Ollie Watkins

[nick76]

10 minutes ago, Oaks said:

Weve brought in one quality player a season. We probably need to speed this up while Keeping Martinez and Kamara (im not ready to judge Carlos yet) We will need to upgrade wide areas, Centre back and someone to play WITH Ollie before Ollie upgraded. As i said thats maybe 18 months to 2.5 years away and i think Emery likes him and his type of player, which is good enogh for me.

Striker is number one priority in my opinion to buy.  Guess we’ll have to wait and see where Emery thinks is priority because we have been speculatively linked with players in a number of positions including the striker position.  None of us know or even have any idea what positions Emery is thinking about.

Edited December 29, 2022 by nick76

[DJBOB]

2 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Ollie is still out best attacking player. What he offers overall is better than Ings, Bailey, Buendia or Coutinho. 

Stats don’t lie about it too. 
 
There are many positions to replace/upgrade before Ollie. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

7 hours ago, nick76 said:

Striker is number one priority in my opinion to buy.  Guess we’ll have to wait and see where Emery thinks is priority because we have been speculatively linked with players in a number of positions including the striker position.  None of us know or even have any idea what positions Emery is thinking about.

This is a fair point. I personally think Emery will be happy with both Watkins and Ings and we won’t sign a striker in January. Only time will tell. 

[Dodgyknees]

Weren’t Wet Ham interested before?

Feel they may look again, and maybe that would be good for us. 

[Zatman]

On 29/12/2022 at 15:59, nick76 said:

So you are saying the next best striker after Haaland is Watkins . There is a whole raft of strikers in between those two in terms of quality.  Never understand why people go to extremes when trying that argument.

People keep saying this and dont really get any solutions. Watkins has a better top flight record than Mitrovic, Scamacca cant hit a barn door for West Ham and cost more than we paid Ollie. 

Watkins walks into a number of Premier League teams including United and probably Chelsea. Not because he is a top striker but because strikers dont exist anymore. Liverpool paid a lot more for Nunez and his finishing is worse than Watkins

[nick76]

4 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Watkins walks into a number of Premier League teams including United and probably Chelsea.

couldn’t take the rest of comment seriously after this line…

[CVByrne]

Three different managers seem to rate him. He's always starting for us. Must be like 95%+ games when fit he's started 

[CVByrne]

Plus what's that 2 goals and an assist from 3 games under Emery 

[Villatillidie95]

I like him a lot but he really has to bring his game back to basics like in his early days here, i feel he may be overthinking things and that blunts his game. We need him to act on instinct and not have too much time to think about where to place the ball. I personally feel he is much better as part of a front 2, he does work hard and we need someone up front to do that sort of thing as we do not have the resources to rely on a poacher as our sole striker...I think we should keep the faith with him, its not ability with him more a mental thing imo......

[Laughable Chimp]

9 hours ago, Zatman said:

People keep saying this and dont really get any solutions. Watkins has a better top flight record than Mitrovic, Scamacca cant hit a barn door for West Ham and cost more than we paid Ollie. 

Watkins walks into a number of Premier League teams including United and probably Chelsea. Not because he is a top striker but because strikers dont exist anymore. Liverpool paid a lot more for Nunez and his finishing is worse than Watkins

Mitrovic's top flight record is a lot better in more recent times than Watkins. Even if you took all the seasons together, Mitrovic's goal return is 0.37 goals per 90 compared to Ollie's 0.33.

Scamacca cost more because he's young and actually performed well in Serie A. Jury is very much still out on him considering its not even half way through his first season and he's still adjusting to the premier league whilst playing in relegation battling West Ham side. Also, he's goal per minute ratio is identical to Ollie's this season still.

Nunez is similar. He's not a bad player at all, and for all the memes people make about his finishing he still blows Ollie's scoring rate out of the water. If his finishing were better(which can absolutely improve) he would've gotten a hatrick against us because our defense could not contain him. 

I actually agree he would get into United and Chelsea's starting 11 or at least be challenging for it. But that's mostly because both teams have massive holes in this part of the squad. United have Rashford, Sancho and Garnacho on the left wing and Rashford is better off up top for them. Sancho is ass right now and jury's still out on Garnacho who is only 18. He would get significant game time here. Chelsea's striker situation is terrible, Ollie would be getting gametime in there,

[nick76]

3 hours ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Mitrovic's top flight record is a lot better in more recent times than Watkins. Even if you took all the seasons together, Mitrovic's goal return is 0.37 goals per 90 compared to Ollie's 0.33.

Scamacca cost more because he's young and actually performed well in Serie A. Jury is very much still out on him considering its not even half way through his first season and he's still adjusting to the premier league whilst playing in relegation battling West Ham side. Also, he's goal per minute ratio is identical to Ollie's this season still.

Nunez is similar. He's not a bad player at all, and for all the memes people make about his finishing he still blows Ollie's scoring rate out of the water. If his finishing were better(which can absolutely improve) he would've gotten a hatrick against us because our defense could not contain him. 

