Deeney: If I wasn’t frustrated it would be a little bit weird

Troy Deeney, much like Paul Robinson used to, claps all four sides of the ground before he leaves the pitch. It’s a heart-warming sight in this age of increasing disconnect between players and fans at the elite level. Some can just about manage to raise their hands above their head to muster a token clap from the halfway line before they head down the tunnel for a nice warm shower. Deeney went even further yesterday, handing his shirt to a young fan in a wheelchair in the south-west corner.

As he turned from applauding the Rookery End to the Elton John Stand, hands still above his head clapping, the mind wondered back to that heady day against Leicester City and that goal. Indeed, every time a barrel-chested Deeney makes a sharp left turn from the goal at that end, with his shirt off, it is difficult not to wistfully recall the celebrations on that scarcely believable afternoon in 2013. Deeney and Watford will forever be linked with that moment. It will define his career.

Minus the pitch evasion and a slip from the understandably excited Gianfranco Zola, the moment Deeney gets off the mark in the Premier League could elicit the loudest noise at Vicarage Road since that balmy May afternoon, especially if it’s a point-saving or a winning goal. Judging by the cries of ‘Deeney, Deeney, Deeney’ at the start of the second half yesterday the fans are right behind their totemic captain, willing him to score.

He didn’t look like getting much closer yesterday to opening his account, against Southampton, on an afternoon when Watford failed to register a single shot on target. Deeney has scored three times in his last 694 minutes of football or is without a goal in three Premier League matches. Your viewpoint depends on if you are a half glass empty or half glass full kind of person. Those who do not take into account friendly games should ask Odion Ighalo if he has forgotten about the six he scored in four pre-season games to prove a point to those who were willing to let him move to China after receiving a huge offer. Ask Alan Shearer if he was not bothered about his failure to find the net in the 12 friendlies prior to Euro 96.

Deeney is concerned, otherwise he would not have brought up the subject in his programme notes, exclusive of course. He would not be human if wasn’t. This is a man who gets off on goals, who has made a handsome living on the back of scoring 20 in each of the last three seasons.

“I’ve read a few things this week apparently I’m on a goal drought after just two games,” he wrote in The Hornet.

As we wrote in these pages after the Everton game, Deeney is going to have to be judged on another factors than his goal return in this current set-up. His work rate at Everton, for example, was phenomenal.

“I think I set up something like seven chances for the others last weekend [against West Bromwich Albion],” he said.

Deeney is not used to being the architect. He’s been the executioner since he signed from Walsall for a fee of £500,000 that looks an increasing snip by the week. Quique Sanchez Flores has demonstrated he does not pick his side on the basis of a popularity contest by axing Matej Vydra, blowing hot and cold with Fernando Forestieri and keeping Almen Abdi on the periphery. He has now altered the demands placed on Deeney, the darling of Vicarage Road.

“The fact of the matter is that my role has changed, being the one man up front, but I’m still a striker so I want to score goals,” Deeney explained. He admits he’s frustrated, so much so that he mentioned the word three times in one paragraph. The word unhappy also featured twice.

“If I wasn’t frustrated after not scoring it would be a little bit weird., frankly,” he wrote. “But that doesn’t mean I’m unhappy. Maybe I’m unhappy for about a second and a half when I think something should have gone my way, but I don’t have time to moan about it again because I’ve got to make the next chance happen.

“If I complain on the pitch it’s not because I think everyone should pass the ball to Troy. It’s just that being a striker it’s only natural I’m sometimes going to think I’m in a better position, and other people will also think that when I shoot sometimes … When I do eventually get a clear chance of my own, if I don’t score there’ll be other lads frustrated with me.”

The trouble is those chances are few and far between. He had two glimpses of goal in the second half yesterday but on both occasions, as he pulled the trigger, the magnificent Jose Fonte blocked him with two diving blocks. If John Stones’ value went down after Ighalo put him on his backside at Goodison then Fonte’s went up yesterday. He was the best centre-half Watford have played against so far. It’s just Deeney’s luck, huh, that he runs into someone in the form of Fonte when he’s searching for a goal.

He looked more likely to find the back of the net yesterday than at any point so far but that’s not really saying much. It kind of summed up his his luck right now when a rasping goal-bound strike from Jose Holebas crashed straight into his midriff. And he must have known it was not going to be his day when he feinted to come short for a pass from Alessandro Diamanti only to get the ball caught under his heels as he tried to dummy and ghost past his marker. Deeney needs one to bounce in off his backside, his knee or his shoulder right now. How he would have loved to have been in the position – the six-yard box with the goal at his mercy – Ighalo and Etienne Capoue found themselves in at either end of each half.

He could, however, do worse than watch a video of how Graziano Pelle, the Italian international, played the lone-striker role yesterday. Instead of allowing himself to be easily marked by standing in the middle of two towering central defenders, Pelle drifted into the space between the full back and the centre half, making him more elusive and difficult to pick up. He was also not afraid to drop deep. His movement created space for others. It helps that Pelle has been playing the role for many years and, more pertinently, that he has willing, jet-heeled runners playing off him in Saido Mane and then Shane Long. Deeney does not have anyone running beyond him.

“People like Vyds haven’t seen the pitch yet, but we’re lucky to have them as options to come in and I’m sure their time will come,” added Deeney in his programme notes.

It doesn’t look like it will and the way Deeney chested the ball down in the second half and threw his arms up pleading for support illustrated his need for help. Playing upfront, on your own, in the unforgiving world of the Premier League, can be a lonely existence.

Read the head coach’s thoughts on the future of Vydra here.

A coy Quique Sanchez Flores passes up the chance to clear up the future of the absent Vydra. http://t.co/cWT3lX0lsn pic.twitter.com/eHFp1do0Hj — WD Sport (@WDSport_) August 23, 2015

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