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Monk

Fryatt in the Times

By Monk, in Leicester City Forum

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Monk

Monk

Posted
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle5404031.ece

Matty Fryatt shooting his way back to form

Matty Fryatt's goals are spearheading the Leicester City revival

Matty Fryatt, left, has scored 18 goals in the league to send Leicester City to the top of League One

Paul Merson, the former Arsenal and England forward who was Matty Fryatt’s player-manager at Walsall, never doubted that Fryatt would be “a hell of a player”. Within the close confines of the Bescot stadium, Fryatt would feed off Merson’s certainty. “He can see the picture before anyone else,” the young striker often reflected. He was proved right on a cold winter’s day in 2005, in a dour game against Hartlepool when he hardly had a kick. “You’ll get a chance,” Merson kept saying. With five minutes left, he played a sublime pass between Hartlepool’s central defenders to Fryatt, who finished perfectly. Merson’s conviction and the teenager’s self-confidence and talent made the game simple.

Then he joined Leicester City in the Championship and scored only four goals in 34 games in his first full season at the Walkers stadium. Last season he scored twice, and Steve Claridge, the former Leicester striker turned pundit, called Fryatt an enigma. “At 21, he has fantastic poise and balance in possession, is good with either foot and his control and ability to deal with the ball in tight areas of the pitch are at times superb,” Claridge said. “Fryatt’s goalscoring record at Walsall was good, with 27 goals in 70 appearances, but this is an area he has struggled with since his transfer to Leicester.”

In his personal blog a week later Fryatt revealed something of the insecurities that had infiltrated his mind and his game. Gary Megson, who had started to show faith in him, had left to take charge at Bolton; Milan Mandaric, the Leicester chairman, was looking for his fifth manager in seven months. “We’re all hoping that someone gets the manager’s position permanently and sooner rather than later,” Fryatt wrote. “Things seem to be up in the air and we all need stability. We need someone to come in and give us a bit of direction. It’s difficult when you don’t know when things are going to change.”

The change that Fryatt and Leicester needed came with the club’s relegation to English football’s third tier for the first time in their history last May and Nigel Pearson’s appointment as manager in June. Fryatt has scored 23 goals in 28 games this season, 18 in the league. He became the first Leicester player since Derek Dougan in 1966 to score 20 goals before Christmas, and against Dagenham in the FA Cup and Southend in League One he scored back-to-back hat-tricks. Neil Warnock, the Crystal Palace manager, was reportedly interested in bidding for his services before Fryatt agreed a new three-year deal last week. The support he has received from Pearson went a long way towards making up his mind to stay in the Midlands and lead the Foxes’ promotion push.

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“I felt that I needed to prove myself after everything that had happened last season,” Fryatt said. “I always knew I could get goals but I needed to announce my name again. Where had Matty Fryatt gone? I had to show people, ‘Look, he’s here.’ That’s why I was so pleased when I came back in pre-season and the manager told me at the outset, ‘I just want you to be you.'

“He backed me and this was important because I had started to doubt myself. It wasn’t me on the pitch last season. Games were passing me by and I wasn’t able to leave a mark. When I come home after a game now, I feel like I’ve earned my money and I feel real pride in my performance. Last season I never had that feeling. I didn’t have the confidence to shoot from 25 yards, so I wouldn’t have a go. Now I’m seeing the picture and I’m making better runs and playing better balls. You can never guarantee the number of goals you’ll score but I can’t believe the rate at which they’re going in and I believe it’s because I made up my mind to stand up and be counted.”

With his girlfriend, Charlotte, and their daughter, Georgie, he took a two-week Mediterranean cruise in the summer to forget Leicester’s relegation and his woes. The trip recharged his batteries but even when he returned home he could not watch Sky Sports News or listen to BBC Radio Five Live. He wanted no talk of football, so he would take off to a shooting range to fire at clay pigeons, an activity he experienced for the first time on his 21st birthday.

