Ollie Watkins

[MNVillan]

His first touch seems so poor to me. It’s so frustrating, especially against a team like Chelsea where a poor first touch gives the defense an extra second or two to suffocate you and that’s all they need to stop him.

[nick76]

39 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

I just can’t believe how much worse he is than last season. Right now, everything he touches mostly turns to s***.

I just dont get it either, just hope Gerrard fixes it because I really hoped he would be our striker for years but he's just not doing it at the moment.

[MWARLEY2]

He is a strange character. I find it hard to really get behind him. I am sure he is a great guy but there is zero personality to him when you look from afar. And he has caught elghazi itis . Which means he has to shoot at any opportunity and ignore team mates.  

Even last season he would have either really good games or really terrible games. Some of them the ball sticks to him against brilliant defenders and then others he is like a 50p body . The ball just bounces off his body and feet with zero control. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

7 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I just dont get it either, just hope Gerrard fixes it because I really hoped he would be our striker for years but he's just not doing it at the moment.

Could it possibly also be a reality though that, as our levels and expectations increase, we start to recognise flaws in some of these players, which they have actually always had?

Jack might have been a major deflection from this, and helped some look better than they actually we're as well?

Even at Ollie's best, he's always had flaws.

[nick76]

Just now, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Could it possibly also be a reality though that, as our levels and expectations increase, we start to recognise flaws in some of these players, which they have actually always had?

Jack might have been a major deflection from this, and helped some look better than they actually we're as well?

Even at Ollie's best, he's always had flaws.

yeah @WallisFrizz just mentioned the same reasoning in the rating thread about Jack making Ollie look better than he is and I guess I hadnt really though about this. 

Maybe at the end of the season when we have a full season we can make a full judgment on this but it's true he's not looked the same this season and Jack hasnt been here so maybe Jack made him look better than he really is. 

I hope that's not the case but I really need him to get out of this funk he's in and get back to the Ollie we loved last season. 

If it is that Jack made him look good then we have a bigger problem.

[hippo]

He's got his shortcomings - but play him wide and you amplify these.

[WallisFrizz]

4 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Jack might have been a major deflection from this, and helped some look better than they actually we're as well?

Even at Ollie's best, he's always had flaws.

100%. I’ve just said it in the match thread, Jack was brilliant for Ollie. That’s not to say I think he’s rubbish but maybe we overrated him slightly. Still a big fan though. 

[Delphinho123]

I agree that he should play as a striker and nowhere else but let’s not kid ourselves thinking that’s the issue here.

He played there against Palace and was the worst player on the pitch and also against Norwich and was arguably our worst player.

He just doesn’t look like he can trap a bag of cement at the moment and constantly loses the ball. 

I really don’t know what the answer is. I’d be tempted to give Archer a go given the form of Ings and Watkins.

[WallisFrizz]

3 minutes ago, nick76 said:

If it is that Jack made him look good then we have a bigger problem.

Ollie’s good but not a natural finisher so he benefited from having one of the best creative players in the league setting him up repeatedly. He tailed off when Jack was injured too. However, he has loads of assets will be fine. It’s not like his goals have dried up completely.

Today was the first game in a while where I thought how much I miss Jack. He would have  created a magic moment during our dominant periods definitely.

[RaptureJames]

I can't fathom how he has turned into the player that frustrates me the most in game - jack leaving has an effect for sure, El Ghazi-itis was a great phrase @MWARLEY2 - he has not looked like he wants to pass to Ings all season

[AVFCGB]

Tapped up!!!  Arsenal bound, if they  cough up £60-70 million!!!

[WallisFrizz]

4 minutes ago, AVFCGB said:

Tapped up!!!  Arsenal bound, if they  cough up £60-70 million!!!

It wouldn’t surprise me but the money will be a sticking point.

[nick76]

14 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

Ollie’s good but not a natural finisher so he benefited from having one of the best creative players in the league setting him up repeatedly. He tailed off when Jack was injured too. However, he has loads of assets will be fine. It’s not like his goals have dried up completely.

