AFC Bournemouth and Scotland international Ryan Fraser insists that he would never complain about playing out of position but still made his point clear that he would prefer to play a more attacking role.
The 24-year-old’s best performances on the south coast have usually come as a winger, on either flank, mainly as an impact substitution where his pace and direct play catches opposition defences out.
For his country he has sometimes played a more central position, playing as a forward.
But this season, due to a lack of defensive options for AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe, Fraser has found himself often playing as a right full-back or wing-back.
This has been because regular right-back Adam Smith has struggled with injuries and whilst Simon Francis can still play the right-back role, the switch to three at the back has left Fraser as the only option to play the wing back role on the right-hand side.
From 25 appearances this season (3 from the bench), Fraser has scored 5 times and claimed 3 assists. Which, despite his versatility seeing him playing in a number of positions, is his best goals return since promotion to the Premier League.
Fraser told the Daily Echo…
“It is hard to take sometimes when you see people in your position scoring goals when you are at right-back, but I did it for the team.
“If I had played in my position, I might have had 12 or 13 goals, you never know…”
“…I went to right-back and right wing-back and everyone knows that is not my position. You have to do it for the team. I thought it was going to be a couple of games and it has turned out to be pretty much the past two months…”
“…But I’m not complaining. If I’m on the pitch playing, I just go out and enjoy it whatever happens.”
Your say…
kirsikka wrote…
Doesn’t seem like Fraser is particularly enamoured with being backup for the position.
“I went to right-back and right wing-back and everyone knows that is not my position. You have to do it for the team. I thought it was going to be a couple of games and it has turned out to be pretty much the past two months.”
I have to say I agree. Like all wingers, bar maybe the very best, he’ll have runs of good and bad form but when on form he’s proven himself to be very dangerous at Premier League level. We lose an excellent option for the squad when we don’t have him as an option there.
Fingers crossed this is the window where another RB option is finally addressed. – Join the conversation, click here.
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