Donyell Malen

[Smithy]

Its early days but I can see a case where we can accept a large bid for Watkins in the summer and Malen and a rejuvenated Rashford replace him.

Another thing with Malen was his acceleration, there were a couple of times where I thought a ball to him was a bit short but he is rapid.

Yesterday's rumour was Watkins and Ramsey to Arsenal. So that would pay for it, and more.

I'm not sure Arsenal have £250m to spend?

[john e]

Its early days but I can see a case where we can accept a large bid for Watkins in the summer and Malen and a rejuvenated Rashford replace him.

Another thing with Malen was his acceleration, there were a couple of times where I thought a ball to him was a bit short but he is rapid.

Problem you’ve got with Watkins is he doesn’t like competition, and he certainly doesn’t play well with another striker i.e. Ings or Duran
He wants to be the recognised number one with his place guaranteed every week, and up until now that’s how we’ve got the best out of him

Well he’s gonna have to get used to a bit of competition now we’ve got loads of them upfront who can do a job at scoring goals, maybe not absolute number 9’s but that’s not necessarily essential anymore with forwards and wide players scoring just as many goals on centre forwards nowadays

The options we have upfront are the best I’ve ever known supporting Villa, it’s going to be interesting to see how it all plays out from game to game and obviously during the game
Exciting times I think

[Somniloquism]

Is it "competition" he doesn't like, or just having to change his game to play with the partner. He didn't seem to mind playing with Rogers or Diaby as supporting forwards for example, but both Ings and Duran were more the main forward with Watkins having to change his game to support them.

[Chris Smith]

Good to see that Malen didn’t let missing out on the CL squad affect his attitude yesterday, he played really well.

[Pete3206]

I thought Malen had a brilliant game.

[Somniloquism]

He was a bit lonely in their half during the opening minutes of the second, but I suspect we might have bottled up a bit to analyse the changes they made and the push they would probably do. Once that was weathered we started supporting him more and got the second.

[PeterWithe]

Someone on here said that he wasn't a particularly fast sprinter at full pelt but he was very fast over the first five yards, blimey that's true, I was really impressed. Looking forward to seeing him score a few with that pace.

[Dante Lavelli]

Watch his run for the Ramsey goal.  He should get half an assist.

[Smithy]

Watch his run for the Ramsey goal.  He should get half an assist.

Yep, he draws the right centre-back all the way across till the two Spurs centrebacks were about three feet apart.  Created a lovely gap for JJ to run into.

[Dave]

And for the second, the way he was just running at the centre-backs was very Rogers-esque.

Possibly a bit slow on the uptake of where Bailey wanted him to go after making the run, but it all worked out well in the end.

[AV84]

Nice to see the way he celebrated both our goals yesterday. However he feels about being left out of the CL squad, he seems happy to be playing the games he is.

[Somniloquism]

And for the second, the way he was just running at the centre-backs was very Rogers-esque.

Possibly a bit slow on the uptake of where Bailey wanted him to go after making the run, but it all worked out well in the end.

I saw it initially as he thought it was being played back to him, but I did wonder if Duran or Watkins would have made the run or would have had it played back.

[Demitri_C]

Nice to see the way he celebrated both our goals yesterday. However he feels about being left out of the CL squad, he seems happy to be playing the games he is.

I feel bad for him. He is our only permanent  player along with garcia and they both miss out. Im pretty sure diasi would have been left put had torres and mings been fit.

Im sure thats the reasoning and hopefully  he understands.

[Meanwood Villa]

And for the second, the way he was just running at the centre-backs was very Rogers-esque.

Possibly a bit slow on the uptake of where Bailey wanted him to go after making the run, but it all worked out well in the end.

I saw it initially as he thought it was being played back to him, but I did wonder if Duran or Watkins would have made the run or would have had it played back.

I thought it was incredibly smart play that he did something to keep the move going

[tomd2103]

Thought he did well when he came on and very nearly won it for us right at the end.