Did you not read the tweet correctly? It wasn't Abdoulaye Doucouré that tweeted, but infact, the infamous Gavin Doucouré.
He tweeted it & later deleted the tweet, I don't think WD are wrong about that. Makes me wonder if there was a mix up the club are keeping in-house. They thought he was suspended & left him behind. Turns out he wasn't.
Oh cheers I never noticed that, I just take anything from WD Sport these days with a pinch of salt as they relying mostly on the same crap Italian translations as us. Hopefully they get their source back soon as it's made the window unbearable. Maybe some sort of mixup then, he wouldn't of tweeted that if simply overlooked, and he played too much in pre season to then be totally withdrawn. Unless of course he was suspended and simply told to delete the tweet, are WD Sport simply using the published FA list as their source?
This was the main reason (among a couple of others which I'll get to shortly) why I didn't think he was the outstanding performer that most others have been raving about. He looks good going forward, with energy and purpose, which is more than you can say than any of our wide men for most of last season, but I actually thought Holebas was the better of the two (though I seem to be in the minority of one for that) because he just looks more convincing and stronger all-round as a wingback. He did tire later on as did most other players, and made a couple of mistakes, including one that led to the succession of corners that resulted in their goal (not to mention that waste of a short corner - I have literally never seen that tactic ever amount to anything, so why do so many professionals insist on trying it?) but otherwise he did his job of marking Cedric really well, and gave our attack plenty of impetus, linking well with Capoue. Second best player on the pitch for me after him. For me, although Amrabat played a part in the goal, there's still room for improvement and I think he needs to work on his crossing accuracy and awareness/decision making. It's all very well blaming Deeney and Ighalo for not being there to meet his crosses, but surely Amrabat should have checked around him to make absolutely sure there was someone in the box, and if not look for another route towards goal? I could be wrong but it seems there were quite a few around me berating him for that low cross that skimmed across the face of goal, as to me it looked more like he was trying to score himself from a tight angle rather than look for someone better placed, and they probably had a point. As for Capoue, what a player. I personally didn't think his dip in the second half of last season was as pronounced as others made out, even an "underperforming" Capoue is still one of the best and most important players in our team, and yesterday proved just how vital he remains to our team. Funny to think that just as I was pondering in the still absence of an out-and-out attacking central midfielder, whether he rather than Gueds might be our best bet as a creative outlet, and that the only major deficiency in his game is scoring goals, he only goes and pops one in! It seems clear that half the away crowd didn't realize (or couldn't believe) it was him, as witnessed by the huge cheering when his name was announced. So impressive all-round, winning the ball with his customary aplomb and cleanness, containing well the threat of Tadic and surging forward with drive and no little skill. Didn't see an awful lot wrong with Gomes - there was an early scare when they got that chance from a free kick right at the start which he played a part in keeping out, and there were a few catches that he made slightly heavy weather with, but that's Gomes for you and for all his idiosyncrasies he does his job, even if it does produce a few heart-in-the-mouth moments for us fans. Agree with others that the subs were a bit strange - not so much the players going off but their replacements, I presume we didn't change formation so where was Zuniga supposed to be playing? And likewise Anya as a swap for Ighalo? Felt sure that Vydra was going to come on instead, but in fairness I guess a tough away game when playing with ten men is not the best time to be experimenting too much with attacking options. Other than that, despite the nail-biting second half and frustrating inability to win back and keep possession or create much other than the goal, I was encouraged by much of what I saw yesterday. In the first half at least we really took the game to our opponents and weren't overawed like we've sometimes being guilty of doing against higher calibre opposition. Some aspects of our performance may have indeed been Flores-like, like the slow passing among the back three and the disconnect at times between the midfield and strikers (as expected with a new manager, there's always going to be an undigested mixture of the old and new, for better or for worst) but that's not necessarily a bad thing; even if obviously work needs done on our forward play, we have players who really know how to play defensively and work as part of a well-drilled and tight knit unit, and as unpopular an opinion as this may sound, this is a legacy we will come to thank Flores for as it's very important for any recently promoted team to be tough to break down, more so than being intent on outscoring the opposition. I'm confident we'll see a more adventurous approach as the season unfolds, starting with our next home game, and I look forward to it!
Doesn't make sense for the Pozzos to chase a youngish player for two transfer windows and sell him just for a few million profit.
Just from memory - at 5 or 10 minutes into the 2nd half Capoue was charging, with the ball, towards the left hand side of their box. Deeney was outside their D to Capoues right and Iggy was further right. It was screaming out for a run from Deeney to the left, ahead of Capoue, splitting the defence and offering two options. What did Deeney do? He moved (trotted) to the right, closer to Iggy, Iggy was static and they were both easily covered by defenders and Capoue had no options and the move fizzled out. It was typical of the afternoon and pretty typical of last season. Neither of those two have any movement, they do not work well as a pair, they offer little pace and (at the moment) seem to have little enthusiasm. We desperately need some different options up front. Maybe Walter is waiting for the transfer window to end first, but he has to give those two a rocket of some sort.
Agree completely. When we went down to 10 men, there was no out ball - Iggy was a statue in the middle of the pitch. I thought it would have been a good time to bring either Mattie or to a lesser extent Sinclair as they would have been far more mobile and given a target moving out to the flanks. Some pace would have Southampton having to think a little. Perfect example was Amrabat's delicious ball across the area...neither gambled. As I asked in a previous post, has Iggy become complacent?
