Ollie.Watkins ......
They say good things come to those that wait. Society has this expectation on players to make it to the top flight at a certain age when realistically the conveyor belt to early-success is not for everyone. It’s great being an early success, but it’s equally as beautiful to be a late bloomer, creating their own timeline and thus producing the most artistic stories.
Oliver ‘Ollie’ Watkins was born in December 1995 (24) in Torquay, Devon. Having undertaken his football education at Exeter City academy despite been turned down the opportunity to join at the age of 9, he worked his way into the system at the age of 11. He progressed well through the ranks, noticeably scoring 30 goals at U18 level. This led him to sign his first professional deal at 19 (2014).
As development isn’t always linear; Ollie decided to go out on loan into the Non-League for Somerset outfit Weston-Super-Mare FC where he spent the 2014/15 season developing as a senior player. This is a strong indication of his maturity & belief in his ability at an early age. There is always a risk going down to the NonLeague; the style is not directly reflective to the higher tiers though it’s Men’s football which is essential to add to your mileage. Ollie joined in
December 2014 and finished the season with 10 goals in 25 appearances. With that run of form, he was rewarded with game time at Exeter City the following season.
He had a few good periods which saw him win Football League Young Player of the Month & PFA Fans’ Player of the month award for March 2016. He finished that campaign with 10 goals in 22 appearances. He featured a lot more in the following season, hitting double figures in both goals & assists (13 goals & 10 assists) and his cameo performances in the EFL League Two Playoff Semifinal, scoring twice and assisting.
This form led him to jump two divisions to Championship side Brentford FC signing a fouryear deal in July 2017.
dribbling KEY
key player off the ball run passed ball
teammates
opposition
01 01 SCENARIO 01
Moving across the backline to receive the ball in space
COMPLETE FORWARD
Ollie is regarded as a quite versatile player; posessing the ability to play in several different positions.
He signed under Dean Smith who usually selected him as a left-winger in a 4–3–3 or 4–1–4–1/4–2–3–1. After his departure in 2018, Thomas Frank, who was Dean Smith’s assistant manager was promoted to his heir. He preferred a 3–4–3/4–3–3 formation which consists of attacking possessionbased football; Watkins also featured as a winger who occupied both flanks. It was only after Brentford’s marquee striker Neal Maupay joined Brighton Hove & Albion in 2019 that Thomas Frank took the gamble with Watkins as a Centre Forward. Guess the gamble paid off…
Playing in different positions he has picked up good traits that make him the versatile package he is today. Playing for Brentford would require you to have sound technical ability which is something he exceeds in. He has varied ways of progressing & retaining possession: good passing ability & tricky dribbling that he conquered during his winger days. Ollie also has a good eye for goal, a vicious right foot & a controlled header.
His actions off-the-ball are even more gratifying. Firstly he is a two way forward: dangerous in front & on the shoulder of the defender. His ability to identify space in wide & central areas is high class. His understanding to lose his marker and find spaces between defenders is something we saw over and over this season; he shows this skill to a high level.
Ollie stands in quality physical shape; at 5”10 he plays the maximum amount of minutes due to hardly ever being injured. A great engine that often leads the press, he has a great attitude whilst playing.
BUILD UP PLAY
Brentford focuses heavily on progressive build up play; playing their way through defence is their primary gameplan. Pinnock, Jansson & Jeanvier are all defenders who are comfortable with the ball at their feet, all averaging over 40 sccurate passes per game.
Watkins’ involvement in this phase is low but he isn’t shy to drop into the spaces when the opposition applies a high press, or in rotation with the central midfielder. Finding spaces between the
midfield and defence to ease pressure is something he does well. Alternatively, he can also be found with the long ball. He averages around 5 passes in this phase per 90 minutes with a success rate of 79%. If he is found, he regularly plays a lay-off pass to his central midfielder or wide man; or if no pressure is applied turns and attacks the defence.
PROGRESSION INTO THE FINAL THIRD
It’s in this phase where we see more participation; specifically his ball retention, ball-carrying & offthe-ball-activity.
Brentford’s use of positional rotation is key to Ollie’s success. Their midfielders drag opponents out of position by making clever, varied runs, creating pockets of space that players like Watkins can manipulate and design combinations. Mathias Jenson & Josh DaSilva do this very well.
As Watkins is a solid two-way player, this makes the job of the defender tricky as they would need to decide whether to go or stay. If he is in deep positions, with space to attack, he can use his ball-carrying ability to capitalise on the opportunity. Strong in receiving the ball of his back foot the Torquay born forward attempts 2.5 dribbles per 90 minutes with a high 51% success rate. Or if he’s under immediate pressure, he physically places himself in a position to be a bouncing board for his team-mates. From his successful passes forward passes make-up 30% whilst backward passes tally up 44%. As the goal is to progress the ball vertically, both instances are essential.
The telepathy he created with his team-mates was very under-appreciated and not always picked up by metrics. Whilst one is hugging the touchline preparing for an isolated 1v1, the other will be creeping into the half-space for an opportunity to shoot from range or work their way into the box. Watkins used this to his advantage; scanning the pitch for pockets to enter to progress play or create combinations.
