Ollie Watkins

[Nunkin1965]

I know lots of people don't like stats, and insist they can be misleading, but Ollie's shots-to-goals conversion rate this season is 12.8%.  Last season it was 14.4%.  Ings is at 19% this season. 

For comparison, Jamie Vardy is on 25%, Firminio 26%, Salah 20% and England captain Harry Kane is at 8%.

Across a season, most top strikers are well into the teens, and the season's top performers can be well into the 20s.

And before anyone reads TOO much into these numbers, here's a stat for you.  Last season Keinan Davis had a better shots-to-goals ratio than Mason Greenwood.

That last part is not hard to believe. As talented as he is, Greenwood plays like a 10 year old, gets the ball, runs and tries to shoot whilst completely oblivious to his teammates.

For such a talented player,  Greenwood is completely predictable.
He must be a nightmare to play with.

[chrisw1]

To my eyes he's missing a lot of chances, some of them have been absolute sitters.  Sorry if that offends but it's a simple fact.

I'll give him a fucking break and continue to support him (as I always have).  But when discussing our teams attributes I don't think it's unreasonable to point this out.

UTV.

[Hookeysmith]

Good

He works his socks off and is a great out ball for us to lump over the top.
He keeps the whole back line of defenders on their toes as he is very mobile and works the entire back line
His pressing is as good as anything in the league

Not so good

He is a scorer of very good goals rather than being a very good goal scorer
He often makes pretty poor decisions - shoots when he should pass and visa versa.
He has no real pace or skill to get past a man in a one on one
His trapping ability at times is abysmal and usually is followed by a teams counter attacking us.

I am not suggesting he be binned but he needs to evolve and develop further or i can see that we may need a bit more polish up front

[kippaxvilla2]

We've the 9th highest goals scored tally in the division, and two of the teams ahead of us have a worse defensive record. Watkins is part of that. He causes defences all sorts of issues, and is just having a dry patch, not helped by a number of his appearances being wide and many others in what most people deemed to be a shit team earlier in the season.

Last year he was being raved about as the best thing since sliced bread. Give the guy a fucking break.

To be fair dry patches are a worry for a lot of blokes.

[Beard82]

We've the 9th highest goals scored tally in the division, and two of the teams ahead of us have a worse defensive record. Watkins is part of that. He causes defences all sorts of issues, and is just having a dry patch, not helped by a number of his appearances being wide and many others in what most people deemed to be a shit team earlier in the season.

Last year he was being raved about as the best thing since sliced bread. Give the guy a fucking break.

To be fair dry patches are a worry for a lot of blokes.

word

[Risso]

Watkins has scored the same number of League goals as Lukaku, Greenwood and Kane  so far this season.

So what?

Lukaka has only started 11 games. Kane was sulking about not being sold and hardly broke a sweat for the first half a dozen games at least. Other players not doing as well as expected doesn't really say anything about Watkins does it?

It does. You said  "for a £30M striker"  whereas other two are £100M strikers. Lukaku's 4 in 11 (that he has started in ) is similar to Watkins ratio.

Lukaku has 5 league goals in 11 starts. That very obviously isn't a similar ratio to 5 goals in 17 starts.

[eamonn]

Yeah but his supply is far more plentiful. Watkins has to do a lot more foraging.

[Ads]

Lukaku has scored 2 goals in 9 games against sides who aren't bloody us.

[Breezeblock]

I love Ollie. He's a grafter and never gives up even when he's having a mare.  Most exciting striker i've seen down Villa Park since Dwight Yorke.

[robbo1874]

I know it’s subjective and all, but I’d happily swap the JPA in his prime, for the Ollie of this season. (The Ollie of last season would make it a lot tighter call).

[robbo1874]

The other thing about Watkins is that he’s had probably 6-8 goals ruled out by VAR? whereas in years gone by, those goals would have stood. Add to that the amount of times he’s hit the fkn bar when it would’ve been easier to score. He could be probably 12 or so goals better off over this season and last.

[chrisw1]

The other thing about Watkins is that he’s had probably 6-8 goals ruled out by VAR? whereas in years gone by, those goals would have stood. Add to that the amount of times he’s hit the fkn bar when it would’ve been easier to score. He could be probably 12 or so goals better off over this season and last.

This is part of the problem.

Hopefully he'll go on a run now with a settled team and Coutinho and Buendia behind him and we'll all be arguing Arsenal will have to pay £100m if they want him etc...

[Smithy]

I love Ollie. He's a grafter and never gives up even when he's having a mare.  Most exciting striker i've seen down Villa Park since Dwight Yorke.

And that's the rub. I think you could get a better finisher in the team than Ollie, but I'm not sure you could get a harder worker.  To find someone who works as hard as he does, AND is a better finisher than him would be almost impossible in today's market.  Certainly not for less than stupid money.

I think when he's part of a front three that 'clicks' over the next half a dozen games I could see him going on a scoring run to get him back to last season's total.

As an aside, given the preferred 11 these days, who would take our penalty if we got one?

[Drummond]

Gareth Barry surely?

[GordonCowansisthegreatest]

Will he be on the pitch though?