Lee Johnson heaped praise on Dennis Cirkin following his performance at the weekend against Portsmouth. In the second half, Cirkin was among the stand out performers and dominated the left flank both offensively and defensively. He was quick to praise the youth orientated approach more broadly but stressed the importance of a ‘blend’.
BLEND
‘I think you are just trying to get a good blend. I think the blend is really important. It’s more so the blend of attributes for me, it’s not necessarily the blend of age.’
STRENGTHS
‘It’s more about the strengths that individual can bring when he’s playing his absolute best. The intangibles are obviously the leadership, communication throughout the place, the standards that are set to other players but at the same time we are trying to develop that as well within the 19 and 20 year olds.’
LEARN
‘Of course you learn better from your peers than your manager saying do this and do that. At the same time, I think all the players have a responsibility to be equals in that sense and we try and nurture and develop that through all of them.’
CIRKIN
‘I think Dennis Cirkin’s a really good example. Fantastic player, he’ll have a top career. No question of a doubt but we need to accelerate that leadership and obviously we’re looking to do that. Communicating in his best way and if that’s having a lot of individual chats with players around him, to canvas, to make sure that connection is there, then so be it.’
ASK
‘If that’s a very different manner like setting the tone with a tackle, then we’ll try and ask for a lot of that so it’s just trying to bring out their best as much as possible.’
