A lack of goals and extended time out through suspension meant Watford skipper Troy Deeney bore the brunt of fans' criticisms as 2017 drew to a close.

The striker is a popular figure at Vicarage Road and his record during eight years at Watford will see him go down as a Hornets legend, but social media seemed to turn on the 29-year-old during a difficult couple of months.

Deeney, though, is trying not to spend much time on social media and even if he was getting messages telling him he was rubbish, or searched his name and saw the comments, it would not bother him in the slightest.

"To be perfectly honest, most fans see a different game to players," he says when asked if it bothers him.

"I am not being rude when I say that. Most fans will sit there and say he should be doing this or that, but they can’t do it and that is why they are fans.

"If I go to a pub and sit down with a fan and he says ‘Ibrahimovic is shit’ I will say ‘What are you on about? Look at the ball played into him’.

"When they see it from a player’s perspective they realise, but they are just looking at it as fans and it is all emotion based. You can’t take it too seriously."

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And avoiding social media is not difficult for him either. "I'm from the generation before that. I remember a life before social media. I remember phone boxes, that's what I grew up on," he adds.

"None of my friends are big posters - we're old school. We text, phone and meet up and have a beer or have a curry.

"I started posting the other day when I was watching them playing their five-a-side. It's just normal. I'm 29 and still a kid in the real world.

"I just got a lot of expectations and pressure on me, but it is what it is. I've got the best job in the world, I work two or three hours a day and get paid handsomely for it."