Ollie Watkins’ Aston Villa future in jeopardy after pathetic scenes vs Leeds United
Ollie Watkins’ Aston Villa career is crumbling right before our eyes.
Aston Villa beat Leeds United 2-1 at Elland Road on Sunday, no thanks to Watkins‘ contribution for the Villans.
Unai Emery was warned about starting Watkins again, but thankfully for Villa fans, the forward was bailed out by the rest of his team-mates.
Morgan Rogers scored a sensational brace, and Donyell Malen made a fantastic impact from the bench.
With other options patiently waiting on the sidelines, Watkins should be looking over his shoulder after his latest performance.
Ollie Watkins was useless against Leeds United
Watkins has scored once in 17 games for Aston Villa this campaign, a significant drop from the 17 netted last season.
All Aston Villa fans want is for Watkins to return to his normal self of scoring goals, but as the games go by, that’s looking more and more like wishful thinking.
The striker was poor once again against Leeds, and the stats prove the grim reality.
| Minutes | Expected goals (xG) | Big chances missed | Possession lost | Rating |
| 68 | 0.33 | 1 | 9 | 6.4 |
The Englishman was hooked shortly after an hour had been played in the match and was replaced by Jadon Sancho, who may be in contention to start now.
On top of this, Watkins only managed to complete a mere 56 per cent of his underwhelming nine passes against Leeds, touching the ball on 22 occasions, doing nothing with it most of the time.
With the 2026 World Cup around the corner, you would have thought Watkins would be making more of a statement.
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Watkins’ conversion rate calls for a January decision
Ironically, Watkins’ last goal actually came for England back in the October international break, during a 3-0 victory over Wales.
Since then, the striker has gone on a run of seven games without a goal for Villa in all competitions, and is really making a mockery of Emery’s decision to pick him.
Watkins has managed to convert just five per cent of his shots in the Premier League this season, with his best days now seemingly behind him.
January could be the perfect opportunity for Emery and Roberto Olabe to target a new centre-forward, and potentially even offload Watkins.
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