'He's only going to get better and better' - Crawley Town boss praises 6ft 3in striker
Crawley Town manager Rob Elliot has praised new signing Tola Showunmi and his attacking depth before the trip to Bristol Rovers on Saturday.
Showunmi joined Crawley Town in the summer from American team Louisville City, after playing in the States from 2018.
The striker grabbed his second goal for Crawley in the cup game against Wycombe Wanderers last night and is starting to impress fans and staff around Crawley, with high expectations of him.
On Showunmi, Elliot said: “I think Tols has been excellent, he’s obviously come over from America, come over from a very different environment, and he’s an unbelievable athlete, he’s big he’s powerful, but I think he’s just getting used to the level.
“We’ve seen every training session and every day we’ve seen improvements from Tols and he’s someone who’s been very important for us and he’s got some brilliant attributes, and I think he’s not just for the short term but for the long term.
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“The big thing for me is that he just needs to keep impacting games in a big way. He’s got so much to learn and so much understanding to come that he’s only going to get better and better.”
Along with Will Swan, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and the returning Tyreece John-Jules, Elliot has loads of attacking names to choose from for future games, and has praised the depth the club have in this area of the pitch.
He said: “When we’ve got the likes of Rushy (Rushian Hepburn-Murphy) and Swanny (Will Swan) and Tols with Ty coming in it gives us a real mix of attacking threat and ideally you want to get as much attacking threat on the pitch as possible.
“For me personally it’s not anyone getting a start, it’s a case of everyone being ready to affect it as much as they can, and the big thing with the period we are in with the amount of games is making sure there is a fine balance between understanding that we want our best players on the pitch, or as many attacking players on the pitch as long as possible.
"But we also want to make sure we’re not putting too much risk, hence why we have had to change this team around.”
Elliot will be hoping that Showunmi and his other attackers will make a difference on Saturday as Crawley Town travel to Bristol to play Bristol Rovers.