Ollie Watkins’ Finishing Woes: A Deeper Dive on Why He’s Under the Spotlight

The Good, Bad and Ugly of Villa Life After Leicester Win

New Year, unfortunately, same misfiring Aston Villa as they nervously beat the 19th-placed Foxes at Villa Park. Still, we’re 100% in 2025. Who’s under the microscope this week?

The Good

First things first: a win is a win, and a welcome one at that. Leicester had the potential to be a banana skin, especially with Pau Torres sidelined for around two months due to a broken metatarsal and John McGinn limping off after 20 minutes with another hamstring issue.

Aston Villa still have a deep enough squad to absorb these problems, but the previously stacked bench is looking a little like one or two more injuries could hurt.

Ollie Watkins was the only striker available, while Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa were the only senior central defenders. One more issue in either of those positions, and Leicester might have taken full advantage.

Despite the disjointed performance, Villa secured a crucial win. A return of seven points from games against Manchester City, Brighton, and Leicester was the minimum needed to stay on track. Mission accomplished.

Villan of the Week – Ross Barkley

Surprised? I didn’t think Ross Barkley would ever appear as Villan of the Week again after fading away during his first loan spell, but here we are.

Barkley is old school. While others are progressive and modern on the pitch, Barkley is a technical player who tries things that don’t always come off.

Does he get caught on the ball? Yes, but that’s because he’s taking stock and looking to be direct – something this Villa side has been accused of lacking at times.

When the ball came out to him against Leicester, most other Villa players, aside from Durán, would have taken a touch, recycled it wide, or tried to thread it to Watkins.

Instead, Barkley dispatched it into the goal with ease. While he may not be everyone’s favorite player, there’s no denying that Ross Barkley offers something valuable to this matchday squad.

The Bad and Ugly – What’s Up With Ollie Watkins?

It’s time to have a serious talk about Ollie Watkins this season.

There’s a cruel online joke that JFK would still be alive if Ollie Watkins had been the shooter. While harsh, it’s a comment rooted in an unfortunate element of truth.

Villa’s Mainstay Striker

To preface it, Watkins is Villa’s hardest-working and best all-around forward by some distance. He was also Villa’s top scorer last season. He is the only player to both score and assist in 10 separate games for the club, and if our prayers are answered, he will break Gabby Agbonlahor’s Premier League Club scoring record for Villa.

But Watkins has a glaring issue: converting the chances he should score. It’s a flaw that has shadowed him since his arrival at Villa, but it has become increasingly apparent this season.

Watkins’ Drop-off

It’s easy to take an overview and say Watkins has scored the same or an equivalent amount of Premier League goals at the midway point as previous seasons.

In fact, his eight Premier League Goals have come from fewer minutes this season. However, the addition of penalty duties – he’s scored two so far – means that his open-play goals have dropped from nine last season to six this term.

Opta’s “big chances missed” metric paints a starker picture. Watkins leads the league with 18 missed big chances after the Leicester game, four ahead of both Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah. While this seems like good company, consider the shots taken:

This means Watkins big chance misses make up 35% of his shots compared to Haaland’s 17% and Salah’s 19%. It’s a worrying statistic, particularly as Watkins is just four misses shy of his total for the whole of last season, when he was Villa’s main man for the whole season and didn’t have an improved Jhon Durán behind him in the squad.

When Duran – Villa’s current top scorer in all competitions with 12 – has got on the pitch, his minutes per goal ratio is on another level to Watkins.

A Question of Confidence

Watkins’ confidence also appears to have waned. This season, only one of his 52 shots has come from outside the box, compared to 11 last year. A confident striker backs themselves to have a go, as Durán often demonstrates. Watkins, by contrast, seems hesitant.

While Watkins has always been a streaky striker, scoring his goals in runs, is there a different reason, or worse still, a downward trend?

His best goals – cutting inside, lashing a ball past the keeper, or taking a first-time strike – have been rare this season. For context, think of the Liverpool game in the famous 7-2 win, Brighton in Steven Gerrard’s first match, the Arsenal goal in the 4-2 defeat, or his strike for England in the Euros semi-final. Watkins in full flight is a different player.

There’s also a noticeable drop in his dribbling stats. This season, he has completed only five successful dribbles at a 20% success rate, compared to 26 (46%) last season and 18 (33%) the year before.

He’s also failed to score in the Champions League.

So, what’s going wrong? Is it as simple as no longer being the “main man”?

Main Man Syndrome

In an interview with Peter Crouch, Watkins admitted, “He [Emery] doesn’t really speak to me too much. I had a really close relationship with my previous managers – Steven Gerrard, Thomas Frank, Dean Smith especially – where I felt like I could speak to them. Maybe it was a little bit too comfortable where I knew I was always going to play, sort of like a friendship.”

Ollie Watkins previously went off the boil when Danny Ings was in the squad, before catching fire when Emery sanctioned Ings’ exit to West Ham. If Emery is devoting more time to Duran, Watkins may need some man-management to rediscover his form.

Whatever the answer or reason, Unai Emery must get the best out of the England international – or hope Watkins can get the best out of himself again. The full potential of Villa’s season might depend on it.

UTV

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