Bolton Wanderers and Steven Schumacher will fear repeat of situation he faced at Plymouth Argyle | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers boss Steven Schumacher will fear that Amario Cozier-Duberry could fall to a similar fate as to Morgan Whittaker at Plymouth Argyle.

It has been a mixed start to the League One season in terms of results for Bolton Wanderers, but performances have been strong, and they have had a standout performer, too, in loanee Amario Cozier-Duberry.

The Trotters, who have undergone a rebuild this summer under the management of Steven Schumacher, started their campaign with a 2-0 defeat to Stockport County at Edgeley Park on the opening day of the campaign.

Expecting to challenge for promotion, it was a frustrating result, but it was also a much-improved result on last year, which ended in a 5-0 loss to the Hatters in that Greater Manchester derby, and the performance was also a lot better, with Bolton probably actually shading the match.

They backed that up with another strong performance as they brushed aside a sorry Plymouth Argyle at the Toughsheet Community Stadium in their first home game of the campaign.

There have been a few players that have stood up and been noticed in the opening weeks, such as Max Conway and Xavier Simons, but the standout of them all has been Cozier-Duberry; so much so that Schumacher will be fearing what happened to him at Plymouth with Morgan Whittaker.

Cozier-Duberry could be Schumacher’s latest Morgan Whittaker

Having joined on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion, the Arsenal academy graduate made an instant impact for Wanderers, and immediately showcased his talents to the Bolton faithful.

A screamer scored against Hibernian in a 2-0 pre-season friendly victory at Easter Road was backed up by another couple of strong performances, including another excellent goal in their final friendly of the summer - a 2-0 defeat of Preston North End.

Doing it in pre-season is one thing, but there were signs that he was going to be extremely exciting this summer, especially with nearly all of the Bolton squad saying he would be their pick for an EFL Fantasy team, such is the quality he had shown in training and pre-season friendlies.

Against Stockport, he should have had an assist for a Mason Burstow tap-in that was inexplicably misread by the Hull City loanee, who has also started his Bolton career well, and had a couple of very good efforts at the end of some darts forward with the ball saved well by Corey Addai.

The second game saw some eye-catching moments that nearly results in genuine Goal of the Season contenders already, and there was some end product to go with his overall performance as he provided the assist with an excellently placed low right-footed cross for Burstow to make it 2-0 in the second-half for the Whites.

It is just two games into a very long season, but Cozier-Duberry, who it had been suggested may well be too good for League One, is showing signs already that he really is indeed above the level of the third-tier.

That will make Schumacher and Bolton very pleased and very excited, but there also has to be a concern that they may not have him for very long.

Cozier-Duberry showing already he could play at a higher level

In the 2022/23 campaign, as Plymouth won the League One title by amassing 101 points with Schumacher at the helm, the Pilgrims’ campaign risked being derailed mid-way through the season as they lost their star man.

Derby County academy graduate Morgan Whittaker had moved to Home Park on loan from Swansea City in the summer and had put up excellent numbers with brilliant performances in the first-half of the season.

He notched nine goals and provided seven assists in 25 League One appearances before being recalled by Swansea to be deployed in the Championship.

Whittaker was on course for an almost record-breaking season in League One in terms of combined direct goal involvements, but his quality had suggested to the Jacks he needed to be playing second-tier football.

Brighton are unlikely to bring Cozier-Duberry back into their first-team picture this season, but the Seagulls may well believe he will be best suited to playing at a higher level later on in the campaign to aid his development.

He was on loan at Blackburn Rovers last season, but a change of management after joining and then struggling to adapt to Valerien Ismael’s style harmed him, albeit he still showed real signs of quality with the Lancastrians.

Cozier-Duberry has yet to even score for the Whites in a league game, and yet it may be a case for Bolton fans to enjoy him while they have him, because he has all the makings of one of the EFL’s biggest heartbreaks: a loanee that performs so well they are recalled and set to a higher level.