Ollie Watkins

[Made In Aston]

On 17/04/2023 at 14:14, Pinebro said:

Imo

Better than Benteke 

Better than carew 

Different type of striker. Better than Gabby is closer (although that is a low bar) 

[wict01]

2 hours ago, Panto_Villan said:

I mean Watkins has only been at the top of his game for a max of half a season, so Benteke is still well on top there.

Watkins is looking great these days but he’s doing it with much better players around him, playing in a proper formation organised by a far better coach.

Put Watkins in the Lambert team and we go straight down imo. Benteke was a special talent who kept us up by himself one season.

Maybe Watkins is a better striker for the system we have right now, but Tekkers was the better player for us overall.

This is my take on it too. I think Benteke is still the best, but my favourite is Ollie by some distance! 

[ChesterDad]

6 hours ago, Zatman said:

You make it sound like he was poor for a very long time

He was poor only for one year playing under a clown and still hit double figures

He was - not sure how else to define this, one year is a long time in football. Sure everyone is on board right now and it’s fantastic to have a striker performing so well - but let’s have it right please. 

[tinker]

26 minutes ago, ChesterDad said:

He was - not sure how else to define this, one year is a long time in football. Sure everyone is on board right now and it’s fantastic to have a striker performing so well - but let’s have it right please. 

You have a very nostalgic view over Benteke, he scored 43 over 3 seasons, including  penalties, Ollies scored 39 over 3 seasons (no penalties) and still has some games to go for his 3rd season. Ollie plays a high press game , Benteke was a good striker but he never added that to his game, he would not get in this team even in his prime. 

Ollie is a better forward player and I watched Benteke from the very beginning. 

[Panto_Villan]

2 minutes ago, tinker said:

You have a very nostalgic view over Benteke, he scored 43 over 3 seasons, including  penalties, Ollies scored 39 over 3 seasons (no penalties) and still has some games to go for his 3rd season. Ollie plays a high press game , Benteke was a good striker but he never added that to his game, he would not get in this team even in his prime. 

Ollie is a better forward player and I watched Benteke from the very beginning. 

Those figures are misleading. Benteke scored 43 goals in 89 appearances (6 penalties), while Ollie has 39 in 103 games (3 penalties).

But the key thing is Benteke had to create most of his goals himself. Here's his highlight reel - look at how many of them were scored from outside the box, or involve him running half the pitch by himself and slotting past the keeper, or are just some insane volley in the box. He doesn't have Grealish or Buendia creating chances for him, he's playing alongside superstars like Andreas Weimann.

I like Watkins a lot but the vast majority of his goals are him finishing chances in the box that have been created by someone else. There's no way he'd have scored half of Benteke's goals.

If Emery had access to a player like Benteke there's absolutely no way he wouldn't play him. And he never added pressing to his game because he never played in a Villa team that played that way; under Emery he might have been perfectly capable of doing it.

[Sulberto21]

4 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said:

Those figures are misleading. Benteke scored 43 goals in 89 appearances (6 penalties), while Ollie has 39 in 103 games (3 penalties).

But the key thing is Benteke had to create most of his goals himself. Here's his highlight reel - look at how many of them were scored from outside the box, or involve him running half the pitch by himself and slotting past the keeper, or are just some insane volley in the box. He doesn't have Grealish or Buendia creating chances for him, he's playing alongside superstars like Andreas Weimann.

I like Watkins a lot but the vast majority of his goals are him finishing chances in the box that have been created by someone else. There's no way he'd have scored half of Benteke's goals.

If Emery had access to a player like Benteke there's absolutely no way he wouldn't play him. And he never added pressing to his game because he never played in a Villa team that played that way; under Emery he might have been perfectly capable of doing it.

Liverpool played that way though hence Klopp got rid. It’s all about the gegenpressing. 

[Panto_Villan]

Just now, Sulberto21 said:

Liverpool played that way though hence Klopp got rid. It’s all about the gegenpressing. 

Wasn't he knackered from injury at that point though? 

I'm not arguing that Benteke was a good footballer throughout his career, just that the time he was at Villa (especially the time before he did his Achilles) he was our best striker of the modern era. The player that left us was a shadow of the one that joined us.

[Mantis]

Prime Benteke was better in terms of talent IMO but Watkins has a much better fitness record/work ethic.

[duke313]

36 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said:

Those figures are misleading. Benteke scored 43 goals in 89 appearances (6 penalties), while Ollie has 39 in 103 games (3 penalties).

But the key thing is Benteke had to create most of his goals himself. Here's his highlight reel - look at how many of them were scored from outside the box, or involve him running half the pitch by himself and slotting past the keeper, or are just some insane volley in the box. He doesn't have Grealish or Buendia creating chances for him, he's playing alongside superstars like Andreas Weimann.

I like Watkins a lot but the vast majority of his goals are him finishing chances in the box that have been created by someone else. There's no way he'd have scored half of Benteke's goals.

If Emery had access to a player like Benteke there's absolutely no way he wouldn't play him. And he never added pressing to his game because he never played in a Villa team that played that way; under Emery he might have been perfectly capable of doing it.

Benteke in this Emery team would be like prime Drogba 

[Adam2003]

Roses are red

Violets are blue 

On 17/04/2023 at 09:14, Pinebro said:

Better than Benteke 

Better than carew 

 

[tinker]

7 hours ago, Panto_Villan said:

Those figures are misleading. Benteke scored 43 goals in 89 appearances (6 penalties), while Ollie has 39 in 103 games (3 penalties).