Agree with this

3 hours ago, Laughable Chimp said:

I actually agree he would get into United and Chelsea's starting 11 or at least be challenging for it. But that's mostly because both teams have massive holes in this part of the squad. United have Rashford, Sancho and Garnacho on the left wing and Rashford is better off up top for them. Sancho is ass right now and jury's still out on Garnacho who is only 18. He would get significant game time here. Chelsea's striker situation is terrible, Ollie would be getting gametime in there,

Can’t agree with this at all.  Both Man U and Chelsea are struggling with the striker position but Ollie still wouldn’t get close to starting, he’s just not at that level.  Chelsea have tried Lukaku, Werner and currently with Aubameyang, and Havertz is starting.  They now have Fofana who is unknown in the PL but Ollie would at best be kicking his heels as an unused sub there.  

As for Man U, while he’d have more chance than at Chelsea again he’d be struggling to see any time, he’s just not at that level and soon would be hounded to the bench just like Martial gets pulled off for being ineffective in front of goal and Rashford whose better on the left gets moved up front.  If Ollie was there it would be the same until they get a striker in and Rashford would be upfront, Garnacho on the left and Antony on the right, Ollie wouldn’t get many minutes.

 I don’t see how people think Ollie would get time at a big six team, even at the teams who are struggling in the striker position.  Even based on the speculation we have at Villa there are rumours we want a new striker so god knows how people think Ollie would get material time at a top six club.  His workrate is impressive but his football is and finishing is lower half of the table at best.

[Zatman]

4 hours ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Mitrovic's top flight record is a lot better in more recent times than Watkins. Even if you took all the seasons together, Mitrovic's goal return is 0.37 goals per 90 compared to Ollie's 0.33.

Scamacca cost more because he's young and actually performed well in Serie A. Jury is very much still out on him considering its not even half way through his first season and he's still adjusting to the premier league whilst playing in relegation battling West Ham side. Also, he's goal per minute ratio is identical to Ollie's this season still.

Nunez is similar. He's not a bad player at all, and for all the memes people make about his finishing he still blows Ollie's scoring rate out of the water. If his finishing were better(which can absolutely improve) he would've gotten a hatrick against us because our defense could not contain him. 

I actually agree he would get into United and Chelsea's starting 11 or at least be challenging for it. But that's mostly because both teams have massive holes in this part of the squad. United have Rashford, Sancho and Garnacho on the left wing and Rashford is better off up top for them. Sancho is ass right now and jury's still out on Garnacho who is only 18. He would get significant game time here. Chelsea's striker situation is terrible, Ollie would be getting gametime in there,

I wasnt saying Ollie is elite but it was more that the options for centre forwards at bigger teams are not great either so we are not going to easily pick up some improvement unless we smashed the bank and then somehow convinced a top player to join

On Scamacca I actually think he is a decent prospect but Moyes seems to think he is so tall he is a target man

[Zatman]

59 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Agree with this

Can’t agree with this at all.  Both Man U and Chelsea are struggling with the striker position but Ollie still wouldn’t get close to starting, he’s just not at that level.  Chelsea have tried Lukaku, Werner and currently with Aubameyang, and Havertz is starting.  They now have Fofana who is unknown in the PL but Ollie would at best be kicking his heels as an unused sub there.  

As for Man U, while he’d have more chance than at Chelsea again he’d be struggling to see any time, he’s just not at that level and soon would be hounded to the bench just like Martial gets pulled off for being ineffective in front of goal and Rashford whose better on the left gets moved up front.  If Ollie was there it would be the same until they get a striker in and Rashford would be upfront, Garnacho on the left and Antony on the right, Ollie wouldn’t get many minutes.

 I don’t see how people think Ollie would get time at a big six team, even at the teams who are struggling in the striker position.  Even based on the speculation we have at Villa there are rumours we want a new striker so god knows how people think Ollie would get material time at a top six club.  His workrate is impressive but his football is and finishing is lower half of the table at best.

The point wasnt that Watkins is world class but that these elite teams have been spending a bucketload for years and can't get a striker to work for them. One has Martial as the only striker and the other is playing a converted attacking midfielder. Both have been linked to Morata again so of course Ollie would get game time

If these teams cant find a player what chance do we have of attracting a top striker in a position that isn't producing many players.

[nick76]

18 minutes ago, Zatman said:

so of course Ollie would get game time

No chance, I’m sorry that isn’t true imo

18 minutes ago, Zatman said:

If these teams cant find a player what chance do we have of attracting a top striker in a position that isn't producing many players.

Man U has been a badly run club for years and had incredibly poor managers recently until Ten Hag who looks decent and now looking for a striker.  They won’t be long before they get somebody in now they have ditched Ronaldo.

Chelsea are only looking at the elite of the elite and heavens knows why Lukaku or Werner didn’t work but they didn’t, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and get another striker.  Ollie is not in Chelsea’s category and would get close to their first XI.  

