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Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe: League debut does ‘world of good’ for Emerson Hyndman

Emerson Hyndman’s Premier League debut took much longer than expected but, with that milestone now finally under his belt, his manager is hoping to see much more of the American midfielder

The 22-year-old midfielder started and played the first 60 minutes of Bournemouth’s 2-1 win over Burnley on Sunday. The start was his first in Premier League action almost two years after signing with the club.

Throughout those two years, Hyndman has been slowed by injuries that have knocked him further and further down the pecking order, but Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe is confident in the midfielder’s future.

“It was always going to be a tough game for him when you consider he hasn’t played and it was a difficult environment because it was an end-of-season game,” Howe said according to the Bournemouth Echo. “I thought he did well. It was difficult for him against a team like Burnley with how they play and their strengths, which are not necessarily matched by Emerson’s strengths. But he showed real quality on the ball and composure when we needed it and that experience alone will do him the world of good.

“From my perspective, I desperately wanted to reward him for everything he has done behind the scenes. He has trained well, improved and been dedicated to his profession. He has not once shown a bad attitude and has performed to a high level in training.

“His league debut wasn’t given to him, it was earned and that little taste will, hopefully, whet his appetite for the future.”

Hyndman, who joined Bournemouth after standing out at Fulham, was loaned to Scottish side Rangers in 2017 and has made a total of seven appearances since joining the Cherries in 2016.

Comments

  1. If this appearance truly is the start of his upward trajectory for games/minutes (Either with the Cherries, or a loan/sale to a different club), than its a good thing for Hyndman & the USMNT. We’re starting to see the emergence of a nice pool of CMs (McKennie, Adams, Acosta, Parks, Lletget, Scott, Hyndman….). If they continue to develop we could have enough quality to shift Pulisic to one of our weakest positions….wide right midfield….strengthening the overall starting XI.

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    • I don’t think we can yet put Scott in that mix, considering he has no senior team caps, nor has there been any talk of him being called in!

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      • Ageed that Scott is not in that conversation yet but im pretty sure he did get one senior team appearance this season

  2. Those injuries he had were at terrible times that hurt his chances of working into the lineup. Hope he moves to a club where he can get some time. Germany or Netherlands would do him a world of good.

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    • Scandinavia or Holland would probably be best suited to his build and style. [Him and Zelalem were definitely not Scottish types.] Both could use a more technical league with less emphasis on big bodies and physicality.

      Holland has been pretty good to Americans, I don’t understand the emphasis on England and Germany. To me only so many Americans are the right combination of technical enough and disciplined and physical to play there.

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  3. “It was always going to be a tough game for him when you consider he hasn’t played “
    And whose fault is that?

    “and that experience alone will do him the world of good.”
    Gee, ya think? And how about a little more experience, would that do EH a world of good?

    “I desperately wanted to reward him”
    Hmmmm…apparently putting him in, is desperately hard to do.

    “and that little taste will, hopefully, whet his appetite for the future.
    LOL, no, it’ll only make him want to get a transfer out.

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  4. I’m sorry, it’s nice for him, but it’s basically the coach running him out in a game that means nothing — precisely because it doesn’t — saying he earned it through diligent practice effort, and maybe if the appetite translates to improvement magic happens next year. Nice treat, faint praise. He’s 22. He needs to find someplace that will play him, and not out of pity the last game each year. The Europhiles need to factor in their dream fulfillment that at a certain point this all needs to translate into concrete appearances if it’s going anywhere. He was in the NT pipeline. I can’t remember his last callup. Reversing course back to Fulham is not solving his problem because he was seeing the field for them 1/4 of the season as it was and if promoted that is not going to improve, it will get worse. I wish him well but if he wants career traction as opposed to a paycheck he needs to do better than jumping from bench/reserves to bench/reserves at the tail end of the EPL.

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    • Well, he seemed to do very well with Rangers on loan last year, so there is that.He’s young enough that it is too soon to write him off or dismiss his potential. I like to remind people that Dempsey didn’t play his first pro game until he was 21 (for the Revs) and went to Fulham when he was a few months short of 24.

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      • He is signed with Bournemouth through 2020 and despite an ok stint at Ranger was not transferred there. Maybe it was a 3 years left fee and not a 2 years left fee.

        I am not writing him off but he has fallen off the NT radar and there are a long list of American prospects who were going to take club and country by storm and then got stuck in bad situations and never quite found their senior feet, or by the time they came back home they were role players or subs. To me playing time is huge and you are better off where they will actually use you.

  5. And Fulham is close to promotion. Ironic if they make it and Hyndman doesn’t get much playing time next year since he could be playing regularly, perhaps, for Fulham. Or, he could end up playing against Fulham next year. Whatever happens, let’s hope he sees a lot more minutes next season. He could be important in the next 3 to 4 years for the US if he continues to improve.

    Reply

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