Not sure. But anyone that’s seen Deeney play in the last 3 years and still continues to pick him is either blind, clueless, or pressured because of Deeney’s status. I’m willing to hedge bets on 2/3 of those
The fact of the matter is that Troy will be starting against Villa whether we like it or not - and we will all be chanting his name if he scores (a penalty). King is miles off and Dennis will get injured in training somehow (probably by Deeney).
https://mobile.twitter.com/WatfordFC/status/1424098268275908609 Not jumping in on the argument, and I’m sure you’ve watched this already. However incase you haven’t, listen from 1:30 onwards and Troy states that he’s now scored 3 in the last 3 games, suggests we’ve played more games behind closed doors than what fans will know about. Don’t disagree about Cucho, would rather him start, reality is he won’t. As frustrating as it is, it will be Troy until King is fit enough to challenge him. Also at the end of Troy’s interview he states that there will be a few more outgoings and incomings as well. If anyone knows what Gino and Dux do, it would be him.
I would be surprised if anyone is actually surprised that Troy will start against Villa. Who else have we got? I can’t see anyone actually scoring . King will be the new Andre, so it’s all down to Troy. Pandemic or not, the owners should have really found someone of some calibre to bring in. I still think it’s more convenient for the owners if we do go back down and take the money. We had Chalobah and Hughes in midfield to at least try to help the forwards. Looks like they are going on their merry way which is worrying.
On the subject of Josh King: does anyone know why he is not fit? As far as I know, he wasn’t injured at the end of last season, despite not featuring much for Everton, did not play in a summer tournament and has not been reported injured in pre-season as others have been. When he signed I assumed he would be our main striker but he seems a long way off being in the team.
Is this a joke?? Do you remember the interview Troy gave after ivic was sacked? He also said he was surprised to have been dropped as he’d been in good form and also scored 3 in 3… they were all penalties of course. If anyone is actually placing any stock in Troy’s ability based on what he has said about himself, based on goals he may or may not have scored in behind closed doors friendlies we don’t even know about, we’ll, they need sticking in a straight jacket and locking up for all our safety. We don’t need to listen to what Troy says about himself, the last three seasons are proof enough of his ability, specifically the last season when he proved he was no longer even a championship standard striker (ONE goal from open play all season) and as soon as he was out of the team our fortunes changed immeasurably for the better.
Bournemouth fans did warn us he has had fitness issues. Club claim he has a “knock” but that could mean anything !
With our medical team and history, a sprained ankle is 6 months out, a chipped nail is 4 weeks out. A "knock"? Knock in confidence perhaps? Fell over one of Deeney's burger wrappers in training? Who knows.
You are just making things up. I’d love Deeney to score the winner on Saturday. That doesn’t mean I don’t think he should be in the team.
He also says that this is the first PL quality game we have played. I am not sure goals against Doncaster when their full back is up against Sarr is really representative of what Deeney can do in the PL which is all that matters. I would love Deeney to get back fit back to the level he was at - in no small part because I expect he will end up starting - but I just can't see it on the evidence of the last 3 or 4 years. I just find it odd that our fans see content to write Cucho off at centre forward on the back of 60-70 minutes of one pre season game where he was feeding off absolute scraps with a rancid midfield behind him. However Troy can be ******* usless for most of the last 3-4 years and our fans are prepared to give him endless opportunities to lose weight / get over the injuries / start playing more direct or whatever his latest excuse is. Cucho certainly didn't put in a perfect game at centre forward yesterday, but I think it was difficult to judge him too harshly with the awful service he was being provided. Even his work pressing off the ball went to waste when our midfield was 20 metres away from him.
I think things went pretty sour between him and the club and fans - they priced him out of the Man U move then blocked his move on relegation but allowed lots of the other "big" players to move on. I just don't think it is necessarily relevant to the current situation. It sounds like he had a minor knock and the club thought it wasn't worth risking him. Hopefully a sign he will be involved next weekend.
But there are multiple strikers in this squad considerably better than Troy. Joao Pedro, King, Cucho and Ashley Fletcher have all shown themselves in recent seasons to be better than Troy. I have no doubt in my mind that we will end up with Troy starting against Villa, but that is nothing to do with there being no strikers in the squad better than him.
