Aston Villa: £75k-p/w star was Emery’s true villain v Liverpool
The Villans attacker had a dismal game for Unai Emery’s team.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Matty Cash scored an own goal during Villa’s defeat to Liverpool but there was another villain in Unai Emery’s squad.
- The player in question only completed seven passes during the whole game.
Aston Villa will enter the first international break of the season on the back of a 3-0 defeat to Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday, after they failed to pick up any points.
How did Aston Villa lose to Liverpool?
Hungary international Dominik Szoboszlai opened the scoring for the hosts when he was given too much space on the edge of the box and his left-footed effort soared into the far corner.
Darwin Nunez’s effort from roughly 12 yards cannoned back off the post and into the net off the unfortunate Matty Cash, who had little time to move out of the way.
In the 55th minute, Mohamed Salah pounced at the back post from Nunez’s flick-on to tap into a nearly empty net, with Villa’s defenders totally switching off from the corner.
That said, the backline weren’t the only members of the Villa squad to underperform, with Ollie Watkins also out of sorts.
How did Ollie Watkins perform against Liverpool?
Whilst there were a number of less-than-impressive performers for Unai Emery’s side on Sunday, Watkins stood out as the true villain for the head coach with his display at the top end of the pitch.
Cash did score an own goal to enable Liverpool cruise to victory, but the Poland international was not without redeeming characteristics.
The former Nottingham Forest man won four of his six ground duels and made two clearances and four tackles to reclaim possession for his team, demonstrating that he was at least physically powerful.
Watkins, on the other hand, was worse than Cash in that he battled with both sides of the ball, failing to provide enough in and out of possession throughout his 73-minute stint.
The England international accumulated 0.20 xG during the game, and his greatest chance came when Lucas Digne’s cross reached him in the area, but he was only able to scuff his effort wide of the post rather than challenging Alisson.
According to Sofascore, the £75k-per-week earner completed only seven of nine passes attempted, while no other Villa starter – including Diego Carlos, who came off hurt after 19 minutes – completed fewer than ten passes.
This demonstrates that Watkins was unable to enter the game and was left isolated at the top of the pitch. He didn’t do enough to become involved in the game, which led to his ineffectiveness in the final third.
While Liverpool’s dominance (64% possession) may be blamed for his lack of engagement, the 27-year-old did not help himself with a lack of physicality against Joe Gomez and Joel Matip, losing three of his four (75%) duels and being shoved aside much too easily.
Indeed, it’s evident that Watkins’ contributions on and off the ball were underwhelming. He lacked the strength to hold the ball up as an out ball to relieve pressure for his team and squandered the one presentable opportunity that did fall his way to get the team back into the game.
