Ollie Watkins

[dudevillaisnice]

38 minutes ago, useless said:

He played well again, and has been our best attacker this season. Seems to have taken Mings' place as a player who gets unfairly criticized even when he does well.

Honestly I thought he did well yesterday too, surprised by the comments here. 

[turvontour]

23 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

A goal and an assist. What on earth are people expecting?

He is always a complete nuisance for defenders, and we would be a much worse team without him. Some beautiful footwork too at times.

I think his impact on a game is underestimated.

Dropping deep into the midfield too at times. As you say, he offers so much to us, occupying and covering so much space. Must be a nightmare to defend against.

[El-Reacho]

52 minutes ago, useless said:

He played well again, and has been our best attacker this season. Seems to have taken Mings' place as a player who gets unfairly criticized even when he does well.

Yeah - I guess he's set his own standards so people get on his back when he doesn't score a perfect hat-trick every game. 

[sparrow1988]

36 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

A goal and an assist. What on earth are people expecting?

He is always a complete nuisance for defenders, and we would be a much worse team without him. Some beautiful footwork too at times.

I think his impact on a game is underestimated.

I agree. He is definitely the best option up front. I will say one thing though, credit for the assist is pushing it. It was a 5 yd pass followed by a 50 yard run and finish. He's in my fantasy team so I won't argue that point too much.

[avfc1982am]

I don't necessarily agree that his lack of form in some peoples eyes is his fault. I think our delivery from wide has been pretty shocking this season. He's not scoring the goals because the delivery isn't there as much. 

[KangarooVillan]

Would still love to see Ings and Watkins swaps roles with Ings dropping into the deeper role last night.

[AntrimBlack]

17 minutes ago, KangarooVillan said:

Would still love to see Ings and Watkins swaps roles with Ings dropping into the deeper role last night.

I realise that Ings is a really good striker, but when he comes on we always look a bit disjointed.

I am not sure that he suits a `Gerrard' team, but he is clearly an amazing back up if Watkins is unavailable.

[nick76]

1 hour ago, El-Reacho said:

Yeah - I guess he's set his own standards so people get on his back when he doesn't score a perfect hat-trick every game. 

I think that’s a little unfair. I think a fair criticism of him is that aside from his goals he’s not been at the level he was last season generally.

[Viloon]

An assist! Do me a favour, so by playing a 3 yard lay off on the half way line is an assist now? Ramsay assisted himself that goal with the run and finish. 

Watkins loses the ball way too often for me, has terrible decision making and quite often breaks down our play.

His work rate is excellent and his awareness/positioning is also good,.

I do feel to break top 6/8 we need a better striker up there who is more technical and able to hold the ball up better and who knows when the better option is in front of him.

[Sam-AVFC]

Great physically. Average technically. Dreadful awareness. 

He can easily improve on the last 2 if he works at it. If he can improve his finishing then the poor decisions he makes become less relevant. If his finishing doesn't improve he really needs to pay more attention to his teammates. He seems to get less and less willing to pass when on a poor scoring run or having a bad game. Maybe it would be as simple to improve as having him work with a psychologist.

He has a very well rounded skillset, but if he's going to be our lone striker I'd like him to be a bit better in front of goal.

[PaulC]

 

2 hours ago, AntrimBlack said:

A goal and an assist. What on earth are people expecting?

He is always a complete nuisance for defenders, and we would be a much worse team without him. Some beautiful footwork too at times.

I think his impact on a game is underestimated.

Yes his impact is massive

[villalad21]

Another dig at Smith?

 

[TRO]

On 15/12/2021 at 12:06, Viloon said:

An assist! Do me a favour, so by playing a 3 yard lay off on the half way line is an assist now? Ramsay assisted himself that goal with the run and finish. 

Watkins loses the ball way too often for me, has terrible decision making and quite often breaks down our play.

His work rate is excellent and his awareness/positioning is also good,.

I do feel to break top 6/8 we need a better striker up there who is more technical and able to hold the ball up better and who knows when the better option is in front of him.

I really like Ollie, but I can see some of the shortfalls in his game this season.....He does need to stay on the ball more.....he has a bit of work to do at BMH imo.

[Steero113]

26 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Another dig at Smith?

 

Another? Where was the first? 

A player who was brought into a club not once but twice by Deano, the second time as a record transfer. The same Deano who nurtured Ollie and oversaw his rise into the England squad. A player who has only ever publicly had positive things to say about his former manager. Perhaps he's just happy in his current situation and likes the system he's playing in and how it suits his mindset? That doesn't mean that he's "having a dig" because it may be different to how Dean set up. 

Ollie seems like a genuine guy who has had to work his way up through the football pyramid to get to the PL. I would think that he has a massive amount of respect for the manager who effectively got him there. 

Seems like it may be perhaps you who is conjuring up these digs in your seemingly relentless search for attention?

You'd make a good tabloid journalist. 

Edited December 16, 2021 by Steero113

[MaVilla]

26 minutes ago, TRO said:

I really like Ollie, but I can see some of the shortfalls in his game this season.....He does need to stay on the ball more.....he has a bit of work to do at BMH imo.

i think Watkins is a very good player, but he does have some major flaws in his game, its 50/50 whether he holds up a ball or it bounces off him, and either he is seriously greedy and doesnt like passing, or he lacks vision, we had another scenario in the Norwich match where Targett was entirely free and Watkins chose to shoot rather than pass to a team mate clearly unmarked and free, thats three exactly similar scenarios in recent matches (and ofc he did well to score in one of those scenarios).

I like Watkins, he is a good player, but he does have some big flaws in his game that hopefully he will sort out.

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

Strange that he said Gerrard hasnt spoke to him much.

[nick76]

1 hour ago, MaVilla said:

i think Watkins is a very good player, but he does have some major flaws in his game, its 50/50 whether he holds up a ball or it bounces off him, and either he is seriously greedy and doesnt like passing, or he lacks vision, we had another scenario in the Norwich match where Targett was entirely free and Watkins chose to shoot rather than pass to a team mate clearly unmarked and free, thats three exactly similar scenarios in recent matches (and ofc he did well to score in one of those scenarios).

I like Watkins, he is a good player, but he does have some big flaws in his game that hopefully he will sort out.

Completely agree, these flaws are holding him back and it’s all within his hands to fix.  The flaw I think he’ll struggle to completely fix is to be a clinical finisher.  The simple flaws though he needs to sort quickly or it’ll hurt his career, feels like he’s regressed this season compared to last season.

[Keyblade]

41 minutes ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

Strange that he said Gerrard hasnt spoke to him much.

Reminds me of when Ramsey said Gerrard didn't say anything to him about his goal at half time. A man of few words our gaffer  

[Zatman]

46 minutes ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

Strange that he said Gerrard hasnt spoke to him much.

Gerrard taking the Rafa approach

[tinker]

9 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Reminds me of when Ramsey said Gerrard didn't say anything to him about his goal at half time. A man of few words our gaffer  

He doesn't  congratulate players for doing their jobs, when they step up a level and do it to win in a final or top 4 they may get a "well done". Stevie G, the winning machine.