romavillan Posted September 2 VT Supporter Share Posted September 2 On 01/09/2024 at 10:14, Made In Aston said: Knowing Villatalk, they were probably demanding that we get rid of him in a swap deal for Nakhi Wells. After a few people had wanted to flog him all summer long! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted September 2 VT Supporter Share Posted September 2 1 hour ago, villa4europe said: we have a winnable games in the CL and league cup vs "lesser" teams we will make the changes and rotate give minutes to both and get both firing what a time to be alive Been a long time since we had this much attacking quality in our side, bit of luck and could be an amazing season this one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roonst83 Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 Last season proved me wrong with Watkins. I always felt he had no finesse to his finishing and would lack the composure in key areas. But his finishing vastly improved, the goal away at Arsenal was pure class and some of the goals he took earlier than expected last season (away to Spurs, away to Chelsea, for England in the ruers against the Dutch) were clear markers of and top up in level. He most probably is a confidence striker. Most are. He spoke on the Performance podcast about his mentality in putting misses and poor form to the back of his mind and focus on getting the next chance. He hasn't had a pre-season and that shows, he seems rusty and lacking the critical sharpness that we need at this level. But as long as he keeps getting into those positions I'm confident he'll get back on track. We're having to play him into match fitness as he hasn't played games since May (I barely count a few cameo minuted for England). The thing that might be an issue, hopefully not, is that Watkins looked instantly better when Ings left. Now Duran is starting to breathe down his neck by performing and maturing and scoring, this might potentially play into Ollie's mentality and psych. He strikes me as someone who needs to be the main man, which he absolutely is at present. But if he doesn't get on the scoresheet for a while I fear this could play into his mindset a little. He needs to stay confident and keep his belief and he'll be fine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 Hopefully he gets some game time for England during the international break, more mins will do him good. But at some point we'll have to stop using the excuse of no preseason, other players at the euros like Saka and Plamer are flying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 3 hours ago, duke313 said: That's the standard we need him to be at though. He didn’t score in the first 5 matches last season so I guess you could say he is matching last season’s standard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 22 minutes ago, LondonLax said: He didn’t score in the first 5 matches last season so I guess you could say he is matching last season’s standard? You could say that. But in the first three games last season we scored 8 goals, so far we have 4, so if Ollie doesn't get up and running a bit sooner than 6 games, someone else will need to pick up the slack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Platt Posted September 2 VT Supporter Share Posted September 2 Kane was always a slow starter too but managed 25 plus goals a season. Nothing to worry about Ollie is getting into the positions to miss so goals will flow sooner or later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 It worries me that there are so many posts from people saying they are not worried by Watkins's lack of early season form. It's worrying that the only conversation about him at the moment is trying to provide reassurance that his poor start is really OK. It's actually not OK in my book. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted September 2 VT Supporter Share Posted September 2 19 minutes ago, briny_ear said: It worries me that there are so many posts from people saying they are not worried by Watkins's lack of early season form. It's worrying that the only conversation about him at the moment is trying to provide reassurance that his poor start is really OK. It's actually not OK in my book. Last season he didn't score in the first 5 and he ended up with 19 league goals and a heap of assists too. Was that OK? He's already got 2 assists in 3 games this term hasn't he? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TreeVillan Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 Football is getting more and more reactionary by the week. Three games in and we have people calling for the heads of two managers. Is Watkins really now considered washed up because keepers have conjured up some world class saves? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Dogg Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 He had no pre-season games, these are his games to get match sharpness. And he will get there. Unai is managing him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 21 minutes ago, TreeVillan said: Is Watkins really now considered washed up because keepers have conjured up some world class saves? No. Just saying he's played shit. Because he has. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 32 minutes ago, romavillan said: Last season he didn't score in the first 5 and he ended up with 19 league goals and a heap of assists too. Was that OK? He's already got 2 assists in 3 games this term hasn't he? Not to be pedantic, but he has 1 assist in 3, and even that 1 is scrapping the barrel, it's really Ramsey's assist. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted September 2 VT Supporter Share Posted September 2 Just now, duke313 said: Not to be pedantic, but he has 1 assist in 3, and even that 1 is scrapping the barrel, it's really Ramsey's assist. Ah ok I thought it was 2. Still though the main point was the other one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 1 minute ago, romavillan said: Ah ok I thought it was 2. Still though the main point was the other one... I'm sure he'll get back to scoring sooner than later, but it's valid to be concerned. People saying he's not scored in in the first 3 games, he also didn't score in the final 5 from last season, so that's now 8 PL games he's not scored in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted September 2 VT Supporter Share Posted September 2 He's always been streaky though, the good season he had with Smith before the arrival of the Scouse genius he had barren spells in too. Keep making him chances and he'll get 20 goals this season... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 Had no pre-season so of course he's not up to speed, but he's getting there, on another day could have had a couple of goals on Saturday and would have done if not for brilliant saves from the Leicester goalkeeper. Also he did brilliantly to win the free-kick that lead to our second goal, without him winning the ball back, driving forward with it, and then drawing the foul, Onana goal wouldn't happened There's no danger of him losing his place to Duran, he scored or assisted in six of our last seven Premier League games last season, and was one of the best players in the league over the season, he isn' going to lose his place because of a few quiet games now when it's accepted he's working his way back to full match fitness Duran will get more game time this season, but not because of Watkins playing poorly, will be because he's playing very well, not just this season but last season too, so is earning more of chance 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 4 minutes ago, useless said: Had no pre-season so of course he's not up to speed, but he's getting there, on another day could have had a couple of goals on Saturday and would have done if not for brilliant saves from the Leicester goalkeeper. Also he did brilliantly to win the free-kick that lead to our second goal, without him winning the ball back, driving forward with it, and then drawing the foul, Onana goal wouldn't happened There's no danger of him losing his place to Duran, he scored or assisted in six of our last seven Premier League games last season, and was one of the best players in the league over the season, he isn' going to lose his place because of a few quiet games now when it's accepted he's working his way back to full match fitness Duran will get more game time this season, but not because of Watkins playing poorly, will be because he's playing very well, not just this season but last season too, so is earning more of chance Neither did Duran, and he’s still managed to score two goals in less mins. Many other players at the Euros had no pre-season, Saka, Palamer etc. and doesn’t seem to have impacted the start of their seasons. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JordRS Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 (edited) We need to remember Ollie had an injury which kept him out of training too. So he missed pre-season training, as well as the warm up games. Edited September 2 by JordRS Spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 1 hour ago, duke313 said: Neither did Duran, and he’s still managed to score two goals in less mins. Many other players at the Euros had no pre-season, Saka, Palamer etc. and doesn’t seem to have impacted the start of their seasons. It's known Watkins is a form and confidence player alongside his lack of pre season. He was also injured. Its not something to be worried about with Watkins for now. It may well be if it carries on for 2 or 3 more games, but even then, he'll only need to score one before he goes on a run of back to.back scoring for 8 games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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