Unai Emery takes surprise risk with Ollie Watkins decision as Aston Villa starting XI emerges v Middlesbrough
Unai Emery may have taken a risk with Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins axed for Saturday’s clash with Middlesbrough.
The Premier League takes a break this coming weekend as the FA Cup fixtures come round and Emery will be hoping to build on from their 3-2 win over Burnley (30 December) at Villa Park when they take on Michael Carrick’s men on Teeside.
The Villans confirmed their starting XI for the game at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday afternoon (6 January) with Emery making five changes from the side which triumphed over Vincent Kompany’s team.
Emery surprisingly aces Ollie Watkins and Douglas Luiz for the clash at the Riverside stadium with Jhon Duran and Leander Dendoncker coming in their place.
Boubacar Kamara returns to the lineup after completing a three-match ban and sits alongside Dendoncker in midfield while Matty Cash replaces Diego Carlos to sit at right back. Pau Torres is rested again with a place on the bench.
Middlesbrough will certainly pose a real threat to Emery’s team on Saturday evening and the Spaniard will urging his side not to hand Michael Carrick’s men any room to cause an upset.
But, Villa fans will be upset not to see Watkins in the starting XI given his tremendous influence in recent weeks.
Watkins may not have got on the scoresheet against Kompany’s men, but he was integral to the win, picking up two assists in the clash for both Bailey and Diaby’s goals with two excellent passes into the box [SofaScore].
The 28-year-old only had 24 touches in the clash but managed to make every single one of them count. Eight of those came in the opposition area [Fotmob], highlighting how much Emery has improved his game by getting involved with the play closer to goal and he managed to complete 72 per cent of his 18 attempted passes.
Three of those passes managed to create chances for his teammates, meaning that 23 per cent of all of Watkins’ completed passes led to a genuine goalscoring chance for his teammates.
The Englishman left BBC pundit and former Women’s football star Farah Williams speechless live on BBC Final Score on Saturday as she was watching over developments at Villa Park, dubbing him “phenomenal” (30 December, 22:50).
The Englishman sits in the 99th percentile of Premier League strikers for goal-creating actions per 90 minutes this season and the 96th for assists per game [Fbref] evidenced by his nine goals and a whopping eight assists so far this campaign – the most assists of any player in the English top-flight this season.
Duran, who’s scored just two goals from 15 games replaces the Englishman and it is indeed a big chance for the Colombian to stake his claim to Emery against Middlesbrough who are as dangerous as any of the top sides in the Championship.
A big and surprise risk by Emery but will it pay off?
In other Aston Villa news, a star player has justified his British record price tag already this season.