It’s not always pretty football. If the opposition pressed high and hard, the forward presented himself as a direct option. Whether that is getting ahead of the defender, battling for the first & second ball, stretching the backline by making runs into channels; the forward utilises various ways to progress play.
FINISHING & ASSISTS
A total tally of 22 non-penalty goals is an excellent return for any CF at any level. He was sitting at second on the top scorer list, one-off Mitrovic (26). This can only be achieved with a high understanding of where to be positioned, the movement to lose defenders, and composure to convert chances.
Ollie Watkins in his natural habitat is a three-waytype scorer with a spread of goals across head (8), left foot (4) & right foot(10). He is extremely dangerous in the box scoring 95% of his chances inside there, bread and butter centre forward stuff. His goal at the Hull City was a perfect example of that; an out-ball to Rico Henry in behind the right full-back, Ollie burst a gut to get himself inside the box. He positioned himself between the two centre-backs. Henry delivered a floating ball that Watkins met with his head to convert it home. He exceeded his xG (0.47) which is an indication that he is scoring more than he is predicted to. A goal that he may not have been expected to score was his sensational effort versus Blackburn; Jansson progressed the ball into midfield where he played a ball over the top of the Blackburn defence. Ollie made a move past the defence and retrieved the ball with his chest and brought it down to his right foot. Once the ball dropped, he released a deadly strike on the half-volley that saw the ball into the top corner.
His assists tally last season (3) decreased from the season prior (10); which is understandable as he is playing a more central role. As opposed to being a direct creator, Ollie prefers to play-make opportunities. The key pass metric defines ‘the final pass or pass-come-shot leading to the recipient of the ball having an attempt at goal without scoring’. According to InStat, the top 3 players that have the highest similarity percentage to Ollie are Karlan Grant (Huddersfield), Anthony Martial (Manchester United) & Tammy Abraham (Chelsea). Ollie registered 2 key passes per 90, and sits above those three who average just the one per 90.
CONCLUSION
Brentford is a high creation team; focusing on creating high percentage opportunities. They sat 6th on the big chances created table with 73. Despite a great season in front of goal; Ollie has missed a bank of big chances in 15. Quite a lot is down to moments of poor composure & lapses of concentration. This also aligns with his ball retention ability. Earlier, we mentioned his ability to be an assertive ball carrier and a link between the midfield and attack. With this being said the forward does alert flags of inconsistency with his passing accuracy and ability to retain possession.
His number shows that on average he loses the ball 11x per game and a pass completion of 75%. The final third is where he has the lowest successful interaction with the ball, with a total of 417 passes and a success rate of 72%. Also, it’s good to mention that he also has a low success rate of forward-passes, although he has attempted a high number (302 with a 66% success rate). This shows that he has good intentions but often lacks: correct decision making or sustaining high concentration levels. Playing against teams that sit tight in banks of fours become hard to penetrate. Growing in frustration & forcing passes do tend to arise when the solution is often to stay patient and keep working the ball. These are tendencies that we often see in wingers. As this is just a mentality switch, we believe he can overcome this.
One thing he does very well is score ‘centreforward-type’ goals. Naturally, there would be question marks on whether Ollie would shine in an environment where he isn’t blessed with a support system like Brentford’s.
A bulk of Watkins goals have come from his team-mates putting the ball into high percentage positions and where he tucks them away. Some could say that this is down to instruction on how Thomas Frank wants his side to operate; him being the focal point of the attack. That’s not to say that he can’t do so. During his time as a wide-man, he
has had his fair share of moments coming off the touchline onto his favoured right foot. But the consistency of this concluding in a goal is relatively low.
A point to note, despite having a good ratio of headed goals is that he isn’t particularly dominating in the air. The front-man has only won 36% of his aerial duels. Although this is quite a low number, this also shines a light on how he focuses more on getting himself in the right space and anticipating where it’s going to drop than battling for aerial duels.
With that being said; Ollie is a great team player. We spoke about his versatility and how selfless he can be. Often leading the press he is a tenacious runner; the type that runs until it hurts. He averages 1.35 ball recoveries per 90 minutes, 0.75 of those coming from the oppositions half. Watkins’ understanding of space isn’t only used from an offensive point of view, 1.43 interceptions per 90 minutes show his knowledge of anticipating and intercepting space from a defensive aspect.
Aston Villa
Even though Aston Villa scored 41 goals last season; they desperately missed having a focalpoint in their strike force. Injury to Wesley meant that Keinan Davis & Jonathan Kodjia had to feature, but both struggled to put numbers on the board. Villa severely relied on the services of Jack Grealish for the goals (8) which saw them scrape relegation on the last day. With the introduction of Ollie Watkins, Villa will be relieved to have a reliable forward with a top-scoring record. Similar to his experience in the Championship, he will try to build partnerships with different players. Cute interchanges with Grealish, the deep cross-field balls from McGinn & crosses from Matty Cash. Selfless as well; he will act as Villa’s first defender. Clinical, he can put up decent numbers on the board if he is assisted well.