Danny Murphy stunned by ‘brilliant’ Ollie Watkins as Aston Villa have one of the Premier League’s ‘best’
If anybody was doubting Aston Villa at the start of the season, it’s safe to say the Premier League are beginning to take note of just how good Unai Emery’s side can be.
Villa have quickly established themselves as genuine contenders for the Champions League places this season with their electric start to the campaign and a rather large factor in their recent excellent form has been the incredible individual displays from Ollie Watkins.
The English international has already found the net seven times in 13 Premier League matches this season, picking up a further five assists and BBC Sport pundit Danny Murphy was blown away by the 27-year-old’s performance against Tottenham.
Speaking on Match of the Day 2 (26 November, 15:35) he said: “Watkins one of the best at running in behind, Villa know that, they’re going to try and get the ball in behind to him.
“This is a brilliant goal from Ollie Watkins, again with the space in behind.”
It has become a trademark of Aston Villa’s game just how often they look for Watkins in behind the opposition backline and the striker gets on the end of more progressive passes than 70 per cent of the Premier League’s forwards, with an average of 5.83 received a game [Fbref].
While that still means plenty of strikers are played in behind more often than Watkins, it becomes more impressive when you consider just how little Villa play the ball into their striker. An average of less than 20 passes are played into Watkins a match, a figure which places him in the 25th percentile of all forwards.
That means more than a quarter of the passes directed to Watkins each match are deemed progressive, so roughly one in four of his touches help Aston Villa advance up the field and towards the opposition’s goal.
This method of repeatedly running in behind has obviously served the 27-year-old as well as he places in the 94th percentile of his positional peers for touches in the opposition penalty area, typically registering just under seven a game.
Watkins is managing to consistently test goalkeepers from these touches in the penalty area. The average distance he shoots from is closer to the goal than 96 per cent of strikers, suggesting that Villa are getting him close to the opposition net with the balls in behind.
With an average of 3.11 shots a game, Watkins places in the 83rd percentile for attempts per game. The next priority for the forward has to be hitting the target more consistently as only 43.6 per cent of his efforts hit the target.
Murphy is certainly correct in his assessment that Aston Villa have one of the Premier League’s best forwards in terms of running in behind, but if Watkins can discover a clinical edge, Emery’s side could have one of the world’s best finishers as well.
In other Aston Villa news, Jacob Ramsey could be in line for his first start of the season against Legia Warsaw