Troy Deeney has followed the lead of former Match of the Day 2 presenter Garth Crooks and named an unconventional side for his Premier League Team of the Week, which features no full-backs and has a surprise star starting in defensive midfield.
Former Manchester United centre-forward Crooks was known for making some unconventional selections during his time on Match of the Day Two, picking players out of position while loading his team up with attackers.
He was succeeded on the show by former Watford striker Deeney, who named his team of the week for the second round of Premier League matches.
Last week, the 36-year-old had opted for a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Kai Havertz fronting an attacking midfield consisting of Bukayo Saka, Karou Mitoma and Mohamed Salah. Harry Maguire and Ruben Dias were named as his central defenders, with Trent Alexander-Arnold coming in at right-back, with Newcastle’s Dan Burn on the other flank.
This week, Deeney has opted for a rather unusual 3-5-2 formation, in which his team noticeably lacks much width.
Troy Deeney (pictured) has followed the lead of former Match of the Day Two presenter Garth Crooks by naming an unconventional side for his Premier League Team of the Week.
Crooks was well known for picking players out of position and adopting some unique formations.
“Obviously I started with David Raya in goal; his save was the turning point in that game,” Deeney said in Match of the day 2highlighting the simply outrageous save from the Spanish goalkeeper to deny Ollie Watkins a close-range goal in Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa.
The 36-year-old then picked a three-man defence of Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and West Ham’s Max Kilman before revealing why he had selected the three defenders.
‘All the lads here have scored or assisted as centre-backs, they’ve done really well and have been a colossal force, so they all deserve to be in the team.’
Van de Ven and Romero were the stars of Tottenham’s 4-0 rout of Everton, with the latter rounding off the match with a goal in the 71st minute. Kilman also assisted Jarrod Bowen, who scored West Ham’s second goal of their away win over Crystal Palace.
Interestingly, Deeney then picked Fulham newcomer Emile Smith Rowe as a defensive midfielder alongside Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne.
“I really liked the way he played,” he said of Smith Rowe’s performance this weekend. “He looked like he played with freedom and he looks like he’s growing into a main player for Fulham, which he obviously wanted to be at Arsenal. He scored a very good goal but he created problems all day.”
Deeney opted for a 3-5-2 formation, loading his team up with attackers including Erling Haaland and Joao Pedro.
Deeney also notably chose attacking midfielder Emile Smith Rowe as one of his defensive midfielders.
Cristian Romero was another of his selections, having scored in Tottenham’s 4-0 victory over Everton
Noni Madueke scored a hat-trick as Chelsea beat Wolves 6-2 at Molineux
He then named an advanced midfield consisting of Noni Madueke, Cole Palmer and Son Heung-min.
‘Looking ahead, we talked about the two Chelsea lads (Madueke and Palmer) today and Son was also the butt of the joke yesterday.
‘And then the strikers, Erling Haaland and another Watford legend, Joao Pedro.’
Deeney’s sides scored a total of 13 goals this weekend, with Haaland and Madueke scoring hat-tricks.
Deeney chose Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler as his manager of the week after the Seagulls engineered a last-gasp win against Manchester United on Saturday to make it back-to-back titles in their opening two Premier League games.
But his team left BBC Match of the Day Two presenter Mark Chapman perplexed by some of Deeney’s decisions, with the broadcaster claiming his team were not very defensive.
Mark Champan was surprised by some of Deeney’s selections and said “it’s not the most solid team defensively”.
But Deeney went on to explain his reasons behind the selections, saying he was going for “an all-out attack”.
He said: ‘But they’ve put their centre-backs in because they’ve made blistering runs or scored, so they’re not the most solid team defensively…’
But Deeney justified his decision by saying: “Have you been watching this? Nobody is fighting back anymore, so we’re going all out.”
