Popular Post Keyblade Posted September 16, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted September 16, 2023 1 minute ago, Tom13 said: No, he doesn't! His passing is poor, his touch is poor. Yes he brings energy, but this is simply not true. So many moves break down because of his ability to make the right decision quickly, or to execute it. There is no striker out there other than Kane who knits play together and has great passing ability. Possibly Toney, but he's out. His passing is serviceable, but his movement and pressing is crucial to our team even when on the ball he has frustrating days like today. Like I'm not sure what you're expecting. He's been involved in 5 goals so far this season and won 2 penalties, in a team that has scored 19 goals so far this season. I'm not worried about our strikers at the moment at all. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
It's Your Round Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 (edited) If Watkins is so poor, then why are we all so complementary of Unai Emery? He keeps picking Watkins and rates him highly, what does that say about the gaffer? Edited September 16, 2023 by It's Your Round 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 How the **** did he miss that first shot on target when Palace lost the ball. As good as kicked it in the keepers hands, no one misses them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom13 Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 1 minute ago, It's Your Round said: If Watkins is so poor, then why are we all so complementary of Unai Emery? He keeps picking Watkins and rates him highly, what does that say about the gaffer? He has one blindspot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotoMkali Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 1 hour ago, villa4europe said: Apart from it's not ponderous, it's controlled and designed to pull them out from being set Watkins problem is that he's often up against 2 CBs who have no interest in it, the likes of Diaby benefit hugely from it and the fact that Watkins occupies the CBs, then once that trap is sprung they should be looking to feed it in to watkins It'll come, villa fans seemingly have an unrealistic expectation as to what our striker will be, who else is out there etc and I'm not sure why as we've hardly been spoiled by strikers in the past Said before Liverpool have their own version of Watkins upfront, he cost £82m, this perfect guaranteed goalscorer that people pine for doesnt exist, Watkins is just about good enough (and to pre empt the "unai won't settle for good enough" guff, unai will know exactly what the striker market is right now) It absolutely is ponderous though. We draw the defence across and then when we switch play it takes about a minute. 2 crisp passes and we'd have a 2 on one on the other side of the pitch. Our tempo is so low in a lot of ways. When you are very deep it works. As you've got the space to draw them onto you and then play a couple of passes not particularly quickly and you still have an advantage. But at the half way line we are squandering our advantage but taking 10 seconds every time to capitalise on it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 You can see the difference in quality between Watkins and Diaby in today's game. Watkins is full of running and effort, but his first touch is usually terrible and his decision making quite suspect. He goes on far too many runs of games when he doesn't look like scoring. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomav84 Posted September 16, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted September 16, 2023 Ollie is doing just fine. The goals will come and was very close today. He offers more than Duran IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don_Simon Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 47 minutes ago, Keyblade said: He's a 1 in 3 striker for us, and 1 in 2 under Emery. I'm pretty happy with that yes, given what else he offers. Not answering my question. Let's try again... he's one in 12. On course for 3.2 goals for the season (or thereabouts). Content with that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 12 minutes ago, tomav84 said: Ollie is doing just fine. The goals will come and was very close today. He offers more than Duran IMO He's not though really is he? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 19 minutes ago, Don_Simon said: Not answering my question. Let's try again... he's one in 12. On course for 3.2 goals for the season (or thereabouts). Content with that? There was a period where he had like 11 goals in 13 games last season. By this logic he would have been on course for 32 goals in a season. That's not how it works. Players can have streaky purple patches, and barren runs, especially strikers. The truth is closer to the middle of these 2 extremes. I'm not going to judge him on a 5 game goal return, especially when a.) I have a body of work spanning 3 seasons at Villa to reference and b.) he's contributed in other crucial ways including getting multiple assists. Zeroing in on a 5 game run seems to rather be missing the forest for the trees. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 1 goal in 12 games in the league now isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post HanoiVillan Posted September 16, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted September 16, 2023 2 hours ago, Adam2003 said: The one he curled onto the post was absolutely beautiful. More then deserved a goal. Would think he’ll get up to 4/5 for the season in Warsaw and then hopefully kick on. We’ve scored 19 in 7 games with him as our main striker, several of them assisted by him, so regardless of his streak if anyone thinks he’s not contributing it’s confirmation bias. Lot of noise and shouting in this thread, but the bolded is really the only thing that matters. In fact, we can take it further, and note that we've only failed to score in 3 league games under Emery, almost all of which have featured Watkins starting up front. We attack and defend as a team; Watkins' stats are less important than getting 3 points on the board. If he helps the *team* win - and Emery clearly thinks he does - then people should chill out about the rest of it. If we won every game for the rest of the season and Watkins never scored a goal, would you give a shit? 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewiek2 Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 Simply not the answer long term. An inability to lift the ball, hot and cold with form. A wide player converted to a striker. He's been brilliant for us but not the answer for us moving forward. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitvilla Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 41 minutes ago, Risso said: He's not though really is he? Have you ever read or seen articles on the statistics of streaks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomav84 Posted September 17, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted September 17, 2023 1 hour ago, Risso said: He's not though really is he? Plenty of attacking contributions, yes he's doing fine. Who out there that we can realistically get is better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted September 17, 2023 Share Posted September 17, 2023 1 hour ago, Keyblade said: There is no striker out there other than Kane who knits play together and has great passing ability. Possibly Toney, but he's out. His passing is serviceable, but his movement and pressing is crucial to our team even when on the ball he has frustrating days like today. Like I'm not sure what you're expecting. He's been involved in 5 goals so far this season and won 2 penalties, in a team that has scored 19 goals so far this season. I'm not worried about our strikers at the moment at all. I think to evolve though to next step we need more of a Diaby type as CF (if it isn't going to be the man himself). Someone who can constantly drop and link up with the midfield, I think once Zaniolo gets properly used to the pace and physicality we've got some interesting decisions to make in final third. We saw today that in tight games where we might only get one big chance you'd much rather have Diaby through one on one than Ollie. BTW did my eyes deceive me or did MOTD not even show him hitting the post, that was unlucky not to go in. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan_of_oz Posted September 17, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted September 17, 2023 6 minutes ago, tomav84 said: Plenty of attacking contributions, yes he's doing fine. Who out there that we can realistically get is better? This is question that stumps the Ollie detractors everytime. There isn't anyone realistic, not anyone absolutely guaranteed to be better that we could sign. No one! He is still figuring regularly in goal involvements and has won 2 penalties in 5 matches. He's leading the line, and doing his job. It's good enough for Unai and good enough for me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 17, 2023 Share Posted September 17, 2023 3 hours ago, Tom13 said: I'd be surprised tbh. His current streak is 1 in 12 in the league. He has 3 in 6 games already 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Zatman Posted September 17, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted September 17, 2023 Win a game and Watkins doesnt score.....all to the Watkins thread to criticise Super predictable and embarrassing if honest 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rightdm00 Posted September 17, 2023 Share Posted September 17, 2023 It's the new Mings thread. He has 4 assist in 5 games yet all we here is that he hadn't scored yet. The modern game demands so much more of a striker. That's why a natural finisher like Ings can't get a look in. If you are judging him based solely off of goals scored you have it wrong. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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