The name Matthew Taylor may not resonate with soccer fans as powerfully as Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard or Yaya Toure, but the former Portsmouth, Bolton and West Ham United man scored his fair share of screamers in the Premier League.
The 34-year-old midfielder currently plies his trade with Burnley in the Championship, but Taylor quietly amassed 40 Premier League goals over 12 seasons in the English top flight. That’s currently more than Cesc Fabregas, Roy Keane, Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and David Silva.
The thing about Matthew Taylor is that he doesn’t just score goals, he scores absolute belters. The pick of the bunch may just be this screamer against Everton on December 9, 2006.
There was nothing Everton keeper Tim Howard could do about this first-time volley from 45 yards. The left-footed violence swerved and dipped into Everton’s net from near the half-way line. If it had been scored by Wayne Rooney or Gerrard, it’d most likely be called one of the greatest Premier League strikes of all time.
Taylor was a constant for Portsmouth, Bolton and West Ham United from 2002-2014, providing a consistent and reliable presence when deployed at either a fullback or midfield position.
In a tragic case of 'what if...', Leicester City certainly owes some of its current success to Matty Taylor. Taylor signed a two-year deal with newly promoted Burnely prior to the 2014/15 season. After an Achilles’ injury had sidelined him for most of the campaign, Taylor returned to help Burnley in their relegation battle at the end of the campaign.
In a relegation ‘six-pointer’, Taylor missed a penalty kick against Leicester City which would have surely sent Leicester down. Instead, Leicester went on to score 59 seconds after the missed penalty through Jamie Vardy, winning the game 1-0 and ultimately relegating Burnely.
A dejected Matty Taylor reacts to his missed penalty. Photo: @BurnleyOfficial
To his credit, Taylor responded to criticism by saying, "I'm big enough, I'm old enough and ugly enough to accept responsibility."
Football, bloody hell.
On a more positive note, here are some more wonder strikes from the English maestro:
