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Ollie Watkins


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5 hours ago, Pinebro said:

Who cares about a friendly. Irrelevant.

It's not about the friendly. That's just the latest example. The guy is a problem when it comes to finishing and we need to do something about it. 

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9 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Didn't he have a really nice finish disallowed? People are always clamouring for Tammy, yet he's the exact same. Needs many chances to score.

Tammy's all round game is just as bad as well. No thank you to him.

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2 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

It's not just finishing that he has as a weakness though is it?

I don't see many weaknesses apart from that? Bit slow on the ball sometimes. Other than outside of Salah, Kane, Son, Haaland over the last 3 seasons he's up there for goals 

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9 minutes ago, messi11 said:

I don't see many weaknesses apart from that? Bit slow on the ball sometimes. Other than outside of Salah, Kane, Son, Haaland over the last 3 seasons he's up there for goals 

Really? Baffling.

His all round game is pretty bad, his touch is often poor, and he lacks footballing intelligence.

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Didn’t see the friendly but thought he has been class in the competitive games I’ve seen him in since Gerrard got the boot, so happy to wait and see how he does for Emery. His running for Bailey’s goal against Man United is my favourite piece of bullying a defender in a while.

Edited by Adam2003
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2 hours ago, Mazrim said:

But if he wastes them, what's the point?

Because he doesn't waste all of them and because he offers so much more than just goals but your average football fan won't notice that but managers will. 

Unai is gonna love Ollie whether fans likes it or not. 

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2 hours ago, messi11 said:

I don't see many weaknesses apart from that? Bit slow on the ball sometimes. Other than outside of Salah, Kane, Son, Haaland over the last 3 seasons he's up there for goals 

Mainly thanks to one spell of about 6 months.  Also if you look at his goal contributions rather than just goals - his record becomes pretty poor.  I think he was something like 30th for totla goal contributions in that period.  His poor positioning in the box and touch are big issues - he doesn't score enough tap ins because he always seem to be behind the defender rather than in front of them and I think he plays so much with his head down looking at the ball that he misses simple passes to others that would up his assists.  I'd be less worried about his finishing if he was creating loads of goals for players around him - but that isn't really the case.

I think he could still play an important role here and some of those issues can be (at least) partially addressed through good coaching.  But I think he needs to be someone that we are bringing on after 60/65 minutes rather than our main man.  There will also be matches / match situations where his strengths will be an important asset for us.  Maybe a spell on the bench will also take some of the pressure off him - I suspect that someone like UE is much better at the whole man management thing and explaining to players how valuable they are even if they aren't on the pitch at the start of the match.  (A bit like how rugby have starters and finishers.)

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8 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

Because he doesn't waste all of them and because he offers so much more than just goals but your average football fan won't notice that but managers will. 

Unai is gonna love Ollie whether fans likes it or not. 

I know what you are saying but if we are genuinely aiming to try and finish in the Top 8 and ultimately challenge the Top 6 we just don't score enough goals.  Most of the teams in the top 8 last season scored 10 goals more than us last season - the Top 4 scored 20 or 30 more goals, the top 2 more than 40 more goals.  Clearly, one player isn't going to bridge that gap.  As per my post above you can accept a striker who doesn't score quite as many if they are getting loads of assists - but Ollie's assist record is atrocious.  The question is whether if we play better you (not you personally) think Ollie will score more and help us bridge that goal scoring gap or whether Ollie is one of the reasons why our goals for record is not very impressive.

I think it is somewhere between the two.  I think we desperately need a new attacker (whether that be a striker, wide attacker, whatever) who will score more goals and who is also better at linking up with others and getting more assists - whilst there will be times when the strengths that Ollie does have will suit particular games / situations.  He may also benefit from being under less pressure to score and suddenly rediscover his scoring boots.  

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22 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

Unai is gonna love Ollie whether fans likes it or not. 

I think the opposite, I think Unai will appreciate his work rate but will get frustrated by his goal ratio and poor footballing IQ, the latter more so.  Unai likes technically good players, Ollie isn’t that.

Edited by nick76
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