THE NOT-SO MADCAP SCHEME THAT IS JUSTIFYING TOM LAWRENCE FOR MARCH

Photo by Andrew Dowling [andrewdowlingphotography.co.uk]

Megan Feringa

First things first. This is not because of the goals. 

But we’re going to talk about the goals.

The second was the work of delicate, patient foot art: side on, high arc, swooping, top corner, knowing precisely how to pull himself onside to let it rip in the first place. To think, that was Tom Lawrence’s bad foot. 

The first, however, was inexcusable filth. Half its brilliance is its sheer effrontery, the way in which the Derby County winger does not so much dribble the ball passed one, two, three Sheffield United players but glides past them, as if he’s playing a mid-2000s version of FIFA from a bird’s eye view, all velvet touch and glitching defenders. If you watch closely, Lawrence does not watch the ball scoop up the net’s far corner behind a flailing Wes Foderingham in goal. He does not need to. He is already celebrating, whipping an invisible lasso above his head and releasing a triumphant howl.   

Bare-faced effrontery has been the theme of Derby County’s, and by extension Lawrence’s, 2021-22 season. Neck deep in negative points, a financial albatross and a motley squad slapped with a fresh transfer embargo, Derby County should have waved the white flag months ago. Instead, they are the implausible cockroach in an apocalypse railing against their doubters.

At the helm stands 28-year-old Tom Lawrence, a man whose international career seemed to have raised its own white flag three years ago but now, remarkably, has peeked its head out of the ashes. 

Over the summer, Derby County manager Wayne Rooney turned heads when he appointed the winger as captain. Lawrence’s volatility is no mystery. A player graced with a classy right foot and a nice knack of eviscerating defenders is the same who specialises in head-in-hand petulance and tragicomedy. Lawrence is as likely to score a worldie as he is to waste one. 

That is not the usual qualification of a captain striving to save a sinking ship. 

Yet in a season that has demanded consistent performances from a team consistently forced on the back foot, Lawrence has served as a surprising, albeit refreshing, rebuff to the clockwork woes. In 24 league appearances, Lawrence has provided three assists and scored seven goals, two of which lifted Derby to a phenomenal 3-2 victory over table-toppers Bournemouth. That output is more than double last season’s (Lawrence scored just three goals and assisted once across 23 appearances) and has shifted the relegation-tipped club within eight points of a very great escape. 

The difficulty arises in remembering that this is the same player from three years ago, whose drink-driving charge in September 2019 with fellow Derby teammate Mason Bennett seemed to epitomise a footballer fated to make poor decisions. On the pitch, Lawrence tallied 10 goals and five assists for Derby that season, while clocking 12 yellow cards and a red card, prohibiting him from six matches for the club. 

Lawrence wrote a similar narrative on the international stage. Too often, he yielded to his irritations and his impulses. Too often, the trade-offs plainly did not trade off well enough. 

Yet, this season Lawrence has cut an almost unrecognisable figure. His performances have oozed assurance and poise not only in front of goal but throughout the pitch. Testament to that is Lawrence’s involvement in every match so far Derby’s mind-boggling season, while operating anywhere across the front three and in midfield in an effort to offer as much succour to a club trying hard to be swallowed in turmoil. 

In other words, Lawrence has had to forgo his penchant to make a mess of things. 

That is not to say new Lawrence does not still leak moments of old Lawrence. This season, Lawrence has accrued five yellow cards, four of which have been awarded in the final 20 minutes of a match when silly frustrations bubble over. 

But a frame of reference is also required: Derby are scrapping for implausible safety in a league distinguished for its implausible carnage. It should not be ignored how hard it can be to offer consistency in a basket case of a club. And Lawrence, a man who consistency consistently evaded, is doing exactly this better than ever in a pressure cooker of footballing hell.  

Last March saw Lawrence in a Wales shirt for what promised to be the curtain call on a 23-cap career, culminating in 65 minutes bouncing around an empty Cardiff City Stadium as Chris Gunter won his 100th cap in a 1-0 friendly win over Mexico. It was only Lawrence’s third appearance in nearly two years.

Come this March, he’ll be one of Wales’ most consistent attacking players in form and fitness. Only Harry Wilson betters Lawrence’s goal/assist tally this season with eight goals and 10 assists for promotion-hunting Fulham, while Brennan Johnson ranks not far behind with five goals and five assists for Nottingham Forest. 

While a starting berth is a far cry — Dan James will naturally occupy the left flank, with Johnson, Wilson, Gareth Bale, Kieffer Moore, Aaron Ramsey and Neco Williams rightly bottlenecking the attacking ranks —, a goal-sodden attacker in a Championship side making do with scraps is not a poor ace to have up the sleeve. 

Lawrence’s versatility and resolve this season have been inspiring, while his goals have been particularly scream worthy. But there is also something richly tantalising about a player rebelling against misfortune, stylishly at that. It is wonderfully evocative of this Wales squad and its own endeavour to right so many years of misfortune.

For a national squad that has so long espoused the notion of rewarding form over history, Lawrence’s efforts deserve their just reward.