Why Ollie Watkins Is The Best English Striker In The Premier League

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Ollie Watkins is no longer the all-round, jack-of-all-trades striker who chases down balls into the corners: this is a new, mature Watkins who is spearheading Aston Villa further and further up the table. But should be the Plan B for Harry Kane at the Euros next summer?

Transcript

00:00 Hello, my name is Mark White. I am Adam Cleary's Supply Teacher and today we are talking about

00:07 the superstar of the Claritin Blue Derby at the weekend, Mr Oliver Watkins, first of his

00:16 name, King of the Midlands. Now Villa are absolutely flying at the moment, you don't

00:23 need me to tell you that. They have been phenomenal this season after a bit of a wobble in the

00:29 opening day of the season against Newcastle. They are now unbeaten since the start of September

00:35 and they are two points off the top of the table and it's largely down to this guy.

00:42 Ok, so it feels about ten years ago but Steven Gerrard of Al Etifak fame actually managed

00:53 Olly Watkins at Aston Villa. Firstly, who else forgot that Jan Bednarac had a stint

01:00 at Villa Park because that just totally passed me by. So this Christmas tree formation kind

01:08 of came about at Rangers when Michael Beale was assisting with Gerrard and the key feature

01:15 here is the two number 10s behind the number 1 striker. The width is provided from the

01:23 full backs and then you have a more workman like midfield three. But Olly Watkins is not

01:30 playing up front in this system. There were two strikers in Watkins and Ings. So Ings

01:37 was one of the buys that came in after Jack Greerle left for £100m and Watkins was actually

01:44 tasked with more of a sort of wide role, more of a sort of playing off of Ings. Actually

01:50 Gerrard found that having Watkins out wide he would put in the yards. He's got that pace

01:55 to take on a full back. He's also got that explosiveness as well so he can push past

02:02 you and use his physicality. And given that Ings was more of that stereotypical kind of

02:09 box poacher, Watkins was seen as almost kind of like Jack of all trades, an all round striker

02:16 which suited him really. But the big thing that Emery has done is to simplify Watkins'

02:23 role. He is no longer that all round striker who will go into the corners as he mentioned

02:29 yesterday. He will stay central. He will lead the line properly. And if we look at a stereotypical

02:36 Unai Emery team as we've got here, this is what he did at Villarreal, this is what he

02:42 tried to do at times at Arsenal actually. And you've got your typical 4-4-2 shape. Emery

02:49 likes to flood the midfield with sort of natural central midfielders. This is the team that

02:55 faced West Ham yesterday and as you can see you've got your two forwards up top who are

03:02 going to lead the press and with this system they want to press teams into the touchline.

03:09 They want to funnel teams wide. So the interesting thing about this Emery team is not necessarily

03:16 that they press particularly high. They actually win the ball back in more of this sort of

03:22 area. They play with this high line but ultimately Emery would like to tempt teams onto Aston

03:29 Villa in order to then break at pace and use those incredibly quick forwards that he's

03:36 got at his disposal. It's almost like creating a transition. You're not dominating a team

03:43 and keeping them in their final third. You're keeping them in more of the middle of the

03:47 pitch and then unleashing hell later on. And if we look at Watkins' heat map which I'm

03:54 just going to overlay here, you can see that he is staying central and I find it quite

03:58 interesting that he's got this kind of strike partner next to him who isn't your stereotypical

04:04 strike partner where you do the same things and one man goes and the other one comes short.

04:11 It's almost like Moussa Diaby's job here is to create chaos. He's got to run into these

04:15 channels. He's got to occupy defenders where Watkins has got the opposite job. He's got

04:21 to stay focused. He's got to stay patient. He might not touch the ball for a good ten

04:26 minutes but he's got to stay within that central area of the pitch and wait for his teammates

04:33 to bring him the service. So I've actually got the FB ref stats up with me here and I'm

04:40 comparing 2021 to 22 so that's two seasons ago versus the last 365 days of playing under

04:48 Emery and you can see there's a dramatic improvement here with goals, non-penalty goals. He's taking

04:59 slightly more shots, more sort of expected goals and shot creating actions here but actually

05:06 you compare it to 21-22, he's more of an all-rounder here. You see he's making more progressive

05:13 carries. He's attempting more passes and it illustrates really well how he's literally

05:20 just focused now on that centre forward role. You want to be able to have that kind of pacey

05:27 forward who as your opponent's back line is creeping forward, creeping forward, trying

05:33 to get higher up the pitch to push you higher and higher. Somebody like Watkins to then

05:38 explode off the shoulder of a defender and get in behind. I mean look at the goal against

05:44 West Ham yesterday. It's that perfect Aston Villa goal where they pick up the ball within

05:49 their own half, still sort of in the middle third of the pitch and then they just catch

05:55 the opponent on the back foot as West Ham are trying to muster their own attack and

06:00 try and push forward and pen Villa into their own half. Villa are having none of it and

06:06 they go from back to front or well sort of middle to front in a blink of an eye. When

06:11 you've got a player like Watkins leading the line, when you've got Leon Bailey or Moussa

06:16 Diaby next to him, you've got that searing pace that defenders don't like to defend against

06:22 when they're on the back foot, when they're having to turn back to their own goal. But

06:28 just watching Watkins under Emery, he feels like he is better at decision making and I

06:34 think I've got a stat to sum it up actually. So looking at the FB Ref stats again, Watkins

06:41 is actually in the 90th percentile for assists for a forward. So he's in the top 10% of making

06:50 assists for a forward. And as I mentioned earlier, he's not exactly a link up striker.

06:56 He's not the kind of striker who's always looking to supply a teammate, which suggests

07:02 one of two things for me. Either his teammates are very, very clinical and he can just pass

07:09 to John McGinn and John McGinn will always score a goal, which is fairly possible. John

07:14 McGinn is very good at scoring goals. Or, and I think it's slightly more likely, Watkins

07:20 is giving his teammates the ball in very dangerous areas and he's knowing when to release the

07:26 ball, whether he's the one making the shot himself or he's the one supplying one of his

07:31 teammates. And it's just a really subtle thing I think about his game that sums him up as

07:36 a player that ever since he's moved into this more central role and ever since Emery has

07:41 kind of built this team around him and his strike partner, he's almost grown a few inches

07:48 that he seems more confident as a forward. He knows what his role is all about. Like,

07:55 we're no longer at this stage where it's like, "Oli Watkins is scoring loads of goals. I'm

08:00 going to get him in my FPL team." I actually haven't got him in my FPL team because I've

08:04 got Alvarez and Harman. So, I mean, really I should practice what I preach and put him

08:09 in. But like, he's been doing this now for over a year, Watkins. He's been performing

08:15 at this level and when he doesn't score goals, he's still making the space. He's still stretching

08:22 the play for everybody else. But hey, that's just what I think. Please let me know what

08:26 you think in the comments below, whether you're an Aston Villa fan or not. And please, please,

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