Ollie is still so hardy in his dry spell
DEAN BACKS WATKINS
ASTON VILLA manager Dean Smith says his misfiring striker Ollie Watkins will not be found sulking – despite a run of five games without a goal.
The 24- year- old has hit a barren patch after a blistering start to the season following his £ 28million move from Brentford last summer.
Watkins began life in n the Premier League brilliantly ntly and topped Villa’s goal al charts with eight after the e opening 10 games.
His luck is out right now but Smith will not t have to have to put an arm m around the player as Villa lla prepare for the Boxing Day clash with Crystal Palace.
Smith, above, said: “Ollie’s not the sort of lad that needs to be picked up. He’ll feel aggrieved enough to go and try even harder to score in the next game.”
His blistering opening included a memorable hat- trick in the freak 7- 2 destruction of Liverpool but in the last few weeks Watkins has had two goals struck off in marginal VAR decisions.
“I was one of the ones who said about VAR ‘ there’s a line now, it doesn’t matter if it’s a millimetre’,” added Smith. “But they’ve been very marginal.
The West Ham one should have been a goal or a penalty. They went the other way and they gave something it shouldn’t have been.
“And to my naked eye, I thought it was onside against West Brom. We’re talking millimetres. I felt the defend defender’s shoulder played him on. But they’re the ones with w the technology. Ollie won’t need any picking up, he’ll just be keen to get back on track.”
Palace will go into the ga game on the back of a 7- 0 thu thumping by Liverpool last weeke weekend but Smith is not sure that has made the task any easier.
He said: “That will have really hurt them. But we feel we are in a good place at the moment and we need to make sure we are ready for a team who will be smarting.”
The last time Palace came to town was a watershed moment in Villa’s history – a 2- 0 home win ending a dismal 10- game run without a victory and sparking a haul of eight points from the last four games to pull off an astonishing escape last season.
Smith said: “It was a big game. That kick- started the comeback from being seven points adrift and retaining our status. Now we have Palace in another big game.”