David Moyes has revealed his major decision to make Jarrod Bowen our central striker for the rest of this season. The manager made the position clear during his press conference ahead of the match against Freiburg explaining the number 20 gives him flexibility in the selection process.
He failed to mention it but this has clearly become possible following the signing of Mohammed Kudus who has shown brilliant form down the right side and can switch positions with Jarrod.
With Jarrod now fully fit and Kudus too, excitement is on the cards big time as the pair are bound to be looking for big success against Freiburg tomorrow evening. We also have to hope that Lucas Paqueta, with three goals to his name in the competition and two more in the Premier League, is back to his very best after a couple of ‘not so good’ performances lately.
Moyes made the position quite clear during his presser as far as Jarrod is concerned saying: “I see Jarrod Bowen as an option through the middle for the rest of the season.
It’s been so difficult for lots of clubs to go and buy a centre forward who can come in an make an immediate impact. I don’t think there are loads of them in the market.
Jarrod has been able to step in while Michail Antonio has been injured and he’s scored goals. He’s played really well up front. We can always put him back out to the side, so there’s that bit of flexibility with Jarrod at the moment.
Players can adapt from being wingers into centre forwards. I think what happens is they want to be goal scorers. Perhaps they’ve been assist-makers in the early parts of their careers, but I think the way football is played now, wide players are expected to get more goals.
I do think Jarrod can do both and I think it can help him going forward. If he can keep scoring goals too, it will really help him.”
He also chose to mention Thilo Kehrer whom he declared as ” a brilliant boy.” It may therefore be in the manager’s mind to play him in central defence given the likelihood of Kurt Zouma being absent.
Moyes said: “He works really hard in training and he is committed. For us, his flexibility in what he can do is amazing. He can play right-back, centre-back and left-back, and that versatility is hugely important.
It’s been tough because we’ve had players performing really well defensively, and it’s been hard to get in the team. But he’s doing well.”