Aston Villa: Rio Ferdinand amazed by ‘off the charts’ Ollie Watkins after what he’s seen
Rio Ferdinand has included Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins in his discussion for the best English player in the Premier League and praised him for the season he’s had.
The Villa man has been very consistent since joining the club from Brentford in 2020 scoring a positive amount of goals each year.
This campaign has seen him take off with him now having registered the most goal involvements of any player in the league.
Now in a debate on 5 Magazine’s YouTube Channel, Ferdinand has named Watkins in the debate amongst his fellow presenters.
He said: “I think there’s a really great shout for Ollie Watkins who’s goal involvements are off the charts as well.
“Watkins is a great shout. Not fashionable in terms of the names we are talking like Palmer and Foden but what he is doing there under Unai Emery is crazy. Assists, goals, hard to play against.”
Is Ollie Watkins the best English player in the Premier League for Aston Villa?
As Ferdinand said, Watkins is not a fashionable shout. As a result, players like Buyako Saka, Palmer and Foden are always going to be ahead of him in the pecking order.
The Villa man has made 31 starts for the Villans this season and in that time has scored a well-coveted 18 and assisted an additional 10 [FotMob].
This means he has the most goal involvements in the whole league while being second top goal scorer and top assister.
Considering that Villa are fighting for fourth place, currently sitting in fifth and not in a title race, his record is even more impressive. Comparatively, Palmer has been superb with 25 goal involvements [FotMob] for a poor, midtable Chelsea side.
On the show, Ferdinand was cut off in favour of naming Dominic Solanke as being better than Watkins.
There is no doubt that the fellow Englishman has had a great season. According to FotMob, he has 16 goals and three assists of his own which is a positive return.
Looking at the Villa man on Fbref, he registers amongst Europe’s elite for stats such as 0.55 non-penalty goals, 0.29 assists and 5.72 attacking penalty box touches.
The Bournemouth striker registers at an average of the 70 percentile or below on Fbref for the same statistics. They are comparative but Watkins belittles him with pure goal involvements.
There is a debate to be had about the current campaign. Saka, Palmer, Foden etc. have a higher ceiling but the Villa talisman has had the best season.
In other Aston Villa news, an ex-Villa employee has slammed “ridiculous” Premier League talks after a £100million reveal.
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