Tuesday 9 January 2018

Can Lys Mousset turn into a star player?

I like a trier and Lys Mousset is certainly one of them. He never stops trying and while Eddie Howe says Mousset's fitness has been something that has held him back, Mousset has the electric burst over the first five to 10 metres that make him a difficult player to defend against.
Lys Mousset is on the edge of the team but can he force
his way in more regularly by this time next season?
Lys took his goal well against Wigan Athletic and it's hard to know yet how much that goal really means to him. If he can take some encouragement from knowing he was the catalyst for AFCB getting back into the game then we may have a different Lys Mousset now amongst AFCB's ranks. I hope so, as Lys has an excellent chance to be part of an AFCB team that not only survives but could thrive in the Premier League.

This season he has played a few more minutes in important games but he has not been the striker that Eddie Howe has turned to first on the sub's bench and that has to be his next aim. He does offer something out of the ordinary compared to Bournemouth's other strikers. I wonder if he himself knows what he is about t do at times in a game and so it is no wonder that opponents often get bamboozled by his turns and pace.


What Lys needs to do is to make more of his strikes count. It sounds easy but the truly valued strikers don't get frustrated when they miss, but they just get up and do better next time. I was impressed that Lys goes for the difficult if not impossible though at times. like his early effort to bicycle volley an Adam Smith cross in the first half against Wigan. If it had gone in it would have been a goal often season contender. Lys thumped the ground in annoyance that he didn't do better. Perhaps he made the wrong choice but he has shown he is prepared to gamble and perhaps he has not gambled enough in a Bournemouth shirt. If he can try to guess where he needs to get to in order to get more shots off then perhaps his goal ratio will start climbing.

Whether Lys can become a star player is still very much in the balance. Eddie seemed delighted that the Frenchman made it through 90 minutes. It seemed more important than the goal to Howe. But if Lys can keep pleasing Eddie then he will get more minutes to impress and he has to make the most of any games like the replay against Wigan to make his case for more Premier League appearances.  

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