Troy Deeney has slammed Aston Villa’s “ego” problem and called out one of Unai Emery’s key players after their dry spell of form continued last weekend.
Villa winless after opening five games
Very few fans would’ve predicted Villa to be in the Premier League relegation zone after their first five games, but they’re currently occupying 18th place, after drawing three and losing two, scoring just one goal in the process.
Most recently, the Villans came up short at the Stadium of Light, drawing 1-1, despite Sunderland being reduced to ten men in the first half, with Wilson Isidor cancelling out Matty Cash’s opening goal.
The problems have continued to mount at Villa Park, with it subsequently being confirmed that sporting director Monchi is set to leave, in what could be another major blow for Emery, amid widespread speculation surrounding the manager’s future.
As mentioned, one of Villa’s main issues up to this stage has been the failure to score goals, with Ollie Watkins yet to find the back of the net, and Deeney has now singled the striker out for criticism.
The former Birmingham City man said: “The biggest problem is lack of goals, lack of goals from Ollie at this moment in time.
“At this moment in time, you’re the only striker there, you’re the one they’re looking towards and for the start of the season, you’re not delivering.
The talkSPORT pundit also went on to add: “At the moment in time, he just looks off it, he looks comfortable.”
Not only is Deeney unimpressed with Watkins’ start to the campaign, but he is also concerned there may be an “ego” problem at Villa, saying: “It’s a weird one. I thought maybe with [Jadon] Sancho and [Harvey] Elliott coming in, there’d be a bit more dynamism to it. But they must not be fit enough as he’s not putting them anywhere near the starting line-up. It’s an ego thing now, a player-driven ego thing.”
“I think the manager is a very, very good manager, but you have to start looking now and saying: Why are the players trying to play inside the pitch? Why is Morgan Rogers not the focal point?”
Watkins needs to start firing after poor start
No one can deny the Villa striker has been a fantastic servant, having picked up 87 goals and 42 assists in 229 matches, but he must start firing sooner rather than later, having once again put in a poor performance against Sunderland.
The England international missed one big chance and touched the ball just 16 times throughout the match, finishing with a SofaScore match rating of just 6.3.
In fairness, the onus isn’t just on the former Brentford man to start improving, with fellow key player Morgan Rogers also failing to register a single goal or an assist this term, while Shay Given has called Emery out for labelling his players “lazy”.
It is a risky tactic for Emery to publicly criticise his players, but he will be hoping for a response from his side when their Europa League campaign gets underway against Bologna on Thursday.