But the key thing is Benteke had to create most of his goals himself. Here's his highlight reel - look at how many of them were scored from outside the box, or involve him running half the pitch by himself and slotting past the keeper, or are just some insane volley in the box. He doesn't have Grealish or Buendia creating chances for him, he's playing alongside superstars like Andreas Weimann.

I like Watkins a lot but the vast majority of his goals are him finishing chances in the box that have been created by someone else. There's no way he'd have scored half of Benteke's goals.

If Emery had access to a player like Benteke there's absolutely no way he wouldn't play him. And he never added pressing to his game because he never played in a Villa team that played that way; under Emery he might have been perfectly capable of doing it.

There not misleading, when your measuring how affective a player is you have to take all factors in and that includes injuries.  If Benteke was here now we would have to have 2 strikers for when he got injured.  Bentekes best season for us was his first , he scored 19, 10 the next and 13 the in the last. 

[ChesterDad]

9 hours ago, tinker said:

You have a very nostalgic view over Benteke, he scored 43 over 3 seasons, including  penalties, Ollies scored 39 over 3 seasons (no penalties) and still has some games to go for his 3rd season. Ollie plays a high press game , Benteke was a good striker but he never added that to his game, he would not get in this team even in his prime. 

Ollie is a better forward player and I watched Benteke from the very beginning. 

I don’t think I have mentioned Benteke at all until now ? But for what’s it’s worth I would say he was better than Ollie - now who knows Ollie might well become a better player - fingers crossed. 

[skarroki]

Definite recency bias saying Watkins is better than Benteke. The lad was absolutely unplayable on his day. I remember thinking for about 6 months straight that we were gonna be taking bids from the likes of Munich, Barca and Madrid, and that if he was staying in England he could essentially pick any team and walk into their attack. 

I remember thinking he might not be the same after his injury and then he scored an absolute worldie overhead kick for Liverpool in pre-season and just wondering how many he'd hit on his way to the golden boot. 

Watkins is not in that bracket, you're looking at a striker that a lot of Villa fans and friends I have who support other teams often comment when watching Villa that he's a hard worker but couldn't finish a sentence. There was a section of fans saying Watkins was the worse of the two strikers as Ings left for £15mil. There were quite a lot of calls for Archer to be given the starting striker role ahead of Watkins up to the point he went to Middlesbrough 3 months ago. 

All this to say, anyone doing an "I told you so" about Watkins is full of it. Nobody hear thought he was better than Benteke until we started going on this run. Heck, I'd say there's a majority of fans who would have swapped him for Abraham for the vast majority of Watkins time here. 

The important thing is that he's really found his feet and his confidence now, he's a real confidence player so we need him fit and healthy and happy every week. I'm really glad he's come good and I'm looking forward to more of it. 

[PieFacE]

Could be guff but....
 

 

[Cizzler]

My post history is littered with me lambasting Watkins (and his "inability to finish") - so only fair I swallow some humble pie. He's been absolutely fantastic since the World Cup.

He's playing at a level I didn't think he was capable of. Probably a lesson for me to weigh in how much impact a good manager actually has on a player (as I was similarly slating McGinn who's also been brilliant post-Emery).

He's a centre back's nightmare when he plays like this. He's still not a natural finisher in my opinion... However, can't argue with his record at the moment.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Cizzler

[Roitorb]

I admit I was against Ollie as I thought he’s first touch and finishing was terrible. He’s proved me wrong and long may it continue!!

[MrBlack]

I have called Watkins shit in one or two of the match threads during his games under Gerrard.  I didn't caveat it with, at the moment.  Or with the blame directed at Gerrard at the time. 

But I knew there was a player in there.  I've consistently throughout this thread said that under a coach that knows how to motivate him we have a potential star. I've also called out his scoring record in this final championship season as a guide to what he is capable of:

Quote

Every single one of his 26 goals came from open play and when you exclude penalties, Watkins scored more league goals than any other player in English football last season.

16 were scored from inside the penalty area, eight from inside the six-yard box, with two coming from long-range.

Watkins is more than capable with both feet, scoring 10 with his right foot, seven with his left foot and eight with his head.

Seems Emery has unlocked the potential that was always there, and we're now seeing the results of that. He's more likely to score than not in each game we have left.

Long may it continue.

[KentVillan]

Ollie's fitness and injury record are part of what makes him a great player. Bit like Lampard at Chelsea... the ability to play a huge volume of games, full 90 mins, for a whole season, is part of the player's value.

Add in the goalscoring under Emery, and he becomes a really special asset. But his goalscoring record since joining has been absolutely fine.

[ThunderPower_14]

Benteke was a force of nature. He basically single handedly kept an absolutely dogshit squad up a couple of seasons in a row there. He was a 1 in 2 striker in one of the worst squads and squad cultures the Prem has ever seen.

Under Emery, I think Ollie has stepped up to being as good if not better. Just can't be stopped at the moment.

Prime Benteke was a genuinely elite striker. It's a shame that he was chewed up and spat out at Liverpool in a setup that didn't suit him.

[sidcow]

54 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

Could be guff but....
 

 

If a cartoon head says he's signing I believe him. 

I've seen Max Headroom