Ollie Watkins

[Toronto Villa]

Poor bastard looks absolutely broken.

[Rigadon]

Kane plays in a domestic division that, a few clubs aside, is the equivalent of the top half of the championship.  It's still a hell of a lot of goals obviously.

Top half of the Championship, that's harsh, how any top half of the Championship clubs would have just beat Man City 0-2 at the Emptyad this week, or smashed Villarreal by four this week in the Champions League?

Bar a few Bundesliga clubs who’d hold their own in the PL, my description isn’t controversial really.  Watkins is miles off though at the moment. 

[PaulWinch again]

He needs a goal to go in. He’s obviously not in a good place, hopefully he can find his way back and have a belting second half of the season.

[ez]

It's sad to see him as he is now and I don't mean the moustache.

[john e]

Kane plays in a domestic division that, a few clubs aside, is the equivalent of the top half of the championship.  It's still a hell of a lot of goals obviously.

Top half of the Championship, that's harsh, how any top half of the Championship clubs would have just beat Man City 0-2 at the Emptyad this week, or smashed Villarreal by four this week in the Champions League?

Bar a few Bundesliga clubs who’d hold their own in the PL, my description isn’t controversial really.  Watkins is miles off though at the moment. 

In his last season playing for a very poor spurs side he scored 30 league goals plus a few more in all comps
He would’ve been 30/31 years old

He’s absolute quality and for me still the best striker in the world

[Olneythelonely]

I’ve never seen him look so disheartened and out of form. He needs to get a goal pretty quickly otherwise he’ll be finding himself with 20 minutes here or there.

I don’t think Malen is his replacement, I think he should be utilised either with another striker or inside right. I also think it’ll be really hard to find a player that is close to as good as Watkins at his best. If we start Malen up front on his own too often, I think we’ll end up seeing a downturn in results.

[PaulWinch again]

Agreed. Against good opposition that isn’t Malen’s role. He’s far more of a support striker - that’s not a criticism, but lone frontman isn’t Malen’s game.

[KevinGage]

Think he was open/ expecting to make a move last summer and just hasn't been able to regain his mojo in C&B. A big part of that may or may not be down to Monchi.

Rogers you could prob say similar. But he might reason he'll still get his move (if that's what he truly wants) in the next year or two max. If he just gets his head down and plays through it. He's still only 23 now.

Watkins is 30 this year. He has to contend with feelings that this may be as good as he'll ever have it.

Naturally I hope Ollie smashes 10-15 goals in the second half of the season and we hit a level so high none of our better players ever want to leave.

[caster troy]

Motivation can’t be an issue, he’s got a World Cup place to fight for if nothing else. He seems to have lost all his explosiveness, not reaching balls and crosses he would usually get to. I’m not sure if that can be just a confidence issue or if something isn’t right physically.

Maybe he is just saving everything for two match winning performances against Arsenal.

[Smirker]

Agreed. Against good opposition that isn’t Malen’s role. He’s far more of a support striker - that’s not a criticism, but lone frontman isn’t Malen’s game.

Then we need to give Wilson a shot or buy a striker immediately in January.

We can't go on like this.

[KevinGage]

Motivation can’t be an issue, he’s got a World Cup place to fight for if nothing else. He seems to have lost all his explosiveness, not reaching balls and crosses he would usually get to. I’m not sure if that can be just a confidence issue or if something isn’t right physically.

Seen a video of the highlights during the week against Liverpool at home and Arsenal away in 2020/21. Looked like a totally different player.

Getting in behind and looking like a young Ronaldo (the real one). Or Gary Penrice.

As opposed to the willing workhorse we've seen recently.

[AV82EC]

Must admit I’m starting to get worried about him. He looks miles off it at the moment. I’ve no idea how Unai fixes it but hopefully we see a turnaround at some point. Good to see the crowd still backing him, that’s important to players who are massively struggling.

Someone commented further up the thread that possibly he was on the out list in the summer and Monchi has massively mishandled the discussions. Who knows.

[brontebilly]

Have his legs gone? So far off it right now.

Didn't see last night but I thought that was the case very early in the season. Just half a yard short, evident on those through balls especially. I still expect him to be more of a threat in and around the box though. Classic sign of a forward struggling is that he's keen just to get shots on target.

[Dave]

In his productive seasons he was scoring far more with his head than somebody of his size normally would do. This season I don't really recall him even having a headed chance.

Whether that's through accident (Guessand / Sancho / Malen etc being rubbish at crossing) or design (playing more through the middle and shooting more from distance), I reckon that's where a big part of his drop-off has come from.

[ChicagoLion]

Have his legs gone? So far off it right now.

Didn't see last night but I thought that was the case very early in the season. Just half a yard short, evident on those through balls especially.

I was saying exactly the same thing, he has lost reaction time and without technique and touch it’s hard to see how he can adjust his game at this level. It could not have happened at a worse time in WC year.