Aston Villa have had a troubled start to their latest Premier League season, particularly from an attacking point of view.
After 10 games, Steven Gerrard’s side have netted just seven goals, leaving Wolves (four) as the only team in the division to score fewer.
One man who has struggled in front of goal for the Villans this season is Ollie Watkins. Having played the full 90 minutes in Villa’s nine previous league games, the Englishman has only been able to find the net once, and that came during the club’s 3-1 defeat against Crystal Palace nearly two months ago.
Speaking in a recent interview with Birmingham Mail, former Villa striker Dion Dublin had his say about Watkins and his struggles this season.
Dublin pinpoints where Watkins is going wrong
The BBC radio pundit said: “I think Ollie’s got everything you want as a centre-forward. I just think when he has a chance to finish he has to make his mind up quicker and how he wants to finish.
“If you watch Ollie Watkins as a former centre-forward talking, he’s going through one-on-one and he’s still thinking about what he’s going to do as he’s running towards the goalkeeper. He needs to know what he’s going to do when the chance arises and how to finish it.
“He’s thinking about, ‘Shall I do this, shall I do that’, just forget about that Ollie, be natural, mate, do what you did when you were at Brentford, be natural, score goals, don’t think about it too much. He’s starting to analyse his finishing and when you do that, you try too hard.”
Watkins should take note
Slammed for his “shambolic” performances this season by journalist Josh Bunting, Watkins currently tops the list at Villa for the number of times he has failed to control the ball (20), and also for losing control of the ball when tackled by an opponent (23).
Taking all this into account, it seems as though the £75k-per-week striker should heed Dublin’s observation and do all that he can to be a more natural striker, which is what his team clearly needs at the moment.
