MaVilla

would be great to have him back on the bench for the leeds game. I think with Coutinho & Buendia, we can afford to break him in gently, and hopefully not suffer a relapse of the injury, or a similar muscle injury. While he is getting up to speed, he should be a nasty player to bring on with 20/25 minutes to go.

i think that is quite a fair and balanced comment.

are you really comparing Watkins' miss to the Pele/Banks situation? You expect a good striker to score that chance 99/100 (vs Everton), yes a keeper can pull off an amazing save, but if they do, its because the striker hasnt placed the shot properly. Anyone can miss from time to time, but Watkins to me, has really poor finishing instincts.....tbh i wont say poor, just bang average and it wont be good enough if we want to be climbing the table, we need clinical and composed finishers. tbh, its also not just Watkins, as a team we arent as clinical as we should be (generally speaking), we have trouble killing games off, due to our poor finishing (i dont mean always, i just mean its a noticeable thing).

well, Salah managed it with Mings, when he literally jumped in front of Mings to trip him over, who then fell in to Salah and he got a pen. VAR in principle is fine, the people using it are incompetent though. What makes it worse, is they cant even make the right calls in super slow motion, its quite mind boggling tbh.

so is he off to PNE?

in the last game, he was literally given a golden chance on a platter, but he decided to be 3 yards offside and head it at the keeper, when a blind & legless person would have been expected to put it away. I understand we can be a little overly harsh on players, as well as overly praising of players, but honestly, if you are defending Watkins' recent performances, im not sure what poor play looks like 2 u, he's been really bad overall for quite a few games, and its not just finishing, control, ball retention, vision, passing to other players rather than being selfish....the list goes on. watkins had a fairly good first season with us last season, but this season hasnt been good for him at all.

dunno, sure thats not the norm tho tbh.

ye, if it was remotely close, or even if a bid was accepted or close to being accepted, you wouldnt chance your saleable asset getting injured by playing them...... wonder if this is ESR Mk.2 lol.

amazing, sounds like there are still some proper commentators out there who do their homework and understand the wider game. Not like most of the current breed of reporters and commentators, who probably have trouble wiping their own a** or remembering their own name.

Hero Quest - Commodore 64. or it could have been Bruce Lee - Commodore 64 (cant remember which i had first)

found a few vids, of all his touches in specific games, probably much more of a balanced view of his ability etc:

a bit more balanced, all Bentancur's touches vs Udinese.

the same way we found El Ghazi, Trez, Samatta, Engels, Wesley etc

Pity Grealish did think similar!.....

well....i would say i have sympathy for him...but i dont. He made his bed, now he can lie in it.

i dont think its that he is lost without Smith, but that he benefits when he is the centre of attention, allowed to just go and do his thing, no strings, no responsibilities, where he can just go out and fully express himself, and the play revolves around him. Unfortunately, he was only allowed to do this at Villa, not with England, and certainly not with Man City. Its amazing how average he looks when Man City dont "play to his strengths", he really doesnt suit their style of play...at all.

at the end of the day, if Gerrard wants him, im on board, if he doesnt...we wont sign him!

i suppose the only real point to make, is it doesnt look like he is a "no.6", if this is the case, do we really need another no.8?

tbf, hard to judge i think, if you took any of our players, and found their top 10 mistakes in the last 3+ years, every one of them could have a highlight reel that made them look like Mr Bean, these stats look ok tho:

ye, interesting, if he cant handle the press in italy, he sure wont handle the press in the PL.