Howe: Developing Partington's game

AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe has revealed that Joe Partington has been developing his game to play at centre back.

The former Wales Under 21's captain has mainly played as a midfielder during his career and made 13 appearances (9 starts) for the Cherries as a holding midfielder protecting the back four prior to Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall's return to Dean Court.

Since Howe's return, Partington has been limited to just 5 substitute appearances totalling 21 minutes of football.

He has featured for the Cherries development squad and has played as a centre back and that is the position that Howe believes Partington could be best suited too.

Howe told the Daily Echo...

"...When we first came back, we identified that we had strength in depth in central midfield with Harry Arter, Eunan O`Kane, Richard Hughes and Shaun MacDonald, all players who would potentially play ahead of Joe.

"We had a look at his position and felt he had all the attributes to be a centre-half so have done a lot of work behind the scenes in trying to develop his game.

"He is a versatile performer and can play a number of different positions. That is always useful when you have got a squad trying to achieve things."

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