Fraser’s patience wins Howe praise and his pace runs Leicester ragged
Eddie Howe admits he hated coming up against pace during his short career as a central defender. So he has made sure to stock up on that valuable commodity as a manager, as Leicester City’s back four found out to their cost on Saturday.
Their tormentor-in-chief was Ryan Fraser, who scored two goals and created the fourth for Adam Smith. He ran £21.8million rightback Ricardo Pereira ragged but also beat title-winning captain Wes Morgan before scoring his first and outran England defender Harry Maguire for his second – all despite managing a hamstring injury he picked up while on international duty with Scotland.
Fraser joined Bournemouth from Aberdeen in January 2013 for £400,000. He had to wait for his chance and spent the 2015-16 season on loan at Ipswich Town but, now 24, is an ever-present this season and top scorer.
“I’m really pleased for him because I know how difficult his journey has been,” Howe, the Bournemouth manager, said. “Mentally he looks very, very strong at the moment and that’s been a key thing of his recent form. Last year he didn’t get the goals and the headlines that he’s getting now but the performances were there.
“The patience needed is the key thing. You can see the ability and what the player could be in the future, but have they got patience to wait and improve every day on the training pitch?
“Ryan kept his head and his work ethic and slowly but surely he improved to the player he is now. That deserves recognition.”
Fraser preferred to praise fellow forwards Callum Wilson and Joshua King. But, when forced to talk about himself, he said: “I came down and did not play and that hit me hard. I thought it would be easy. A lot of Scottish players think that and go back up the road. I didn’t want to be one of those players.
“The gaffer has trusted me and the loan and experience of the last two seasons have helped me. He’s a very good coach and can improve you in every aspect. Even if you think you’ve had the perfect performance he will take you down a couple of pegs and make you even better.”
Claude Puel, the Leicester manager, agreed that Maguire’s belowpar performance might have been “a reflection” of playing every minute for Leicester since joining them in the summer of 2017, with a World Cup thrown in for good measure.
“It’s my responsibility to try to find a good balance, not just about the performance of the player but the balance of tiredness, of desire, of freshness,” he said. “Perhaps the players didn’t have enough concentration because they were tired.”
Leicester, who trailed 3-0 at the break, with Fraser’s two goals added to by a King penalty for handball, finished with 10 men after Morgan was sent off. They scored two late goals through James Maddison and Marc Albrighton.