BOURNE IDENTITY
There are 16 years between these two pictures.. but Jermain Defoe returns to Bournemouth still looking the same lean, mean striking machine
MARCO SILVA will hand Troy Deeney his Watford comeback today – with a warning all his Hornets strikers face a fight to win him over.
Club captain Deeney, 29, who missed last week’s six-goal caper against Liverpool after a groin operation last month, has trained with the first-team group all week and is fit to face Bournemouth.
But Silva (left) admits he cannot accommodate Deeney, Stefano Okaka, and £18million Andre Gray all in the same line-up. Now the new Hornets head coach faces a dilemma over whether to abandon his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation or leave at least one of the trio on the bench at the Vitality stadium.
Silva said: “Troy is able to work 100 per cent with the team this week, he’s worked hard and tried to show his football to me. What I saw from him the last two days is what I expect.
“When everybody starts to come back, it’s good news and Deeney is one more solution, like Andre and Okaka.
“Andre has trained with us more and now he knows better our ideas and what we need. Now I have to take the decision whether to start him.
“Okaka has worked hard the last few weeks – what I want from him is to score, but a lot of other things are important. Scoring gives a player more confidence and I am happy with what he did against Liverpool.
“I want competition between them – I want players to come here and train with something to play for.”