Watford FC

Ighalo was very unlucky with one of his chances last night, had de Gea beaten all ends up, but one can't help but think he spurned a few more - had a very good chance to cross to Deeney in the 6 yard box but took the shot from a tight angle. His best chance was the one he turned and hit first time, suggesting to me he's a striker that plays better on instinct rather than picking chances (which sorta goes hand in hand with an out and out striker rather than one who plays a bit deeper). I can understand the reservations about him moving to someone like Arsenal who expect more from their attackers. However somewhere like Chelsea as a backup to Costa is more feasible (there's no way he'd expect first team football regularly, but many a striker has made that move knowing he won't get past Drogba/Costa/the fearsome Torres or Shevchenko....). There's times as a Utd fan I've longed for an attacker to actually stay in the box, rather than fuck off to left wing back like Rooney usually does as part of his desire to cover every blade of grass. However he's done himself no favours last night, as that was not an audition a top class club would value.

 

Funniest part of that is Mourinho as prospective Utd coach. There's no way he'll be coming despite the media trying to push him into the job - his brand of management is not wanted by the hierarchy. As much as people have van Gaal, he's doing what the board want - bringing through young players with the eye on making a great team 5 years down the line. The board wont switch short term success for the long term vision

 

We are still light up front though. Memphis isn't trusted to play up front, and is long term seen as the wing prospect. The depth up front isn't great - Whilst Rashford/Wilson/Keane are young prospects, there's certainly a feeling amongst fans that we do need another striker. We've always had a good rotation depth up front (Rooney/Berbatov/Tevez, Cole/Yorke/Ole/Teddy, Rooney/RVP/Hernandez). Going with just 2 internationals (one so young too) is a little uncomfortable for many.

I've not really paid enough attention to Ighalo when he was on form to be truthful, and his performance against us was... interesting - found himself in good positions, bit unlucky not to get one, but was rather wasteful. From that appearance alone I couldn't see it happening, but then we have taken punts on mid table teams strikers before (Yorke, Saha) if we felt they offered something different - Ighalo looks to play further up than Rooney does, so its not totally impossible.