Watford’s Premier league match against Southampton will be a match involving several importance such as battle involving league position and who will prove his dominance between France international midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure and Danish international midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
Both players will undoubtedly influence the outcome of the game with their ability to control the flow of the game with immense quality performances worthy of an international player. Regardless of their club’s league position, both players have demonstrated great football quality so far this season, no wonder they are being targeted by top Premier league clubs like Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United et al.
The 27-year-old Midfielder Doucoure who moved to Vicarage Road from French league side Rennes during 2016 winter transfer window has proved to be an outstanding and consistent performer with the Premier League side Watford, winning Watford’s Player of the Season and Players’ Player of the Season awards in 2017/2018 campaign.
Doucoure has mostly played as a holding midfielder or central midfielder for Watford in the past but since Nigel Pearson took over the managerial position, Doucoure has now been pushed into a more advanced to good effect. The Frenchman has in turn been able to unlock his immense potential with incredible techniques and quality display.
His new role entails being given the license to room around mostly in more offensive positions, sniffing and taking advantage of opportunities that are capable of causing goal threat. The Saints will definitely have a lot of work to do in order to curtail Doucoure’s movement around the pitch.
Considering his agility, stamina, power and tenacity, the Saints will need to be more compact and find a way to limit Doucoure’s space especially in the final third.
Whereas, the former Bayern Munich midfielder Hojbjerg has been praised for being hardworking and who has been able to inject pace and urgency into the Saints’ team. His impact at the club was rewarded by appointing him as the team’s captain at the young of 23.
Hojbjerg has great positional intelligence and good reading of the game, as he’s able to predetermine where he could be able to make an impact either offensively or defensively. He’s known for regaining possession with greater aggression and contributing more in advanced areas as he continually show for the ball, passing it short or long with astute precision.
Hojbjerg has grown to become the man who makes his side tick. On his day he can deliver top quality and all-round performances in central midfield. His capability to disperse play and penetrate the lines with positive bursting run or pass makes him an highly dangerous player who’s capable of punishing Watford if they fail to deal with his movements and skills.
Neither player is likely to capture the headlines but their performance against one another will unarguably have a major impingement on what happens on Sunday afternoon.
And indeed, the player who retrieves, retain and dominate possession effectively will wrestle control of the game in his side’s favour.
