Fazrul’s a lethal fox in the box again

SINGAPORE — He is one of Singapore’s top strikers and was also last year’s top local S.League scorer with 18 goals.

But Fazrul Nawaz had a torrid start to the current S.League season, firing blanks, missing gift-edged opportunities and scoring just twice in 11 league appearances. No surprise, then, that he came under heavy criticism from certain sections of the local football fraternity for his poor goal-scoring form.

But since the international break ended three weeks ago, the 31-year-old has looked a rejuvenated man in front of goal.

He has banged in six goals in his last five matches in all competitions under new Stags head coach Akbar Nawas, who took over Tampines Rovers after V Sundramoorthy was appointed national coach.

While it would have been easy for Fazrul to be discouraged during his barren spell, he told TODAY that the criticism he received made him stronger. “I did not let the criticism affect me and instead I used it to motivate myself to come back stronger and do better,” he said.

Fazrul said he took inspiration from European stars such as Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, who have struggled to score on a consistent basis at the ongoing Euro 2016 tournament.

“I watched them closely and noted the way they bounced back after missing chances,” said the national forward.

“You can see that their motivation never dies and they also look to get into better positions to score. Watching them made me a stronger player.”

While he attributed his early misses partly down to “bad luck”, Fazrul admitted that his concentration was also affected because he had allowed the pressure of playing for Tampines to get to him.

“At the start of the season, I felt the pressure of joining a big team like Tampines as we were expected to achieve great things,” said the former Warriors FC marksman. “I believe my momentum was also affected as well as I was in and out of the starting XI.”

The 1.79m tall forward added: “Throughout the tough spell, my striker partner Billy (Mehmet) and senior players such as Mustafic (Fahrudin) and Noh Rahman motivated me a lot. During my first training session under coach Akbar, he told me that he had full trust in me and to keep doing what I have been doing all along.”

Akbar told TODAY he believes Fazrul’s fantastic work ethic helped him turn his fortunes around.

“All strikers go through bad spells, but it depends on how they deal with it,” said the 41-year-old. “If you remain pessimistic, then you remain in that bad patch. Credit to Fazrul because he worked extra hard and put in the additional hours before and after training to improve on his finishing.”

With his new-found confidence, Fazrul is certain that he can help Tampines achieve success in all four competitions — the S.League, Singapore Cup, League Cup and AFC Cup.

“I feel confident right now but I will take one game at a time and do my best,” he said. “We have a great chance to achieve something this year, especially in the AFC Cup, and it’s my personal motivation to win all four trophies on offer because no S.League club has ever done that in a single season.”

Fazrul’s goals under Akbar Nawas

* One v Brunei DPMM, S.League, 11 June

* One v Young Lions, S.League,14 June

* Two v Balestier Khalsa, S.League, 17 June

* One v Albirex Niigata, S.League,24 June

* One v Global FC, Singapore Cup, 29 June,

Tampines take on Global FC in their Singapore Cup quarter-final second-leg clash tonight (8pm) at Jalan Besar Stadium. The Stags lead 3-1 from the first leg.