Today was the first game in a while where I thought how much I miss Jack. He would have  created a magic moment during our dominant periods definitely.

I worried during Smith's time this season and now Gerrard's first set of games where the creativity is going to come from.  Bailey has been injured, same with Traore and Buendia hasnt got up to speed.  It's hard to see where that creativity is going to come from at the moment.  Our xG under both managers is showing how little we are creating enough good chances to win games or have a chance of winning games even if we miss a couple of chances.  Our final third on the pitch this season I worry about.

[icouldtelltheworld]

Never a wide player at this level. A talented CF but not at his best this year thus far, despite a decent amount of goals recently 

[nick76]

2 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

It wouldn’t surprise me but the money will be a sticking point.

I wonder what his value is? taking my villa coloured glasses off, what would the board would command in terms of fee.  26 years old in a few days, 3.5 years left on his contract....hmmm

[WallisFrizz]

2 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I worried during Smith's time this season and now Gerrard's first set of games where the creativity is going to come from.  Bailey has been injured, same with Traore and Buendia hasnt got up to speed.  It's hard to see where that creativity is going to come from at the moment.  Our xG under both managers is showing how little we are creating enough good chances to win games or have a chance of winning games even if we miss a couple of chances.  Our final third on the pitch this season I worry about.

It was really nice to see Traore back, he’s a tricky f**ker.

[hippo]

3 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I worried during Smith's time this season and now Gerrard's first set of games where the creativity is going to come from.  Bailey has been injured, same with Traore and Buendia hasnt got up to speed.  It's hard to see where that creativity is going to come from at the moment.  Our xG under both managers is showing how little we are creating enough good chances to win games or have a chance of winning games even if we miss a couple of chances.  Our final third on the pitch this season I worry about.

Yup agree. Emi is keeping scores respectable and in games longer than we should be.

Today we seemed to start with a narrow formation and rely on defence splitting through balls. Once these dried up - we brought on the wide players - but I'm not really sure we ever looked like we knew what we're doing. 

We have the players to be better than what we are showing imo.

[useless]

Of course Grealish didn't make Watkins look good, that would only be possible if Watkins was simply a goal poacher but he's not, there's much more to his game than that, which is why he became so highly rated last season and got called up by England, it wasn't purely because of his goals, because he wasn't that prolific

At this point last season Watkins had scored six goals, that's just one more than he's scored now, this season he's actually scored in more games than he had done at the same stage last season, despite sometimes having to play out of position and all the upheaval going on, he hasn't really been able to play as part of a settled front three as the personnel keep changing.

I haven't seen today's game, but sometimes I think a narrative builds up around a player and then people just look out for things to confirm that narrative, it seems like he's unfairly becoming a bit of a scapegoat.

[hippo]

24 minutes ago, AVFCGB said:

Tapped up!!!  Arsenal bound, if they  cough up £60-70 million!!!

That's the danger - the more we look like a middling going nowhere club -;the more the likes of Ollie and maybe even Martinez will cast a glance elsewhere.....

 

[foreveryoung]

13 minutes ago, useless said:

Of course Grealish didn't make Watkins look good, that would only be possible if Watkins was simply a goal poacher but he's not, there's much more to his game than that, which is why he became so highly rated last season and got called up by England, it wasn't purely because of his goals, because he wasn't that prolific

At this point last season Watkins had scored six goals, that's just one more than he's scored now, this season he's actually scored in more games than he had done at the same stage last season, despite sometimes having to play out of position and all the upheaval going on, he hasn't really been able to play as part of a settled front three as the personnel keep changing.

I haven't seen today's game, but sometimes I think a narrative builds up around a player and then people just look out for things to confirm that narrative, it seems like he's unfairly becoming a bit of a scapegoat.

Missing runs, losing the ball, greedy, not looking sharp. He's not the scapegoat chap. I have seen and expect much more than we are seeing from him. As someone said previously, it's like he has had the child not his Mrs, seems to have faded since then.