Popular Post Rich192 Posted December 18, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted December 18, 2020 We need to get the ball to him in shooting positions more. Sounds simple, but we’ve not managed it recently. What he does do though, is drag the defenders out of position with his runs, which in turn gave Grealish, El Ghazi and Traore loads of space for shots. It’s not his fault they didn’t score any of them. My only gripe with him so far is his passing, but that will come. He’s had a very good start to a new league. I’d be tempted to see him and Traore switch positions in game occasionally, if we’re unable to score a goal like last night, just to get him in the game more, as he’d probably have more chances off the wing than up top. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinho123 Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Might be worth playing him on the right with Davis up top at times. I don't think Smith will do it though. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 3 hours ago, Delphinho123 said: Might be worth playing him on the right with Davis up top at times. I don't think Smith will do it though. I'd give it a go. Watkins always seems to be in the wrong place at the right time or vice versa at the moment. Players never put the ball in when he's there, and do when he has pulled out wide to get involved. I assume he didn't do that last night as Watkins wasn't fresh enough to be a threat on the wing at the end of the game. He looked shattered, as must of our team did in the last 15 mins or so. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 3 hours ago, Delphinho123 said: Might be worth playing him on the right with Davis up top at times. I don't think Smith will do it though. I said last night in the match thread , I'd actually put him in the role that Jack played last night and put Jack back out on the left where he is more of a threat Davis up top can win some balls and bully some defenders ..Ollie has some skills and some pace and can run at defenders rather than trying to compete for high balls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 I think when we is fit and can consistently start we may seem him up top and ollie back on the wing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Only problem with moving him to wing and putting Davis up top is that Davis is a bit shit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rightdm00 Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Anyone have a place to look up crosses per game and compare seasons. I just have this feeling that last season our main form of attacking was sending in dangerous crosses from the flanks, mainly from the FBs over lapping. Now that Grealish has upped his goal threat I feel we are taking far more shots but of a lower quality. When teams put 6 or 7 players in the box to defend we seem fine with taking shots around the 18. If we are going to raise our attacking threat we will need to generate more chances like the first Arsenal goal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 (edited) Watkins is fantastic. Don't care what anyone says. Nothing needs to change. Play watkins up top and Grealish, Trezeguet/Traore wide Edited December 18, 2020 by villalad21 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AV82 Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 17 hours ago, kidlewis said: Watkins needs early crosses in the box to have an impact, it really isn’t rocket science. we need to cross more and cross early. We don’t do half of that we need to be offering far more balls into the box for a striker like Ollie. If we don’t then we need a different striker Watkin's disallowed goal against West Ham came from such a cross. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 5 hours ago, Delphinho123 said: Might be worth playing him on the right with Davis up top at times. I don't think Smith will do it though. Sorry mate, I couldn’t disagree more. Move our goal scoring striker to the wing and play an injury prone, non-goal scoring, not good enough player in his position. Davis shouldn’t be getting anywhere near the first XI. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rightdm00 Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 5 minutes ago, AV82 said: Watkin's disallowed goal against West Ham came from such a cross. A cross I feel like we used to do more of last season. That and the worm burners from Targett overlapping Grealish. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AV82 Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 2 hours ago, Rightdm00 said: A cross I feel like we used to do more of last season. That and the worm burners from Targett overlapping Grealish. Doesn't help that we're now dominating teams causing them to sit deep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 He’s looked uncomfortable on the ball when he doesn’t have a pass which leads me to think he’ll struggle out wide. He doesn’t have an attribute that jumps out at the moment. Quite good at a few things, but not fantastic, yet! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 4 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said: Only problem with moving him to wing and putting Davis up top is that Davis is a bit shit. Long term though say Tammy Abraham becomes available and he wants to join us with Jack still around we'd be mad not to do that even if Ollie gets 10-15 goals. Tammy would come in as the CF and Ollie would have to go out wide, that's how it works at clubs serious about challenging and winning trophies. We're obivously a bit off that currently but we are now moving forward and I'd like us to show a bit more ruthless streak so we're still not waiting for things to happen in five years time. Chelsea could've just been happy with Giroud, Tammy and Pulisic as forward options but they went out and got Timo Werner aswell. We're going to be needing much more strength in depth upfront if we want to play europa in next 2-3 years and I assume that's a realistic short term goal from the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 25 minutes ago, Genie said: He’s looked uncomfortable on the ball when he doesn’t have a pass which leads me to think he’ll struggle out wide. He doesn’t have an attribute that jumps out at the moment. Quite good at a few things, but not fantastic, yet! Really? I’ve seen him skip past defenders time and time again. I think the only problem with Watkins is the fee we paid. People want more. I think he’s been brilliant for us. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liono Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Watkins plays miles better when Barkley is in the team - at least Ross gets close to him. He lacks support in central areas. He will start scoring again soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonesy7211 Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Judging a forward by goals output alone is not an accurate measurement in the way we play. He defends from the front, moves into the channels to create space, and also links play. Very impressed with his start at the Villa, the fee doesn't bother me one ounce. I think he's hampered by the lack of vision we have in any player not named Grealish. When the rest of the team know where to play the ball for him in time, I think we'll start to see even more from him. We can't move him out wide for Davis. I like Davis, but we'd be much weaker going forward in the current system. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughable Chimp Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 (edited) 5 hours ago, Rightdm00 said: Anyone have a place to look up crosses per game and compare seasons. I just have this feeling that last season our main form of attacking was sending in dangerous crosses from the flanks, mainly from the FBs over lapping. Now that Grealish has upped his goal threat I feel we are taking far more shots but of a lower quality. When teams put 6 or 7 players in the box to defend we seem fine with taking shots around the 18. If we are going to raise our attacking threat we will need to generate more chances like the first Arsenal goal. https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/8228/Stages/18685/TeamStatistics/England-Premier-League-2020-2021 https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/8228/Stages/18685/TeamStatistics/England-Premier-League-2019-2020 You still have to navigate the site a bit to reach the stats you're concerned with. But basically, it says we've put in an average of 24.6 crosses per game compared to 21 last season.So we've put in more crosses per game this season. Our accurate crosses ratio is virtually identical to last season though with 22% of our crosses being accurate for both seasons. You're right that we are taking more shots per game this season compared to last season though. 15.9 shots per game this season compared to 12 last season. As to whether the shots we are taking of lower quality, that's a harder question to answer. But the xG stats does suggest that the chances we've been getting this season are of similar quality to last season and that we are doing a better job converting them this season. Even discounting xG, just looking at the average amount of shots we take per goals scored this season suggests we are doing better at converting our chances. On average we scored close to 1 goal for every 10 shots last season, whilst we're scoring an average of 1 goal for every 8 shots taken this season. That said, I feel like its mostly the Liverpool match being such an anomaly that's making our conversion rate look so good. If we removed that match from the calculations, I'm guessing we'll probably look worse than last season. But I'm not sure I'd be justified in trying to ignore the Liverpool result when calculating the averages. Edited December 18, 2020 by Laughable Chimp 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momo Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 Watkins needs a year or two. Maybe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidlewis Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 2 hours ago, AV82 said: Doesn't help that we're now dominating teams causing them to sit deep. All the more reason to release early. If teams sit deep or keep their shape then any chinks they present are unlocked with early passes. unless you have a player like KDB or Silva then it doesn’t really matter. (We have Grealish) but however gold Grealish is, if he’s on the left side and the ball is with the right winger he can’t do a lot... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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