Ollie Watkins

[LeonW]

Malen showed why Ollie starts even when off it. Until we have a better option then it will be Ollie starting most games.

This is why there’s very little point to Smirker going off on one every time we play. We don’t have an alternative option. Ollie’s miles off form, I get it, buts he’s the only player we have to play on his own up top without changing a winning formula.

Agreed. If Malen was good enough he would have taken Watkins place by now.

[BoVillan esq]

I don't think he was ever a great striker, even at his best, but he was an effective one. And if you accept it's a game of fine margins he must still be.

We can't have got this far otherwise.  It beggars belief.

Yep, plus the fact defenders know how to play him making it even harder for him, his emphasis has changed and he's swapped being a predator of sorts, for being a front man that puts a lot of work and effort in, will that be enough as we get to the business end of the season.

[PaulWinch again]

Perhaps argue with Smirker’s posts when he is posting, and mine when I am?

Well you started debating with me on a comment I made about his view of assists.

Ok, I may have misread this whole forum thing, but I thought anyone could write what they wanted to without acting as a proxy for someone else. If you’d like to allocate me a window just let me know.

Well yeah, but you choose to quote/challenge a specific post. Also it’s Smirker’s views on this are hardly a secret.

[SamTheMouse]

He's got no confidence whatsoever, as evidenced by the huge number of touches he takes before even then mostly failing to decide what to do.

There's still a player there, but he needs to get his mojo back.

Rogers had a lengthy spell of indifferent performances, yet Emery continued to trust the lad and now it's paying dividends. Let's hope it's a similar story for Ollie.

[ROBBO]

Watkins has never been a natural centre forward, he made up for it by pure effort. He could be carrying an injury or his energy levels have dropped either way Emery will be looking to the market for options. Malen doesn't fit the bill.

[PaulWinch again]

It was clearly about Smirker as he mentioned 10 men.

It was, and there’s only one person in the entire history of this forum that doesn’t understand what an assist is and why they matter.

Why are you lying?

If I say "Player 1 has only got 2 goals in 20 games. I think his goalscoring is bad"

And you say "But he's also got 4 assists"

I am going to disregard the assists because I am talking about goals.

That is what this Watkins debacle started as.

You are carrying it on every time you lie and claim I said outright that assists don't matter.

It’s not lying, you are evidently dismissing the value of an assist from what you’re saying. It’s also evident today by saying the goals are just Rogers work - he did amazingly well on both, but the assists matter because there aren’t goals without them.

No one, literally no one, is saying Watkins is having a good season. He needs to be better, but it is pretty churlish to come on to his specific thread and call out him for doing nothing when he literally assisted the winning goal against a team we never beat.

[Smirker]

Have you seen the second goal? It wasn't even a pass.

[PaulWinch again]

Sigh.

[Smirker]

Sigh.

So we're going to pretend it was an intentional pass to Rogers and not him trying to get to the ball ahead of the defender?

OK. Great assist. That playmaking excuses his poor goal return.

[PaulWinch again]

Well no, but if you think about the role of a forward it’s the type of assist that comes from central forwards doing their work - without working to get in front of the defender, anticipating the cross, it doesn’t happen.

Most importantly, it’s an assist that resulted in us winning a game.

[berneboy]

Watkins has never been a natural centre forward, he made up for it by pure effort. He could be carrying an injury or his energy levels have dropped either way Emery will be looking to the market for options. Malen doesn't fit the bill.

There’s clearly summat up with him. The most obvious difficulty is likely to be confidence but clubs never openly discuss things like domestic problems, mental health or whatever. I wish him well but we do need a top class striker. I like Malen a lot but he is possibly best playing a more central striker.

[Ian.]

I’m sure if Malen or Sancho would have been involved with that goal instead of Ollie they would be getting some credit from you Smirker. It’s a whopping agenda you have and you’re being really strange about it. He’s having a crap season, we all know, there’s not much we can do about it, but we could at least try and get behind them, especially when we’re having so much success and on the best streak in over a hundred years.

[Mellin]

Wayne Rooney on the Calvert-Lewin section has just said "Ollie Watkins is still, for me, the one behind Harry Kane".

Which is interesting.

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

It is, but it does show the lack of quality 9's we have. Or most countries for that matter.

[cdbearsfan]

Should be Calvert-Lewin on form.