Difficult to read into the opening game. Some of our best performers last year didn't have the greatest of games and still no wiser on the new signings or on the future of Vydra The Watford of old would have lost that game when under pressure in the last 15 so decent point
is iggy complacent, or just not very good? we have to hope that the only reason vydra/sinclair werent given a chance is because we were down to 10 men. It will be an absolute disaster if ighalo and deeney go through another season as untouchables.
Possibly the second point? His purple patch in 2015 aside, his record before then and since has been average to say the least. That's what I think he is, an average player. At the moment he's still dining off his 2015 success, along with the fact that this seems to make him un-droppable. It might be good to bench him for a couple of games, could be a decent motivator. He'll score a hat trick against Chelsea now....
Well we know he's strong and can finish when he doesn't have to think, not the greatest passer and not the greatest awareness of team mates - but he's earned respect after last year and defenders will respect him. I just think changing it up would benefit everyone, as Joka did in our promotion season. Sometimes Mattie started and sometimes Iggy, they were interchangeable. It may also stop lumping the 50 yard ball as that sometimes seems the only option because of the lack of movement.
I've thought the same for a while, the front two don't move enough. Everyone is crying out for us to get an attacking midfielder but I'm pretty sure Capoue would have no problem picking out a run from one of the front two if they had better movement.
Fair point, if you watch Vardy - he never stops running - that's why I think Mattie could be very good with his new attitude.
That's what I thought. Although I'm sure he did travel with the squad, maybe someone spotted it Saturday morning - couldn't get any confirmation from the FA or Spanish FA and so rather than risk fielding an ineligible player they took the decision to leave him out.
I agree. Mazzarri doesnt seem the type to have un-droppable players, so hopefully he'll act if and when necessary. I wouldnt mind one bit if vydra started in place of ighalo against chelsea. But we have to remember we dont see the players in training. Maybe ighalo is head and shoulders above vydra in training? who knows. I do think a decent number 10 will really relieve the pressure on our strikers though and make a huge difference to how we are to watch, and this signing cant come quick enough.
Totally agree. I thought Amrabat was very inconsistent and defensively poor. A couple of times they got in round the back of him and he was only aware once the ball had been played through. Defensively poor but the couple of balls he put across the box that Deeney shouted at him for were great.
This is the problem, even when he does score he is usually one of the worst players on the pitch e.g. Sunderland away last year. He would do nothing all game but he has a knack of popping up out of nowhere for a finish. Might sound ridiculous but all he does is score.
"A source told us that the captain reported back for pre-season as much as a stone overweight and he has certainly looked heavy so far". I don't give a f**k - this is completely unacceptable. He is getting way too ahead of himself. How much is he getting paid per week now probably £70,000 and he turns up a stone overweight? Can you imagine what the Leicester fans would have reacted like if they signed him for £30m and he was plodding around on their opening day defeat to Hull.
Some of my thoughts :- Brilliant noise by our fans in the ground - great atmosphere. I enjoyed seeing Walter getting animated - it shows he cares. I haven't watched any highlights, but from where we were standing it seemed that Gomes made a great save in the opening minute. He didn't appear to do too much too badly for the rest of the game, but the comments on this thread suggest that I may have missed a lot. Perhaps because he was at the other end of the pitch in the 2nd half. Defensively we looked solid (including both wing-backs who played well) Capoue was superb; Gueds showed some nice touches; Behrami was disappointing (but I'd already marked him out to be my boo-boy this season) Not enough movement up-front, but Deeney was bullied by VVD It looked as if somebody had instructed Iggy to pass the ball more often - that was encouraging I would have a taken a draw before the game (I would have a taken a draw at half-time when we were 0-1 up); overall it was a great day out. I'm looking forward to seeing the impact that the new players make.
Yeah, if this is true, he'd have had to have put some major ****ing effort into just managing to pack that amount of fat on in that relatively short period of time. Considering his standards, it's a crazy level of unprofessionalism, especially given his reputation for being someone who actively trains outside of club mandated sessions. It doesn't really fit with what we know of him, but then anyone can see with their own eyes that he has indeed come back overweight. I think we should remain calm and not start snowballing the idea of Deeney becoming a raging egomonster who doesn't give a ****, but it's a very strange situation he's allowed himself to get in, and I can't really see what would have sparked it off.
Also let's not forget that Rooney, for all his failings, always does this and has always gone on to get back up to fitness and last an entire season being one of the most active and energetic members of the Utd squad, so there is always the personal context to consider as well. How much has he reported back overweight in previous seasons? Perhaps it is a similar amount, and it's just the way his season progresses. Admittedly, it would visibly appear to have gone a little further this year...
I think the new kit makes him look fatter. There is no way he is 1 stone overweight. That is complete *******s, made up by a ******.
No it's true as he 'has certainly looked heavy' as reported by WD Sport. Also, he's turned into a complete egomaniac as proven by him not wanting to leave and go to a Champions League club in the summer for mega bucks.
Agree. To come back a stone overweight doesn't quite sit right to me. I don't believe he feels he has reached the peak of his career yet, so to come back in such a poor shape doesn't seem right or something he'd do. Has he bulked up too much? Maybe. Has he spent the summer just eating and not giving a d*mn? I doubt it very much.
Also confirmed in the article by Guedioura who says as the club grows Deeney can grow with it. What more proof is there that everyone is trying to tell Troy he is overweight
