Ollie Watkins shows he’s worth more than goals to Aston Villa with 100% display v Luton Town
Aston Villa continued their excellent recent run of form with a 3-1 win over Luton Town on Sunday 29 October, but it was a slightly quieter afternoon for Ollie Watkins.
Goals from John McGinn, Moussa Diaby and an own goal from Tom Lockyer ensured that Unai Emery’s side were not reliant on the former Brentford striker and moved Villa five points clear of Newcastle to comfortably sit fifth in the Premier League.
However, Watkins still managed to have an incredibly positive impact on the match even if he wasn’t his usual threat in front of goal to remind supporters that there are many more aspects to his game than just his goalscoring.
Rather surprisingly, no outfield player for either side who played the entirety of the clash on Sunday registered fewer touches than the 27-year-old who only made contact with the ball 19 times, a far cry from the 35 he managed against West Ham last time out in the Premier League [Fotmob].
Despite his limited involvement, Watkins completed nine of his 12 attempted passes and even managed to create two chances for his teammates, including one big opportunity with his only pass into the final third during the game.
On the ball, the England international completed both of his two attempted dribbles and was not dispossessed on the ball once as he fed off of the limited scraps he received and tried to drive Aston Villa up the field whenever he got the ball.
Watkins similarly worked hard off of the ball against the physical and direct Luton side, winning all three of the ground duels that he entered and avoided aerial battles with the likes of Lockyer and Teden Mengi due to their strength in the air.
The striker should well have scored himself having registered an xG of 0.67 from his two shots in the match which both came after 11 minutes of the game, only for Thomas Kaminski to pull off an excellent double save.
Watkins is a bit of an old-fashioned poacher and doesn’t drop deep to receive the ball like Harry Kane would for Tottenham, as shown by his Fbref scouting report [31 October], he lies in the 24th percentile for passes attempted per 90 minutes when compared to other Premier League strikers.
Yet he places in the 97th percentile for touches in the attacking area per game, with more than seven a game. Even during a seemingly anonymous display like against Luton on Sunday, he is more than likely to carve out an opportunity in some way shape or form for himself or his teammates.
In other Aston Villa news, Leon Bailey has been in inspired form for club and country and must be pushing for a return to the starting XI