Erhun Oztumer eyes rein of terror over opposition defenders...
ERHUN Oztumer has dazzled defenders with his performances during pre-season and the diminutive midfielder insists there’s still more to come with the League campaign just days away.The 25-year old joined from Peterborough last month and has settled down quickly to life as a Saddler.
His low centre of gravity, high energy performances during pre-season have whet the appetite of Saddlers fans ahead of our season opener with AFC Wimbledon on Saturday (3.00pm kick-off).
After opening his account in Walsall colours with a goal against Solihul Moors, Oztumer has turned provider for his team mates on a number of occasions during our six summer games.
And the 5ft 3in magician has set his sights on bettering his goal tally from last term whilst raking in the assists.
“Last year it was six goals and hopefully I can hit double figures this year and just help the team win more games,” he explained. “I like to get on the ball as much as possible.
“Yeah I’ll lose it once or twice but I’ll still want to get on it. I’m not shy of the ball and I want to cause defenders havoc.
“If I can score goals and assist goals then that’s going to help the team and more often than not it will bring us the three points.
“Obviously there are a lot of new faces and it will take time to gel but hopefully we can just keep playing well and after two or three weeks the team will settle and show our best qualities.
“I’ve come in and enjoyed it and hopefully I just take the challenge on and keep playing well, exciting the fans, scoring, assisting and that’s all I want to do.”
Oztumer played 58 times over two seasons at Peterborough, including a number of times against the Saddlers.
Dubbed the ‘Turkish Messi” by Posh fans, his trickery and invention caught the attention of Jon Whitney. So when the pair met to discuss a possible move in the summer, Oztumer was left in no doubt that Walsall and Whitney were for him.
“It’s been such a smooth transition,” he added. “I came to meet him and I wanted to sign straight away.
“He’s a motivator and he knows what he wants.
“He said he wants exciting football, to play it from the back and keep the ball on the floor and that’s music to my ears.
“Hopefully we can keep that going and do well this year. Last year we finished third, missed out by one point so you never know.
“We haven’t played League One opposition yet so we can’t judge how good we are or how bad someone is until we start playing.
“But as a squad we believe that we’re good enough.
“It’s going to take three or four weeks for us to properly gel so we need to be patient but I think we can go all the way.”
“He said he wants exciting football, to play it from the back and keep the ball on the floor and that’s music to my ears.
“Hopefully we can keep that going and do well this year. Last year we finished third, missed out by one point so you never know.
“We haven’t played League One opposition yet so we can’t judge how good we are or how bad someone is until we start playing.
“But as a squad we believe that we’re good enough.
“It’s going to take three or four weeks for us to properly gel so we need to be patient but I think we can go all the way.”