It's been a tough season for Chris Mepham

I have a lot of time for Chris Mepham. He has been the quiet man at the back who has filled in at times of crisis. He has surprisingly only made 11 appearances this season, mainly because of injuries, but scoring on the first day of the season has probably been his highlight in 2019-20.


Chris Mepham will hope for a bigger season in 2020-21While Chris has only been present for one of the clean sheets for the Cherries this season, I think he is one of the defenders who actually likes to be making blocks and being in the thick of the action. Where I think he has been exposed is against pace. We really saw that against Leicester City, when he took on Jamie Vardy, but there is no shame in losing out to him in a flat race.

Advertisement Eddie Had a Dream eBook version -£7.99!What Mepham has to improve is his starting position and thinking two steps ahead of some of the strikers he is facing. That comes with experience and if you are only getting about a dozen games a season, it must be hard to pick that up just from training sessions. I mean in the Premier League you have some of the world's best strikers lining up against you.
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What I do like about Mepham is his relaxed style and long leg stride. He purrs over the ground and I am sure it is what drew him to AFCB's attention. If Nathan Aké is snapped up in the coming months, we will really come to see the value of Chris Mepham and I get the feeling he is a much better player than some of us appreciate at the moment.

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