“Some people play golf but I like to play computer games to relax. I’ve also taken to clay pigeon shooting, which I enjoy even though it’s a hard sport to do all the time,” he said. “Hand-eye co-ordination and concentration are the fundamentals of a good shot, looking at the target, keeping your eye set on the target and following the target with your gun before pulling the trigger at the right time without hesitation. Just having something to help you get away from it all is important and I know that I came back refreshed for this season.

“I started training two weeks before we were due back because I wanted to hit the ground running. All the negative things that went on last season I wanted to banish from my mind. The fact that some players moved on and the manager was able to put together a good mix of young and experienced players helped us to look on this season as a completely fresh start.”

Fryatt scored both goals on the opening day in a 2-0 victory over MK Dons, who are now Leicester’s nearest challengers in League One, and not even the setback of an stoppage-time goal by Leeds in a 1-1 draw on Boxing Day is likely to derail the 22-year-old striker or his team, unbeaten in nine league games. “We haven’t dominated many games but we have grafted when we needed to, we have managed to win in tight situations and we have been more comprehensive in beating teams over the past few weeks,” Fryatt said. “Our confidence is such that we are starting to put the nail into teams and we look like we are making a good effort to get promotion. The aim here is get back into the Championship and then to step up to the next level into the Premier League. We believe that we can do it.”

His former manager Merson, for one, will expect nothing less.

England's leading scorers

Premier League

Anelka (Chelsea) 14

Robinho (Man City) 10

Championship

Doyle (Reading) 16

Ebanks-Blake (Wolves) 14

League One

Fryatt (Leicester) 18

Lambert (Bristol R) 18

League Two

Ward (Chesterfield) 14

Benson (Dagenham) 13

Koke

Koke

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Very good article and it just highlights the problem he & others were facing last season.

Players like Fryatt live & die by their self-confidence and it was evident that he had zero of that last year.

I'm glad for him that he has gotten his career back on track and he'll leave the past behind him and concentrate on the future.

Fez of Mahrez

Fez of Mahrez

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Makes me laugh this season to go on opposition messageboards and see things like "Fryatt destroyed us with his pace". lol He looks class at this level obviously and he's a pleasure to watch at the moment. Hope he gets back in the goals today, should do really.

Jimmy

Jimmy

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Promotion & then in 1 season? :unsure:

it's not impossible the squad would need 2 or 3 additions, but I would fancy this squad to be up around the play offs

Monk

Monk

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  • Author
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I'm gobsmacked that Monk actually knows someone who reads the Times

My dad!! What's that supposed to mean???

Jimmy

Jimmy

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not really, if we sign Gilbert then a back four of

Gilbert Morrison Tunchev Mattock/Berner

could cope easily at that level we would need another winger and a couple of CM's and probably another striker so that's 5 with a keeper and you'd have the core of a squad that could do very well in that league

surrifox

surrifox

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yes the article "The Flying Fox" and the accompanying picture were excellent.. so, new contract at a stonking increase... a featured article in the Sunday Times... next goal probably around the 3rd week in March!

DB11

DB11

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What a pointless article :huh:

Why would someone want to read about League One's top scorer unless you are an LCFC fan? If it was in the Mercury, maybe, but the Times?? :blink:

Daggers

Daggers

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What a pointless article :huh:

Why would someone want to read about League One's top scorer unless you are an LCFC fan? If it was in the Mercury, maybe, but the Times?? :blink:

Hush child.

potter3

potter3

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What a pointless article :huh:

Why would someone want to read about League One's the country's top scorer unless you are an LCFC fan? If it was in the Mercury, maybe, but the Times?? :blink:

Matt

Matt

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Say's nothing about it in the article but suppose it doesn't have that much to do with it or maybe its not even true but I was told last years by someone that apparently his daughter was really ill last year and Fryatt was ready to give up football and his career he just didn't have his heart in it, as I said I was just told that, not sure how true it is.

The Blur

The Blur

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An enlightening article

Cool to read about a player's hobbies and stuff- better than simply stating fact and figures or quotes like most newspapers do in their feature on players

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