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Aston Villa: Stevie Green heaps praise on Ollie Watkins

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Image for Aston Villa: Stevie Green heaps praise on Ollie Watkins

Podcaster and Aston Villa fan Stevie Green has been sharing his praise for Ollie Watkins and his season with the Midlands club so far. 

This comes after Green made an appearance on a recent episode of Villa-themed podcast Holtecast where he spoke about a range of topics concerning Dean Smith’s side, including their recent 2-1 win over Everton in the Premier League.

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First up in this Gareth Barry quiz, which club did Villa sign the midfielder from?

On the subject of Watkins, who scored Villa’s first goal at Goodison Park at the weekend, Green had this to say about the striker (5:45)

He said: “To be honest, I’ve got to hold my hands up a little bit there because at the start of the season, he was scoring in patches and he wasn’t finding the net consistently. The work rate, I think was always there, but I wanted a goal scorer.

“Particularly as he was the only striker we really had for quite a while with [Keinan] Davis and Wesley both being injured, but every week, he seems to look better and better and the runs he makes, the pressure that he puts teams under his like boundless energy, the guy runs for 90 minutes and just doesn’t stop.

“He’s proven to be a bit of a snip at what we’ve paid for him, coming up from the Championship to get into double figures in your first season, and then make your international debut.

“Next season, I think, with a bit more reinforcement and a slightly improved supply line perhaps I think we’ll really see a lot more from him. He’s been brilliant and that goal yesterday [against Everton] was fantastically taken.”

Villa signed Watkins back in the summer transfer window from Championship side Brentford for a club-record fee of £28 million.

TIF Thoughts on Stevie Green’s comments on Watkins…

During his debut season with the Villans, the 25-year-old, who is currently valued at £28.8 million, has made 36 appearances for the club across the Premier League and the Carabao Cup in which he has managed to score 15 goals and provide four assists in the process (per Transfermarkt).

Has Ollie Watkins been Villa's most important player this season?

Yes

Yes

No

No

Given that Watkins managed to earn himself an impressive match rating of 7.91/10 for his performance against Everton, making him the joint-highest rated Villa player on the day alongside Ross Barkley it just shows how pivotal he was in this victory.

Also, with Watkins having played every minute of Premier League action for Villa so far this season, this shows just how well he has fitted into Smith’s side and how important he has been for them.

In our view, if Watkins can improve on the numbers he has produced this season at Villa for their next league campaign, this would give them a huge boost and potentially push them further up the league table.

In other news: Gregg Evans issues Matheus Pereira transfer update at Aston Villa

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