team is not always giving Juan the ball in the areas of the pitch where he can hurt other teams, 

AFCB have paid in the region of £1.1m for the services of Juan on loan until the summer and it is unfair to expect the young winger to be an instant success. We have seen Tokelo Rantie not manage to get in the squad for the second half of the season and even players that have lots of Premier League experience like Glenn Murray are not first picks every week. Iturbe is having to deal with a lot more than just playing well enough to get into the side and any time in the UK training with Eddie, Jason and Chris is going to benefit him and give him new ideas on his play. It maybe that it is more important to see how well he adapts to the English style of play and how suited he is to it and how receptive he is to what he is being taught than just how many games he plays for the first team at this stage. Nobody is yet shelling out £16m for him, so let's see how he goes.

In a few more weeks we could see a much fitter and stringer Juan Iturbe and at that stage he could be a big asset to the team as the fixture come thick and fast.

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