I hope Watkins told Villa stars to their faces

I LIKE that Ollie Watkins was prepared to dig out his own Aston Villa team-mates last week after their 3-3 draw with Brentford. I just hope he told them to their faces first. Watkins was bemoaning the fact that Villa keep throwing away two-goal leads and don’t possess the ‘big-team mentality’ to kill off the opposition. They didn’t manage the game properly. He included himself in the criticism, which is fair enough, so he wasn’t absolving himself from any blame and has spoken like an experienced professional making a generalisation about Villa’s team. But, if I was in that dressing room and he hadn’t told me before that was printed, I’d be asking him: ‘Are you talking about me?’ You would hope he has addressed the players first and told them his feelings before going on TV. If he has gone straight to the media and not spoken to his team-mates before then players will resent that and there will be consequences. I’m all for telling a few home truths, it makes a group stronger. But experience tells you that it may not be best done in public. It should really stay on the training ground or in the dressing room. Unai Emery and his staff will be delighted because they will be hoping Watkins has lit the fire for them as they build up to face Arsenal tomorrow. At Liverpool the staff used to stand back and let us players sort it out among ourselves. Kenny Dalglish and I had disagreements on a regular basis if it wasn’t going right on the pitch. One time at Coventry City when we were 3-0 down at halftime. I said to Kenny, ‘Any chance you can get hold of the ball and get us started?’ And Kenny was saying, ‘Any danger you can start winning a tackle to get the ball?’ With every angry sentence we were taking a step closer to each other. It became more and more heated but none of the staff intervened as we were doing their job for them. How was it resolved? We lost 4-0. It was a reminder no one is perfect.