His role in the third goal was the best I reckon. Second was a good shot but looked like a deflection (not to say it wasn't a good goal anyway). I'm always more impressed by the close control and ability to go past players than the thwacks. He did both pretty well though.
There's no doubt he's a talent. Raw, very raw but he seems to have the right attitude to make it as at worst a good standard premier league footballer. He needs a new contract, just like Pickford. Stick a daft minimum release clause in them both.
https://m.dreamteamfc.com/c/the-gin...-_-DreamTeamSocial-_-280347581-_-Imageandlink A bit over the top "a mix between de Bruyne and Messi, it's incredible"
D'ya reckon.... Dear me the lad did well... But FFS ! It's **** like this that 'turns their heads' and they suddenly want Champions Lge wages. Keep up the good work Dunc... Your time is coming!!!!
to be fair the two spouting messy comments were from a southend fan and what appears to be footballing neutral. So it's not us putting him on a pedestal. Wish they'd pack it in though. Sun have latched onto it like a fly on ****. Not what we want.
Watmore's interview afterwards was well grounded. Nice to hear a footballer with a brain it's great to hear the enthusiasm. Also gave a lot of praise to Sunderland fans for the reception he gets.
I think we're a lot more grounded, having seen him face up against the big boys. To be completely honest I'm still not convinced he'll ever be more than an impact sub for use against tiring legs, a la James McClean. Having said that, the lad seems to have some brains about him so that's one advantage he has over McClean!
I think he'll become a regular starter in time. He's raw but he's got the intelligence to polish off. He may not be very technical passing wise but the way he drifts from his marker to draw them out of position is excellent. He can create space, he can find space, he can exploit space, he's comfortable left right and centre, he's quick, direct and hard working, he's got an eye for a shot and final ball(albeit needs much more work) he's got all the attributes to suite the ever quickening direct premier league. He's still on a learning curve. He's a very intelligent footballer who will get better and better. But that's in time. He's already better than James McLean, he's a thick **** who go found out. Well that's opinion anyway.
It's odd that he doesn't get more time on the pitch at Sunderland and you'd have to suspect that if that continues he will get offered the opportunity to either play regularly for another team of a similar level or warm the bench for more money elsewhere. The way he played reminded me of the best we have seen of Rolando Aarons (who has had flashes of excellence in some of his performances) but the difference is that Aarons is permanently injured (and otherwise would be well ahead of some of the trash we've had on our wings) whereas Watmore just isn't being picked. It's an odd one.
He's getting more game time. He started our last game and played 90 mintues and been involved with half our games this season compared to the zero games he was involved with last season.
Fair play, I didn't realise he was getting as much as that now. I only knew he hadn't got the breaks previously.
Just a few of us were calling for him to more involved last season but it didn't happen. This season is different. He's making his break through.
Duncan Watmore Is The Pick Of England’s Emerging Generation TOPICS:Duncan WatmoreEngland U21s please log in to view this image Sunderland's Duncan Watmore England’s U21 side defeated Switzerland on Monday evening, scoring three times in the final ten minutes to run out 3-1 winners at Brighton’s Amex Stadium. It was a good response to a difficult situation. Shani Tarashaj had looped the visitors into the lead just before half-time and the Swiss protected their advantage well, crowding the middle of the pitch and forcing the hosts into overly-deliberate passages of play which rarely penetrated the eighteen-yard box. For all their technical ability – and this squad, young as it is, has plenty – England were startlingly rigid. Jon Swift and Solly March impressed fleetingly with their delicate touches and Dom Solanke worked hard without the ball, but a lack of movement in the final-third meant that the passing phases were too often formulaic. England enjoyed a lot of the ball without ever really looking likely to do anything with it. Duncan Watmore is new to this level, having been promoted to the U21 squad following his excellent performances in the 2015 Toulon tournament. He’s a frail looking player who could do with being locked in the Sunderland weights-room, but he possesses a quality which so few of his contemporaries seem to have: intelligence. Introduced in place of Ruben Loftus-Cheek with fifteen minutes left to play, Watmore immediately changed the way England attacked. Nominally a winger, he has the useful habit of breaking into penalty-boxes and challenging defenders in the middle of the pitch – and it was that positional diversity which brought his side into the game. First, Watmore beat goalkeeper Yvon Mgogo to a through-ball to earn England a penalty – converted by James Ward-Prowse – and then, three minutes later, the twenty-one year-old cut infield and lashed a deflected drive into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. In the dying minutes, with the game broken and the channels wide open, he escaped to the byline, beat a defender, and squared the ball for Chuba Akpom to side-foot England into an unassailable lead. It was as impactful a performance from a substitute as you could wish to see and a cameo which ultimately earned him the Man of the Match award. But it wasn’t surprising. Watmore is not the most gifted player of his generation and in both the Summer’s U20 squad and the U21 team of which he was a part of last night, he has lined up alongside more eye-catching talents and players who are able to do more with the ball. His value, however, is in his bravery and adventure – England were able to maintain their impressive wining record (thirteen straight victories in home qualifiers) because Watmore was willing to take risks without the ball and because he wasn’t content merely to be neat and tidy during his time on the pitch. Not “risks” in the sense of roulettes and video game flicks, but gambling runs and opportunistic movement. He’s hard-working – that traditional English strength – but he combines graft with a level of pitch intelligence which isn’t immediately obvious. His runs are instinctive and effective and he seems to naturally understand where a defense’s weak points are and how best to exploit them. Age group football isn’t the same as the senior game, but his ability to find space and create dangerous passing-angles for his teammates is still very pertinent and he still does with a regularity that is worth mentioning. The developing England sides are all loaded with technically impressive players, but few who change games as regularly as Watmore does. Watch him in isolation and he will seem unremarkable, but within the context of what he enables his teammates to do and the secondary dimensions that he provides, he looks like a very smart player. If hard-running and energy are indigenous English qualities, then understanding how to change a game is not: when Watmore was introduced on Monday, he recognised what his side were lacking and was instantly able to provide it. Credit Gareth Southgate for his tactical decision, but Watmore himself for carrying out his manager’s intentions. That’s the truest indication that he’ll succeed in the professional game: he has a very high footballing IQ. It’s a vague term and it’s difficult to quantify. As a consequence, he is exactly the sort of player who will spend his career being underestimated by everyone other than his own fans and whose value will escape those who are only interested in obvious contributions – ie. the vast, vine-sharing majority. Don’t be fooled by his choirboy haircut and lack of outstanding attributes, though, Duncan Watmore is a gem of a player.
Great to have an exciting young player at the club, and a manager who seems to rate him as well, Borini, Lens and Watmore would be my front three, with AJ in the CM position, pace and eye for goal written all over them imo.
Personally think I'd go 4-2-3-1 with the players we have, and the way Sam likes to play. ------------Catts---M'Vila----------- AJ-------------Borini-----------Lens ---------------Fletcher--------------- With Defoe and Watmore options from the bench. Depending on form, maybe experiment with Watmore starting again (AJ my no. 1 candidate to be dropped), but his performance against Southampton didn't exactly scream "undroppable" to me. Don't want the lad thinking he's "made it" all of a sudden and doing a Connor on us (can't see it ever happening from the little I know about him but you never can tell...)
SF is playing well atm but he is not our future, young Watty might be and should be given the chance he deserves. This is just my opinion and I do like your team layout, only thing is AJ is lazy, bags of talent, but like SF only plays when it suits him, so I would put him in the middle where he cant hide and if he is shirking make a change. Both Borini and Watmore are very mobile and track back when required so they would get my vote out wide, and I would like to see Lens up front, as he has an eye for goal.