You also only pick those two teams to fit your narrative and still fail.  Ollie isn’t a goalscorer, he’s not a finisher and his football IQ is poor.  He lives very well off his workrate and that really benefits our team but is it enough?!?! I think not, just because a couple of teams are struggling with their goalscoring department doesn’t we shouldn’t try and fix ours…

Edited January 1, 2023 by nick76

[Zatman]

19 minutes ago, nick76 said:

No chance, I’m sorry that isn’t true imo

Man U has been a badly run club for years and had incredibly poor managers recently until Ten Hag who looks decent and now looking for a striker.  They won’t be long before they get somebody in now they have ditched Ronaldo.

Chelsea are only looking at the elite of the elite and heavens knows why Lukaku or Werner didn’t work but they didn’t, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and get another striker.  Ollie is not in Chelsea’s category and would get close to their first XI.  

You also only pick those two teams to fit your narrative and still fail.  Ollie isn’t a goalscorer, he’s not a finisher and his football IQ is poor.  He lives very well off his workrate and that really benefits our team but is it enough?!?! I think not, just because a couple of teams are struggling with their goalscoring department doesn’t we shouldn’t try and fix ours…

What narrative? Again nobody said he should be playing for these teams at that level. Its just that strikers arent easy to sign and a lot around the Premier League are crap. Spurs are similar to them but got lucky as struck gold with Kane in the youth team

Since he signed for Villa only 2 actual strikers have more Premier League goals in that time and thats Kane and Vardy

[nick76]

21 minutes ago, Zatman said:

What narrative? Again nobody said he should be playing for these teams at that level. Its just that strikers arent easy to sign and a lot around the Premier League are crap. Spurs are similar to them but got lucky as struck gold with Kane in the youth team

Since he signed for Villa only 2 actual strikers have more Premier League goals in that time and thats Kane and Vardy

Oh great, so he has a good first season made look better by Grealish and then been not so good since and comparing him to strikers who if you go through most teams haven’t been playing in the league all that time, have been injured a lot or you exclude because they are wide forwards rather than the old fashioned striker you are trying to make a point with.  Surprised you aren’t excluding Kane from the analysis as he plays as a deeper forward these days so Ollie would only be behind Vardy then and I’m sure there is some reason you can exclude Vardy and make Ollie the top striker.  Ollie misses too many chances, looks poor when he gets chances, if you can’t see that the we aren’t going to see eye to eye and yes it’s hard to find a striker but we should at least try…it a big problem for us!

Edit: look don’t get me wrong, I like Ollie he’s just become highly frustrating for the last 18 months.  Yes Gerrard, I get that and we didn’t create as many chances as we should for a long time but Ollie was so poor when he got chances, he wasn’t in the right places when chances we created and his finishing technique was terrible. If he could improve his finishing into something normal to go with his excellent workrate and pressing then we have a striker but going to the ground and watching him just fills me will no confidence.  He’ll probably score a brace today me saying this but I’d like a striker to play in between Ollie and Bailey because I think we need Ollie’s workrate but we need that striker in the middle of the box.

Edited January 1, 2023 by nick76

[Zatman]

12 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Oh great, so he has a good first season made look better by Grealish and then been not so good since and comparing him to strikers who if you go through most teams haven’t been playing in the league all that time, have been injured a lot or you exclude because they are wide forwards rather than the old fashioned striker you are trying to make a point with.  Surprised you aren’t excluding Kane from the analysis as he plays as a deeper forward these days so Ollie would only be behind Vardy then and I’m sure there is some reason you can exclude Vardy and make Ollie the top striker.  Ollie misses too many chances, looks poor when he gets chances, if you can’t see that the we aren’t going to see eye to eye and yes it’s hard to find a striker but we should at least try…it a big problem for us!

We did try his name is Danny Ings

People on here are way too critical of Ollie that if they looked around they can see is really not that many better alternatives that we can attract

Also because of how Watkins plays our wide players like Anwar, Traore and Bailey were getting chances to score until captain clearing in the woods got rid of our wide players. Bailey is getting about 2 chances a game now

Edited January 1, 2023 by Zatman

[nick76]

2 minutes ago, Zatman said:

People on here are way too critical of Ollie that if they looked around they can see is really not that many better alternatives that we can attract

I don’t believe that

[Zatman]

2 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I don’t believe that

Yet Chelsea, United, Brighton, Crystal Palace, Spurs, Leicester, Wolves, West Ham, Southampton and Everton when they went into the market recently havent signed a good one

They cant all have bad scouting

[useless]

Why do people keep babbling on about getting rid of our wide players, none of them were good enough, and everyone was expectant that they should leave anyway, I'm blasted sick of hearing about it. Most of our players are so so, Martinez, Kamara, and Jacob Ramsey the only first team mens players I would  be way disappointed to lose.