Pedro Caixinha has again been praising Cardiff City loanee Declan John during the October international break.
The 22 year old came in for praise from Caixinha for his attacking intent in the four one victory over Hamilton Accies where he scored the first two goals of his career, and reflecting on the importance of the three points ahead of the international break, Caixinha felt that John’s versatility and how he’s adjusting to the left back position will be a very good option moving forward.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media midweek, the gaffer explained.
‘Declan is a player that was never coached how to play as a left back, so he did it a couple of times with us and he did it very well, because we are a team that likes to attack and likes to have the full-backs go up and attack, so he can give us that. We will try to coach him a little bit more now, not only to defend the wide area but the relation with the winger in front of him, the midfielder on his side and also the centre-half from his side.’
Caixinha went on to say about his development at left back and his overall belief that he could be converted into a winger.
‘He needs to know those relations and which space he needs to cover when he is defending, but he is also a player who can play as a winger. He can provide us with those sort of approaches on the game and even for example if in one special game, at any stage of the game, we need to play with three on the back, he can be the one that is full-back and winger at the same time.’
He added.
‘So we have players that can perform and give us some different characteristics and some different options depending on the problems or the solutions you might need to look for in the game. Declan is growing in that position, now we need to coach him how to defend in that position because, as you see, getting in attack and being involved by the overlaps or underlaps or getting on the box, crosses delivered and even scoring goals, he`s doing it. Now we need to work on the other parts to have a balanced player as well.’
As for youngster Ross McCrorie, Caixinha went on to speak about how he was a role model for other young players at the club given the way he forced his way into thoughts and then took his first team chance.
McCrorie impressed in games against Celtic and Hamilton following his Partick debut, and he was again impressive in the Development Squad as they beat Brentford five two earlier this week and with a hattrick from Ryan Hardie and further goals from Aaron Nemane and Jamie Barjonas there were other youngsters that took Caixinha’s eye when he looked through the reports.
‘Yeah, we got a lot of positives, it was good for them and it helped the boys to get that rhythm. But also to follow some of the young players that now, because we have some of our players from the first-team squad out, they are playing with us and they are training with us so it`s great.’
He went on to say that McCrorie has shown that there is a pathway through to senior action.
‘I think Ross opened the door again for those players and understood the conversation we had with them at the beginning of the season, when we said, ‘we are having a look at you, keep working, we are going to call you when we have the need for players in your position because we know and we trust you and if there are circumstances when we need to place you in the first eleven or with the substitutes and give you the chance, we are going to give you it.` That`s what we are living in this moment. Jamie Barjonas is a player we already know and Aidan Wilson is another, so he is going to get 105 minutes against Morton because we will play three periods of 35 minutes on Saturday.’
The gaffer went on to say that long term the aim simply had to be for the club to develop their own so there had to be a clear tie in between the Under 17s through the Under 20s into the first team.
‘This is what we want in terms of the relation with the under-20s and we want to go deeper with the under-17s as well. We want to work on the same wavelength, under the same methodology, under the same concepts, under the same structures or formations and under the same vision and ideas. At the moment we don`t have it in a global way but we have it at least individually by the characteristics of the players and that`s what we are taking advantage of. We`ll give a chance to the players who have the potential to be with us.’
