Toure Chides Dennis For Poor Showing, Dissent In Watford Defeat To Arsenal

Former Ivory Coast midfielder, Yaya Toure, has criticised Super Eagles and Watford striker, Emmanuel Dennis, for ‘playing for himself’ and failing to join other players in taking the knee against racism when the Hornets lost 2-3 to Arsenal at the Vicarage Road Stadium on Sunday

Toure is not impressed with the Nigeria forward’s performance in the match he played the entire duration, reasoning that as the club’s top scorer, should have played a lot better.

He also frowns at Dennis’ seemingly act of dissent prior to kickoff when the players on the pitch performed their routine taking the knee, in solidarity to their collective campaign against all forms of racism, a pre-kickoff ritual that Premier League players have been performing since June 2020. Every player is usually expected to kneel on one knee to perform the pre-kickoff ritual, but Dennis refrained from it on Sunday.

“Dennis is the top scorer [of Watford] and he looks very much the player who can hurt Arsenal, but he appears to be playing for himself,” Toure remarked during an interview with Premier League Productions.

“He does not put in enough work without the ball, and even during kickoff, he did not take the knee with the rest of the team. He can do more for the team.”

Nigeria coach, Austine Eguavoen, has included Dennis in the Super Eagles’ 32-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup African qualifiers final play-off round against Ghana later this month.