23 Nov 2025 17:03:45
Not the best game but a combination of a poor pitch and playing a team more intent on violence than football contributed to that.
Feels like we need Watkins and Malen together. Malen cannot play that lone striker role, the "strikers have to score" crowd don't know football.
Watkins is still doing the hard work but is isolated, especially when Rogers comes so deep. The injury is clearly hampering his pace, hopefully they find a solution that works for him and the team.
1.) 23 Nov 2025
23 Nov 2025 17:28:37
Said this many times before on here, Ollie is a nice guy, has scored many goals for us, but he’s not an assassin of a striker, who lives to score goals, what would you rather have, a striker with a good work rate or someone who scores goals that win matches? I don’t know who that guy would be on our budget but it’s what we need if we have any top 4 or winning trophies aspirations
UTV
2.) 23 Nov 2025
23 Nov 2025 17:48:20
At least you admit you're part of the group I refer to.
A finisher getting one chance every 120 minutes and the team suffering defensively is useless for the majority of teams.
It is no coincidence that the likes of Ings and Duran haven't lasted and Malen doesn't start regularly.
Put Harry Kane in our team and we're in trouble. Ollie works for the system but we need to get him fit and actually have players around him and working with his strengths.
3.) 23 Nov 2025
23 Nov 2025 17:51:46
They are out there allstar, Brentford keep finding them, Igor Thiago their latest addition that is banging them in, we need to find the gems as we can’t afford to buy the proven ones. seems like every time Malen comes on he has a hand in goals
4.) 23 Nov 2025
23 Nov 2025 18:32:37
Always thought Whackie, if Brighton are linked with someone, then we should be sniffing round them too ? they’ve been linked with a Real Madrid striker, Gonzalo Garcia? Was top scorer in that World Club Championship that Chelsea won, maybe worth a look at in January?
UTV
5.) 23 Nov 2025
23 Nov 2025 18:37:04
Rknewell agree all the way, Ollie is so much better with Malan up there with him . For one it takes a lot of pressure of him, with more space he could get his touch back .
We know at the moment Ollie is lacking in confidence, problem is he just doesn’t attack the ball . Noticed how the pulse rates go up when Malan gets the ball . UTV
6.) 23 Nov 2025
23 Nov 2025 18:37:23
We're in a difficult position when it comes to strikers, Spurs are finding themselves in the same boat.
Thiago and Evanilson look great in teams that are purely counter attack and find a lot of space to run into.
Kane is a great finisher in a team with huge amounts of possession and is hugely expensive.
We are in between, we don't have a squad that can dominate every week but we are above playing purely on the break.
The prices for Pedro, Ekitike, Woltemade and Wissa were madness and results show we are better off sticking with what we have.
I do think we need to find another proper 9 to compete and eventually succeed Ollie, Malen isn't the answer in that role. Hopefully we can find a youngish striker with the right physical and athletic mix (or work with Rogers to follow a similar path to Ollie)
7.) 23 Nov 2025
23 Nov 2025 18:39:55
Just to add to this thread, don’t know how true it is, but was told that a deal had been agreed for Ollie to go to Arsenal in the summer, fee, personal terms, the deal didn’t happen because the striker Unai wanted didn’t come to Villa, I’m going to assume with the finances that it could’ve been Jonathan David on a free, just something I was told ??♂️
UTV