Ollie Watkins

[eye digress]

He is showing all the signs that he is done at this level sadly.

Yep not physically 100% (Tuchel already confirmed this) and my worry is he's lost a yard of pace as towards the end of the Man. City game he wasn't reaching some throughballs he'd have got to no problem last season.

Yes. I generally find that phrases like “he’s lost a yard of pace” are typically rather meaningless, but not in this case! There have been quite a few clear recent examples (City, Bournemouth and today) where he was literally half a yard short of a cross or a through ball.

But Tuchel was quite enigmatic in his comments, saying something like Watkins was “playing with discomfort” (which isn’t actually to say that he is injured). Similarly, Unai didn’t describe him as being injured when referring to him in the Leeds pre-match interview.

Also, Unai went out of his way in the post match comments today, to say that like Rogers, Ollie will get his numbers this year.

All a bit mysterious.

[Chip Butty 111]

I said in the post match thread that now his athleticism is going it is exposing his limitations. He has been incredible for us over the years, but his legs are no longer there, and he can't play off the shoulder of the CH any more and skin him. He had a face like an England cricketer for most of the 1st half, and looks completely lost. Sad to see.

[PeterWithesShin]

We've won 9 of the last 11, are 4th, and yet some want to spend their Sunday evening posting endlessly about how shit one of our players is.

How did you write that and click post and think you were making some sort of point? No critical posts allowed because we won a game? You can't defend his form so you try and attack me for posting about it.

You've got almost 80,000 posts, you're the last person on here who should be shaming someone else for "endlessly posting".

I typed and then clicked "post". That's how I posted it.

You criticised him before the game, during the game and after the game. You've posted about him far more today than you have about our win that's taken us 4th. And you don't hide how happy it makes you that he's struggling.

Most of us can see he is struggling and wonder if it's temporary or more long term. Either way it makes us sad but still appreciate the massive role he played in us going from shit for years to a club no one is surprised are 4th. And we hope it is temporary. You celebrate him not scoring more than you do a Villa win and hope it's permanent so as you can gloat to people you don't know on the internet.

And you don't seem to see why people comment on that.

[Smirker]

We've won 9 of the last 11, are 4th, and yet some want to spend their Sunday evening posting endlessly about how shit one of our players is.

How did you write that and click post and think you were making some sort of point? No critical posts allowed because we won a game? You can't defend his form so you try and attack me for posting about it.

You've got almost 80,000 posts, you're the last person on here who should be shaming someone else for "endlessly posting".

I typed and then clicked "post". That's how I posted it.

You criticised him before the game, during the game and after the game. You've posted about him far more today than you have about our win that's taken us 4th. And you don't hide how happy it makes you that he's struggling.

Most of us can see he is struggling and wonder if it's temporary or more long term. Either way it makes us sad but still appreciate the massive role he played in us going from shit for years to a club no one is surprised are 4th. And we hope it is temporary. You celebrate him not scoring more than you do a Villa win and hope it's permanent so as you can gloat to people you don't know on the internet.

And you don't seem to see why people comment on that.

That's all in your head.

You take criticism of him as all of those things because you can't accept he's been shit.

[Monty]

Good grief.

[PaulWinch again]

So weird.

[PeterWithesShin]

Plenty of people are questioning his form, only one criticised him 15 mins before kick off, and for something he hadn't done.

[Smirker]

Plenty of people are questioning his form, only one criticised him 15 mins before kick off, and for something he hadn't done.

That's a very dramatic interpretation of what happened. It wasn't even a criticism. It was a prediction. But true to form he didn't score so we'll never know now.

[PeterWithesShin]

If he scores I bet he does that shit celebration and runs round with his fingers in his ears as if it cancels the last 18 months of abysmal form.

You really don't think that's inventing a scenario to criticise him 15 mins before kick off?

[Smirker]

If he scores I bet he does that shit celebration and runs round with his fingers in his ears as if it cancels the last 18 months of abysmal form.

You really don't think that's inventing a scenario to criticise him 15 mins before kick off?

No it was a light hearted prediction, except for maybe in the mind of someone who refuses to accept any negativity toward Watkins whatsoever.

[Sexual Ealing]

That John McGinn's a fucking snake too*.


*For the avoidance of doubt this is absolutely true. It isn't.

[PeterWithesShin]

This is like looking at the Twitter pages of Linehan and Rowling.

[Rory]

If he scores I bet he does that shit celebration and runs round with his fingers in his ears as if it cancels the last 18 months of abysmal form.

You really don't think that's inventing a scenario to criticise him 15 mins before kick off?

No it was a light hearted prediction, except for maybe in the mind of someone who refuses to accept any negativity toward Watkins whatsoever.

For the avoidance of doubt, mate, I think what's happening is that people are interpreting your posting as enjoyment of Ollie's poor form. This doesn't sit right and so people are defending him from what, at times, appears to be something of a personal vendetta.

Obviously you're free to post what and where you like, but I doubt anybody is happy with his goalscoring record of late, and I reckon if you weren't such a regular poster on this thread, there would actually be a lot more people calling him out on it.

[LeonW]

Putting my cards on the table here; I think Watkins is done at this level as a starter in his current guise. He’s been showing worrying signs for quite some time. He looks laboured in his movements, slow off the mark and because he’s never been a natural killer in front of goal, can’t be relied upon to be deadly when chances do come along to justify his inclusion.

That chance in the first half when he was played in and got a good start on the defender, who recovered to quite comfortably dispossess him was alarming as the latest example.

There’s the argument about him being part of a winning team but my argument is that he’s not contributing enough and the team are compensating for him. And before anyone says ‘who would you replace him with, give me a name,’ ask Brentford who seem to quite comfortably do it every season.

[ChicagoLion]

The only alternative is that he is playing injured and then you have to ask why.
The problem is that his game is so much based on the physical aspects of forward play because of his lack of touch and subtlety. A lot of forwards adopt their play when they lose a bit of pace, Watkins does not have that option.
It is sad to see.