JOE Edwards envisions Brooke Norton-Cuffy spending most of his time at right-back at Millwall under his management but has praised the 19-year-old’s adaptability.
The Arsenal loanee has now played at wing-back, right midfield and right-back since arriving at The Den in August and has shown moments of quality in each position.
The crowning moment of his loan spell so far came in the fantastic goal he scored against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, his first for the club and just the second goal of his senior career.
Edwards said he spoke to the defender about what the future may hold for him in the days before the trip to Hillsborough.
The Lions head coach told NewsAtDen: “I think what he’s done in moving around at Millwall and previously is important for him. It’s the modern day player, particularly players of Brooke’s type that are defenders by nature but defenders with good attacking qualities that play on the side of the pitch.
“If you look at so many of the top players nowadays they have to be adaptable, they have to be versatile. There’s so many teams that jump between a back four and back five which means if you’re a full-back by nature, you have to be ready to play in a back four and then ready to be a wing-back. So I think it’s good that he’s done it.
“I did want to have that chat early with him to be honest, I spoke to him in the week before the game and said ‘it’s great that you’re doing that, where do you see yourself long-term and what do you prefer?’
“And he did speak about the fact that going forward he probably sees himself as a right-back further on in his career and in general he’s probably at his most comfortable when he’s in a right-back position and coming onto the game. And we saw that. He arrived at a real high speed late in the goal he created for Sav. And that was coming from a right-back position and he was getting tested, particularly in the first 20 minutes.
“They were playing a lot of balls out to their left wing-back and Brooke had that dilemma of ‘does he go, does he stay?’ So it was tough for him initially.
“But then as he grew in confidence, it culminated in that fantastic individual goal. Where we played him on Saturday is his best and most comfortable position. It’s partly down to the fact that I had a conversation with him and he told me. But going forward will he move and will he do different roles in the future? For sure he will because I think that’s just the modern day player.”