Troy Deeney starting to motor as Premier League draws near

Troy Deeney feels he is slowly starting to recapture his form and fitness and is unconcerned at a return of one goal in four pre-season games.

The captain had looked rusty until yesterday’s game in SC Paderborn 07, struggling in particular with the extra work that comes with playing as a lone striker, and he did some individual fitness work with senior sports scientist Ben Dixon in Thursday’s second training session of the day.

He looked much sharper on Sunday afternoon, creating the opening goal for Matej Vydra with a pass he will struggle to better all season, playing cleverly on the shoulder of the last defender and only a fine save from the home keeper prevented him from planting a first-half header into the bottom corner. Deeney was entitled to be well satisfied with his work when he was replaced for Diego Fabbrini with 15 minutes remaining.

“I’m close and getting fitter,” said Deeney. “I’m not one who just goes away and plays football in the summer. It’s just about getting as fit as possible and obviously I’ve had to come back in even better shape. I just work on all the other things [apart from finishing].”

I never score in pre-season so I’ve actually beaten the last few years’ total already

Deeney, who uses the same personal trainer as Fabian Delph, has found the net just once in pre-season, scoring in the second half against St Albans, but the way he ripped a shot across his body past Rene Gilmartin into the far top corner of yesterday’s warm-up was a welcome sight. It even earned him a high five from goalkeeping coach Paolo De Toffol.

“I never score in pre-season so I’ve actually beaten the last few years’ total already,” said Deeney. “To score against St Albans was actually quite surprising.”

Watford’s impressive win over Paderborn, who begin their league season this weekend, may not cause too many ripples but it certainly will have been noted by Bolton and Everton who have both come a cropper here.

“The standard of opposition rose so our game rose,” said Deeney. “We played well. They are two or three weeks ahead of us and that showed at times. But we played well and caused them a lot of problems.”

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