Matt Le Tissier brands Beckham as "one of best free-kick takers"; still rues his limited appearances for England

By Parv Anand
New Delhi [India], October 3 : While branding David Beckham as one of the best free-kick takers he ever saw, former England midfielder Matthew Le Tissier, says he still rues on the limited number of opportunities that he got to play for the national team.
Considered one of the greatest midfielders of his generation, the Southampton legend went down in the history books by becoming the first midfielder to net 100 Premier League goals.
In his decorated career, the English magician became a legend at Southampton, making 270 Premier League appearances, but only eight appearances for the Three Lions awaited him. As the 55-year-old reflected on his career, he still deserved a couple more opportunities.
"Yeah, it was disappointing to not get more opportunities to play for my country, eight times. I was very proud to play eight times and, growing up as a young boy, if you would have said to me, you'll play eight times for your country, I'd have probably said, 'oh, that'd be great'. But as my career went on, I felt like I deserved a few more opportunities over the years, but there were a lot of good players in England," Le Tissier told ANI.
"So there was a lot of competition for places, and the managers at the time decided to choose other players in front of me. And, you know, that's football. Sometimes, you can't please everybody. A manager might think that you're not quite the player that he needs in your team, and he'll choose somebody else, and you just have to learn to deal with that," he added.
During his illustrious career, Le Tissier saw many talented players show their craft, leave and many more come, striving hard to make a name for themselves.
One such talent was a young David Beckham who rose through the ranks and made the cut for the England squad. Le Tissier was pretty confident about his free-kick abilities but ended up changing his views when he saw Beckham in front of the ball.
"David Beckham was a very talented footballer, yes I was in the England squad when David first made it into the England squad and I trained with him a little bit. I thought I was pretty good at free kicks until I tried taking free kicks alongside him. And then I thought, maybe I'm not so good now. He was probably one of the best free-kick takers that I saw in my career," Le Tissier chuckled as he recalled the moment.
Apart from his unorthodox skills and uncanny footwork, Le Tissier was a force to be reckoned with from the penalty spot. In 48 spot kicks, the talented Englishman just missed once. Le Tissier pointed out mentality and technique as the factors that he extracted great benefits in maintaining his impeccable record.
"Okay, so for me, penalty-taking was about two really important things. And the first one was mental. You have to want to be there to take it. So you have to look forward to taking penalties. You can't be nervous. You can't be apprehensive. So that was the first thing. And I was always very comfortable knowing that I was going to take a penalty. The whole stadium was looking at me. I didn't mind that. I quite enjoyed the pressure of it. So that was the first thing. And the second thing is technique. So I was able to Thank you. Hey, hey, hold my hand! I didn't hurt anyone. I didn't do anything wrong to anyone. I just sat there quietly so that these people," Le Tissier remarked.
Since his playing days ended on a fairytale note, Le Tissier has found it hard to pick out a player that resonated with the way he played. The only player who has come close to was Jack Grealish during his time at Aston Villa.
"It's a question I get asked quite a lot and I've not really seen in recent years many players who are similar to the way that I played. I was a little bit unique in the stuff that I would try I didn't mind trying really difficult things and sometimes when they don't come off you look a bit foolish but that's the gamble you take because when they do come off you end up scoring maybe goal of the season and so, yeah, it's difficult for me to try to find somebody," Le Tissier said.
"I would say maybe a little bit when he was at Aston Villa, Jack Grealish, maybe a little bit. Not as many goals as he should have scored because the boy has a lot of ability, should have scored more goals. But I think the way that he was so important to that Aston Villa team, I think it was a bit similar to how important I was to the Southampton team when I played," he noted.