Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier has often spoken positively about Academy graduate James Ward-Prowse and he’s gone slightly further this week and claimed that the 24-year-old can definitely break his own free kick record at the club.
With JWP stalling in recent years as Southampton struggled in the Premier League and fell backwards, he’s showed significant improvement since the arrival of Austrian manager Ralph Hasenhuttl and he’s definitely back on track and on an upward curve – and this week he was rewarded with an eventual call up to Gareth Southgate’s England side following injuries to others.
Now clearly, despite the form that JWP is in – six goals to his name in 2019 and three in his last three matches – he’s never going to match MLT’s overall tally at the club, but with him already having four goals from free kicks to his name, it’s easy to see why our former star is backing him to quickly smash through the eleven he scored in total.
Speaking to the Daily Echo, the now Sky Sports pundit explained.
“He definitely can, he’s so confident at the moment. It’s nice when you get a direct free-kick in a good position and you feel the excitement of the crowd, knowing it’s a great chance to score a goal. That’s the feeling I had at the peak of my career, feeling confident and the crowd sensing that. It gives you a real buzz and it’s the same now with Prowsey. We’ve always known how good he is from set pieces because he’s always got close to scoring free-kicks. They were just flying wide or grazing the post but all of a sudden they’re now flying in the top corner and that’s great to see. It’s very much a confidence thing. Since Ralph took over he’s been outstanding. Certainly, in the last six to eight weeks he’s been man-of-the-match in most of the games I’ve watched him in. Ralph has obviously instilled a lot of belief in him and that makes a difference to a player.”
MLT continued to say he agreed with the comparisons coming out about JWP’s dead-ball technique and that of David Beckham in terms of how they both demonstrate that they can whip the ball up and down quickly, and that’s an invaluable trick in set pieces.
Given the form he’s in at the moment, it’s possible he could be over halfway there before the current campaign comes to an end.
