Alex Scott apologises for being a little late to Thursday’s press call. As the midfielder explains, he was going over a few clips prior to Birmingham City with coach Jason Euell.
Scott may seem like one of the most naturally gifted players to have come through the Bristol City academy, and potentially even play for the first-team, but he works hard at enhancing that talent.
Any visit to the High Performance Centre and you’ll often see small groups of players huddled around an iPad held by Euell, Curtis Fleming, Paddy Orme or Andy King, breaking down little clips offering observations of how they can do things a little differently.
There are formal group and individual analysis sessions in the wake of a game, but it doesn’t just stop there with catered packages for each player to ensure they know their games inside out, warts and all.
Not that it appears Scott needs too much improvement, given how seamlessly he’s become part of the City midfield after serving his apprenticeship last season at right wing-back, a fact evidenced by the creativity and rhythm ever so slightly lacking from the Robins build-up play against Coventry City as he served a one-game suspension.
The England Under-20 international may be only 19, with a decade and more of his career ahead of him, but it’s at this fertile stage where he can look for self-improvement.
“Most games I’ll look back to see what I can do better,” Scott said. “I was a bit late here today because Euelly was going through some clips with me of what I can maybe do on Saturday and from the game (against Coventry) and what Han-Noah (Massengo), Joe (Williams) and Kingy did, and maybe things I can take from their game.
“Growing up, when I was in academies, I was always looking back at games when I could. Obviously, local football and no-league, the games weren’t recorded but I had to take the word off my Dad.
“Since being here, the facilities we’ve got, it all comes through on our phones and iPads so we can watch back all the games and analyse how we play.
“Watching it, you’re almost thinking, ‘why hasn’t he made that pass?’ But when you’re in the game, it’s so much harder to see passes compared to watching from above. So when you’re watching games you can see passes that maybe they don’t see and then take them into your game.”
His attention to detail isn’t just limited to watching himself in action. Scott is a keen student of the game beyond club requirements, with particular admiration for Jack Grealish, Harry Kane and boyhood idol Dele Alli but one midfielder is standing out above all at present.
Jude Bellingham captained Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League in midweek against Sevilla, becoming the first English teenager to score in the first three matchweeks of the competition. He’s likely to be an integral player for England at the World Cup in Qatar, and valuations as to how much it’ll take to prise him away from the Westfalenstadion are comfortably north of £100m. This is all at 19.
He is a player well-known to Scott, not just because they’re the same age, exist in similar football circles with the City midfielder part of the England Under-20 set-up, or because of his breakout season with Birmingham City in 2019/20, which included a virtuoso display at Ashton Gate in February - Scott has played against him many times.
Not for several years, admittedly, but in his early teens, while part of the Southampton academy, matches against Birmingham would inevitably place him in opposition to Bellingham. With one winner regularly emerging.
“Jude Bellingham, he’s a massive one for me at the moment,” Scott added. “I’m studying his game, which is weird to think because we’re the same age, but he was playing for Birmingham a few years ago and now he’s playing in the Champions League. He’s the main one at the moment that I’m really keeping an eye on and trying to take bits out of his game and put it into mine.
“I just think it’s the maturity in his game, and it shows the amount of games he’s played. In a similar position to me now, albeit he was a lot younger. Playing in the Championship, it gives you that belief, that if he’s been here and done it and taken it to the next level then there’s no reason players in the Championship can’t do it.
“My friends from England all know him and they all say what a nice guy he is. He’s a top guy, comes across so well in the media, and captaining Dortmund the other night in the Champions League, it’s what dreams are made of. I’ve never met him, but I used to play against him when we were proper young kids and he was always the best player.”
Scott will return to the City midfield for Saturday’s game against Bellingham’s former club having served his ban for accumulating five yellow cards over the first 11 games of the campaign.
The teenager admits Tuesday’s 0-0 draw with Coventry was a hard watch as he took in the contest from the vantage point of the Lansdown Stand, unable to thread his eye-of-the-needle passes or bring his customary bite to the middle of the park.
The fact Scott wasn’t on the field is, by his own admission, his own fault, and the result of an avoidable situation following a cheap and needless caution incurred against QPR last Saturday.
Scott studies extend to each and every booking and foul; the decision-making process behind it and whether or not the specific defensive action required that moment’s more patience. However, he admits, while he has to be careful to a degree, it’s not an aspect of his approach he intends to rein in.
“I’ve always been that sort of a player, I like to get stuck into tackles,” Scott added. “I’ve probably picked up a couple more than I should have, but I think that’s just about growing up and learning the game, I’m still just 19. I need to be a bit more careful but if you try and change too much that ruins how you play. If you’re always on edge about going into tackles, that’s just going to ruin your game.
“That’s something people are maybe surprised about but, growing up, I was always somebody who liked to put in tackles. It was something my dad and my granddad would always make sure I was doing.
“People may only be seeing that now but if you ask any of the lads here, they know I’ve had that in me for a while and last year it showed when I played wing-back.
“But I’ve got to stay calm, keep my discipline and know when to do it. There’s definitely a right time to do it. The one at QPR, that was just stupid, I shouldn’t have done that - angry, last five minutes of the game. But I’m going to learn from that.”
Having migrated into his more natural role in the middle after playing the majority of last season at right wing-back, Scott has taken a number of the qualities off the ball he honed in the role with him but accepts he still needs to work on his 1vs1 defending and curb some of natural attacking instincts.
But those attributes also need to be harnessed at the other end where Pearson declared earlier on Thursday that City need more goals from midfield. If we're not counting Andi Weimann as a midfielder, then 19 of the Robins 20 goals have been via their attacking unit with Rob Atkinson the only other player troubling the scoresheet.
Scott scored four last season, and has been working on being more impactful in the box, whether that be arriving late into the area or fashioning better shooting angles and opportunities, aided by the guidance of Euell.
“It’s something I really want to work on and I have worked on my finishing in training,” Scott said. “But it will come, it’s important not to get too down on it. Euelly, Flem, they’re massive on that, it will be a matter of time, but it’s also on me to make sure I get myself into the box, That’s something the midfielders or I didn’t do enough of last season.
“He (Euell) works a lot with the strikers. We were out there today doing extras with the strikers, different types of finishing. It’s just the positioning of them. He does do a lot for the attacking players and us midfielders. It’s good to have Euelly in and I feel I’ve benefitted a lot off him coming in and hopefully I can score a few goals.”
It’s an inevitable conversation whenever discussing Scott but should he boost his attacking numbers, continue to enhance his appearances - he’s currently on 41 - then transfer talk is an inevitability.
There’s almost no point listing clubs, as it’s more of a case of who’s not interested than who is, and the attitude Scott is taking is almost one of blissful ignorance. As a teenager, it’s impossible not for him to live a significant amount of his life online, and therefore immediately exposed to what people are saying about him.
But he consciously isn’t the most active individual on social media, compared to some of his peers, and with a wise head on his shoulders, the support of his father Noel and family back in Guernsey and the relentless banter from flatmate Tommy Conway, he’s developed a finely-tuned mental mechanism to block it all out.
“It’s important to have a good family around you”, Scott said. “People to keep you on your ties, the players here are brilliant for that. If you’re getting too ahead of yourself and your standards drop in training, they’re the first to let you know.
“Obviously you hear stuff with social media, nowadays everyone’s on it, but it’s important to block it out. I feel I’m quite a mature person and I’ve matured a lot since moving away when I was 16 and coming here to live pretty much on my own all the time. Blocking it out is just natural, I really don’t listen to any of it, I’m so focused on Bristol City this season and hopefully getting us promoted.”
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