You already know about the Premier League’s surprise packages so far. Hull City, tipped so strongly for relegation, sitting top of the league after the first week. Middlesbrough, another promoted club, taking some of the limelight themselves with stunning team goals.
Another surprise so far this season has been Watford’s form over the first few games.
Last season – Watford’s first season back in the Premier League since their relegation in 2007 – they finished in a solid mid-table position and made it all the way to an FA Cup semi-final. It was a solid first season back in the Premier League, one to establish a foothold in the division, but that wasn’t a view shared by the club’s owners.
They sacked their manager and put Walter Mazzarri in charge. Still speaking with a translator, his grasp of English is fairly basic, and his presentation to the fans in English made it seem as though he – and Watford – would struggle this season.
But we’re now four games into the new season, and FanDuel data seems to show a different story. Watford are a different prospect from last season, playing in a much different way. And in the new system, one man seems to have been reborn.
Etienne Capoue’s Tottenham Hotspur career started with injury early on, and then ended with a whimper. A move to Watford got him playing regular first team football again last season, but this season he has started with a bang. After only four games, Capoue has already accrued 134.75 FanDuel points, largely down to his contribution at both ends of the pitch – and, of course, his three goals in four games.
Capoue’s best scoring form came in 2012/13, whilst still playing for Toulouse in France. That season, he rose to prominence on a world scale after seven goals for Toulouse as well as his first caps for his country, even scoring in a World Cup qualifier. At the end of that season, he’d sign for Tottenham.
This season, though, he’s already scored three goals. At this rate, he’ll smash his record, though goalscoring clearly isn’t Capoue’s main asset.
The Frenchman is a defensive midfielder by trade, though at 6’2 and with a good ability to read the game, he has also been used as a defender on occasion. Goalscoring is something rather new to his game. In 36 appearances last season for Watford, he didn’t score once. That was left to Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney. This season, he’s the Hornets’ top scorer so far.
His rebirth as an all-action midfielder are borne out in FanDuel stats. The game gives points for more than just scoring goals and keeping them out, and that suits a player like Capoue has become. We’ve seen so far this season that if he’s allowed to get forward, he can be a threat, but he also gets back to help out his defence.
Playing in a team like Watford, who will need to defend in numbers for a large chunk of the season, and often play on the counter attack, Capoue looks like the ideal man to put in your FanDuel team.
If you look at the breakdown of the points he has won so far, you see his contribution to the team. Three goals in four games are, of course, a major reason for his high points tally, but every single week so far, Capoue has scored points because of his passing accuracy (so far standing at 82% over the course of the four games), as well as tackling – routinely winning points for his contributions at both ends of the pitch as well as his ability on the ball.
The stats bear out an interesting rebirth of a player known more as a tough tackling midfield anchorman than as a box to box general.
In his first season at Toulouse, Capoue collected 17 yellow cards in all competitions. Last season at Watford, he collected seven over the course of the season. Such a high rate of yellow cards would lose him FanDuel points, but so far this season he’s clean: none so far.
Throughout the course of his career, Capoue has been a natural team player. He’s not afraid to put in a tackle when needed, capable of taking a yellow card – multiple, it seems – for the team. Five of his seven yellow cards last season came in the second half of games, as his defenders tired and gaps started to open up behind him.
Interestingly, though, he’s only been sent off twice, both times in his formative years at Toulouse. Never in England.
This season, it looks like Walter Mazzarri’s formation is allowing Capoue to play with that bit more freedom. With three central defenders behind him, his first thought doesn’t have to be helping his defence. And that’s resulted in three goals and an assist in four games.
Last season surely helped. After his nightmare at Tottenham, a move along the M25 to Watford allowed him to play regularly in the Premier League in a team that performed well for the most part. This season, he’s comfortable in the team, and his manager’s faith in him to lead the midfield has paid off so far.
His rebirth might be a surprise, but his quality on his best day has never been in doubt. It’s just looking like this season we might be seeing quite a few of his best days.
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