Unai Emery must make decisive Ollie Watkins call for Aston Villa at halftime v Leicester City
Aston Villa supporters and Unai Emery would have been happy with how the Villans started their Premier League clash with Leicester City.
The Villans headed into the break 1-0 up on the Foxes on Saturday (31 August) as Amadou Onana scored from close range after both teams struggled to create too many great chances of note in a cagey first half.
All of Emery’s side’s opportunities in the opening period, barring the Belgian’s goal, appeared to fall to Ollie Watkins and the normally reliable striker looked off of the pace as he repeatedly spurned scoring opportunities.
While he did hammer the ball across the penalty area for Onana’s strike, he wasn’t able to find the net himself in the opening 45 minutes despite producing an xG of 0.7 and xG on target of 0.32, according to Fotmob.
The 28-year-old was too slow to shoot on a couple of occasions as well and despite having four touches in the opposition’s penalty area, he only actually tested Mads Hermansen once as he spurned two ‘big chances’.
This was something that Watkins rarely did last season. Over the course of the league campaign, he overperformed his xG by an average of 0.06 a game, according to Fbref.
That record placed him in the top 28 per cent of the division’s strikers last term and for whatever reason he appears to have lost that scoring touch in between the Euros and the new Premier League season.
Throughout the first half, Villa struggled to get the ball to their frontman. He finished the half with just 12 touches of the ball and on the rare occasions he did get it, he struggled to maintain possession.
Watkins was unsuccessful with 100 per cent of his attempted dribbles as he repeatedly ran into trouble with the ball at his feet.
When it came to his work without the ball, the 28-year-old was slightly reckless when it came to both ground duels and tackles. The striker won zero per cent of his attempted tackles and only 40 per cent of his five battles in the match.
To top it off, the Aston Villa star committed two fouls to give the home side some rest bite and time to reset just as Emery’s side began to put the pressure on.
Will Unai Emery substitute Ollie Watkins for Aston Villa v Leicester City?
Emery has Jhon Duran sat on the bench ready to be introduced in the second half. Already this season, the 20-year-old forward has shown that clinical edge that Watkins has been missing since the Euros.
Against West Ham United on the opening weekend, the Colombian forward found the net with his only effort on target in the clash which only carried an xG of 0.15.
While Watkins has plenty of credit in the bank with Emery because of his performances last term, the Villa boss simply has to make a change upfront so that his side begins taking their chances in the final third.
In other Aston Villa news, Emery has been told to make a new Tyrone Mings decision after developments at Villa Park
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