I wonder if we will get over 20k or there are going to be empty seats - particularly in the Family area?
Which would be relevant if we were comparing them to someone proven to perform at PL level, but we are not. They are unproven at PL level but at least they have done okay in the second tier. Whereas, Deeney is proven **** at PL level on top of being proven to be desperately **** in the second tier these days as well.
Yet when Fletcher signed people were slagging him off left right and centre because he’d been rubbish for Boro apparently in the 2nd tier. Cucho has never played in the Championship.. Let’s see if he’ll live up to the hype . Sounds like I should expect to see some great skill, pace and most importantly goals from him .
Tbf to Deeney he has shown proven PL level before just like King has. In a way both those players are in the same boat in proving themselves to get back to past glories. I think King more likely out of the two eventually if I was a betting man.
Except King is 4 years younger than Troy. The difference between 29 and 33 for a #9 is huge. Apart from real quality #9s like Giroud and how many 33 year old #9s have shone in the PL?? Even Giroud was a sub most of the time.
"Proven" just seems to mean you have played in the division without any consideration for whether you were actually any good there. Deeney's last decent PL season was 15/16 5+ years ago and he is now 33. He has generally been a consistent weak link since then. King's last decent PL season was 18/19 2+ years ago and he is 29. King may well turn out to be **** as may the other 3. My only point is that there is far less evidence those 3 are **** compared to Deeney.
To be clear . I dont think Fletcher is a good player. I think he is a perfectly mediocre championship striker. I just don't think Troy is anywhere near being a mediocre championship striker any more. He put up just about the worst numbers of any striker in the division. There are certainly question marks over Cucho. I dont think the last 2-3 years have panned out as planned either with the injuries or the clubs he was loaned to but there is clearly a promising young player there. He may not ever make it to to the level we hoped he would, but surely in the position we are in it makes far more sense to give a chance to a 22 year old who may or may not be good than a 33 year old that we know is not good?
Deeney showed last season he isn’t even a championship level striker anymore, I genuinely think he’d also struggle in league one. If you take away his penalties he’s never been prolific, but his last semi passable season was now a long time ago. Alan shearer is a proven premier league striker but that doesn’t mean he could do a job for us now. We know exactly what Troy can offer, which is absolutely nothing other than ruining the shape of our team and dictating we play only one way, which just happens to be completely wrong for the players we have. It doesn’t matter if Cucho plays better on the left, it doesn’t matter if Fletcher and JP aren’t proven at PL level… I mean for crying out loud what is the absolute worst case scenario if they play ahead of Troy? They don’t score any goals, like he no longer does? They couldn’t actually be worse than doing absolutely nothing, but guess what? They could potentially be a whole lot better. There is literally no downside at this stage, only upside. Sadly the club are likely to stick with him because he’s ‘proven’ irrespective of the fact that time has long since passed.
Didn’t Deeney score 20 goals plus in 3 consecutive Championship seasons? If we go down I presume Fletcher and these other strikers would score 20 plus goals at their peak in the Championship like Troy and even Gray . So even if we are relegated then we are in safe hands goal wise !
He did, which lays bare just how bad he is now and how unfit for purpose he is when you consider his numbers from last season. For some bizarre reason some of our fans want to expunge that from their memory, like it never happened and he’s still somehow a fit for purpose PL striker.
Have traded in my season ticket for a golf membership so will miss this unfortunately. Troy will continue his goal a game pre-season form and give us the lead. The Vic will be rocking, but a late collapse will se us lose this one. 1-2
Villa will really come at us and fancy their chances of ripping us to shreds. I'd play Dennis as #9 and try to hit villa on the break which would be impossible with Troy on the pitch. If Troy starts I'd say Duxbury's position at the club is no longer tenable. To bring in 4 potential #9s in the summer and for none of them to be considered a better option than Deeney is incompetence on such a majestic scale that surely he must be gone.
If he stays, Gray would have to come into the reckoning as a 'not good player' and mediocre championship striker.
Let’s hope Dennis remembers he is a grown adult on the team bus .. Not a child having a paddy over a seat.
