Charlton chief Bowyer on why height of footballers won’t be an issue – even in the physical Championship
Erhun Oztumer is back at Charlton Athletic – with Addicks boss Lee Bowyer yet again proving that height is no barrier to landing a move to SE7.
The 28-year-old attacking midfielder was released by the Addicks in 2007 and rebuilt his career after shining for Dulwich Hamlet. It led to a switch back into the professional game at Peterborough in 2014.
Bowyer has other diminutive players in Jonny Williams and Josh Cullen – the former claiming his third assist of the campaign in Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Barnsley.
“We have to be able to play,” said Bowyer. “That’s the way we do things – we play football. There is no point me having a lot of meatheads who can’t play football, that wouldn’t suit the way we want to do things.
“We have got to have a balance – people who can compete and fight, who then give it to people who can play.
“We weren’t any different last season. I know the Championship is a more physical league but I watched Cardiff and Reading on Sunday – Cardiff were big, strong and physical but it doesn’t mean they are going to win every match.
“Any team has to compete on the physical side.
“Erhun can play on the right, left or as a number 10. He can also play left or right in a [midfield] diamond. He brings us variation – he is clever.
“Erhun creates and scores goals, he’s quite similar to Jonny. It’s being able to rotate so that if I leave one out I have a good replacement that is not going to let us down. A lot of the lads we have brought in are like-for-like because we are going to need to rotate.
“It’s going to be tough this season, so once we do rotate two or three I want those coming in to be just as good.”
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