HULL CITY: Altidore is now a key player
HULL City's assistant manager Brian Horton believes Jozy Altidore can become a key player in the fight against relegation battle after the striker scored his first Premier League goal.
The United States international netted in the first half of yesterday's 2-1 victory over Manchester City and caused problems for the visiting defence throughout the match at the KC Stadium.
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Jozy Altidore celebrates his goal
Altidore joined City on-loan from Villarreal in August, but has taken time to make an impression and has also had off-the-field trauma to deal with.
The 20-year-old's parents come from Haiti and he has family in the country who were affected by last month's devastating earthquake.
He was granted compassionate leave and missed Hull's draw with Tottenham on January 16 but put in arguably his best performance for the Tigers yesterday, capped by his goal, which he celebrated by kissing a wristband bearing the Haitian flag.
Horton said: "He needed that. His displays have been good but to get his first league goal is just what he wanted and he was a handful all round.
"He's a young lad and we've probably heaped a lot on him but he's shown glimpses of what people have bought him for. He's got pace, he's got quite a lot of things going for him. We're just pleased we spotted the opportunity to bring him here.
"He's had a lot to contend with with his family. You don't understand those things until it's happened to yourself; for a 20-year-old boy in a different country having to cope with all that, but he's shown he's got ability, that's the main thing for us."
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by gjh, WG Durham
Monday, February 08 2010, 2:00PM
“Fimo NY; Agree with your comments especially the Jan. window - but the past is just that... Jozy has great commercial possibilities for the Tigers, so a deal is Important! Don't know if the fee can be reduced or payments staged but an attempt to sign looks beneficial. Still Pompey & WHU seem to have got away without paying at all for some of their players!!”
by Ben, Hull
Monday, February 08 2010, 1:18PM
“Hmm.....where's Billy today?”
by Mike, Beverley
Monday, February 08 2010, 9:00AM
“Hopefully the performances against Chelsea and Man City can be once again delivered against Blackburn?We seem to struggle always against the lesser teams.Although a better performance by McShane and Fagan on Saturday the right hand side seems to a lot weaker than the left and would play Zayatte at right back.”
by sky thunder, Sharkia , Egypt
Monday, February 08 2010, 9:00AM
“the high performance of jozy Altidore refers to :
the fair competetion on striker position .
when more available competent subs. , each player will try to hold his chance and prove himself.
i hope the 4-4-2 formation continue vs blackburn ,with
Altidore and zaki from the begining , which will aterrific dual.”
by Horsham_Tigerr, West Sussex
Monday, February 08 2010, 7:22AM
“Great play and result by the team. If we stay up then we shoudl buy Altidore. I'm not sure we need Turner anymore: I think Mouyokolo and Gardner are a brilliant first choice pairing with Copper and Zayette as back up we are very strong in central defence. Myhill is improving all the time, but we may need to make the RB and LB positions more competitive. IF we stay up we need to look at realeasing the "yesterday men" such as Marney et al. With JVoH and Altidore tied to contracts we can then look at getting one more loan gem to polish and purchase up front and look at a youngster as 4th striker. Olofinjana, Boateng (if he continues in the current form), Cairney, Hunt, Bullard (if fit) gives us a good core midfield (I'd keep Fagan too). The future is starting to look brighter. We can play good football and be a decent topflight side.”