Dean Smith’s backing Ollie Watkins to finish with an Aston Villa flourish
Dean Smith has tipped “goal hungry” Ollie Watkins to continue his scoring streak as the Villa striker targets a strong finish to the season.
Watkins has netted in each of his last three matches, including last month’s debut strike for England against San Marino, taking his tally for the campaign to 15 in all competitions for club and country.
The 25-year-old is targeting the 20-goal mark in what is his first season since joining Villa in a club record £28million move from Brentford and knows a strong finish could help force his way into Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2020 squad.
Watkins had gone seven matches without scoring before netting on his Three Lions bow and has since scored against Fulham and Liverpool in the Premier League.
Smith felt the striker’s all-round performance in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Anfield in particular marked a return to form.
The boss said: “Ollie has never lacked for motivation. His chief motivation is to score goals for Villa.
“He is a hungry boy in terms of goalscoring and he will want to keep doing that.
“I thought his all-round performance on Saturday was excellent. There have probably been three or four games where he has probably not been at the top of his game.
“On Saturday he was much more like himself. He took his goal really well, a great finish and worked tirelessly up front. I was really pleased for him.”
Smith, meanwhile, insists Villa still have plenty left to play for despite a run of just two wins in eight matches denting their European hopes.
Villa now sit 11th in the Premier League ahead of next Wednesday’s visit of runaway leaders Manchester City. But with three of their remaining eight matches being against either Everton or Tottenham, who sit just above them in the table, a late push toward top seven remains possible if they can rediscover their form.
Villa will face the eighth-placed Toffees twice in a matter of days next month with their home fixture against Carlo Ancelotti’s team still to be rescheduled after being postponed in January.
Smith said: “There are a lot of points to play for still. We want to finish as high as we can.
“Last Saturday we went to the home of the champions and tried to win the game. We will try and do that in every game we play and see where that takes us.”
Villa are assessing the fitness of Morgan Sanson ahead of next week’s clash with City.
The French midfielder, who joined in a £14million January move from Marseille, missed the trip to Liverpool with a knee injury sustained in the 3-1 win over Fulham earlier this month.
