Ollie Watkins

[tomd2103]

Played out wide today and fair play to him, he gave it a good go.  Unfortunately, he just hasn't got the quality to play out wide and it just breaks down too often in the final third with him.

We can't do it now as we don't have the personnel, but we need to play a three behind Ings or Watkins.  Two wide players who can actually get quality balls into the box and Coutinho or Buendia playing in behind them. 

[brontebilly]

That shot second half....thought he had a good first half, pinned Chabloah a lot of times. But ball breaks to him in the box and it bounces off him like a basketball off the floor

[Paul.S]

Watkins is a useful squad player but if you’re relying on him to score more than 10/12 then you end up where we are. His first touch continues to frustrate but if we really want to move upwards in the future, a squad player is what he’ll have to be.

[levico]

He’s willing but about as helpful as a 4 year old helping with the washing up.

[Smirker]

He helped us get promoted for which i like him but i think it's best for him and us to move him on. He may well start scoring for someone else but the fact is it's not happening with us anymore.

No he didn't he joined us well over a year after we got promoted.

My day gets worse.

😂😂😂

[SoccerHQ]

Watkins is a useful squad player but if you’re relying on him to score more than 10/12 then you end up where we are. His first touch continues to frustrate but if we really want to move upwards in the future, a squad player is what he’ll have to be.

New barometer for me is improvement in 12 months will be Watkins and McGinn no longer being automatic starters.

You could easily argue both should be sold in the summer given they'll have two years left on their respective contracts. Hopefully that's what Purslow meant by self-sustained approach.

Cashing in on players who've served us well in last 2-3 years and are still of good age to be value to other clubs. I'd rather that than having to sell our best academy prospect every summer anyway (Carney would've probably had 4-5 starts this season the way it's gone).

[Drummond]

Is he a better wide man than Traore, AEG, Trez...

[Des Little]

Working hard it’s an absolute minimum, the bloke is so low on confidence it’s unbelievable - and his ability to control the ball is getting worse by the week - in an ideal world he’d be taken out of the team but that isn’t happening.

[Risso]

Is he a better wide man than Traore, AEG, Trez...

Trez and El Ghazi, probably. Traore, probably not.

[aj2k77]

Sell in the Summer before he's worth nothing.

[coreyfeldman]

Is he a better wide man than Traore, AEG, Trez...

Trez and El Ghazi, probably. Traore, probably not.

I'd have Anwar out wide over Watkins any day of the week

[Drummond]

Is he a better wide man than Traore, AEG, Trez...

Trez and El Ghazi, probably. Traore, probably not.

I'd have Anwar out wide over Watkins any day of the week

And this is my point really. He decided against keeping all three and bringing Sarr in and has resorted to using Watkins out there.

[Risso]

I'd have Anwar out wide over Watkins any day of the week

I wouldn't, and nor would anybody else in the Pemier League if you can go by the complete lack of any interest in him, or his inability to get any playing time for a deeply shit Everton team last season. There's certainly an argument to be had for Traore. El Ghazi and Trez had shown time and time again that they weren't good enough though.

We don't what happened with Sarr, and anything said is just guesswork.

[ozzjim]

Sarr one side, Bailey the other at least gives you width and a genuine threat.

Watkins just looks shot at the moment. He needs a few weeks coming off the bench as the option to try and bring a fresh energy or something. There was a chance in the first half when a cross came all the way through to him on the back post, and his touch was just so, so poor for a player at this level.

[pauliewalnuts]

Yesterday was a perfect example of where he's not up to it.

We got the full repertoire of faults, failure to control the ball being front and centre.

Isn't it the (vast) coaching team's responsibility to work on things like this with players?

I don't rate him, but he just looks utterly dejected and bereft of confidence at the moment and I suspect week after week without a breather is making it worse for him.