Unai Emery: Aston Villa have the firepower to help Ollie Watkins
Unai Emery is confident Villa have enough firepower, but admitted the burden for scoring goals can’t fall solely on the shoulders of Ollie Watkins.
The England international has scored in both Premier League matches since the sale of this season’s top scorer Danny Ings to West Ham, but no other Villa player has found the net, with wastefulness in front of goal a factor in Saturday’s 4-2 home defeat to Leicester.
Emery had been keen to add an experienced striker before last week’s deadline, but has since declared himself happy with the squad and stressed the importance of players from all positions chipping in with goals.
“I have complete confidence in our squad and in our strikers,” he said. “Of course, Ollie Watkins is going to play 100 per cent as a striker and he will compete with Jhon Duran.
“But we also have players who can play with him – Bailey, as a second striker – or as a 10 we have Coutinho or Emiliano Buendia.
“Then we have utility players like McGinn and Ramsey who can play inside or outside. I want them to help us by adding goals.
“There are different ways to get goals, with a striker, with wingers, with midfielders – with centre-backs maybe or left and right-backs.
“I want everyone trying to defend and everyone trying to attack, trying to hit the targets for their position.”
Duran, who joined from Chicago Fire for an initial £14.75million, made his debut off the bench on Saturday and though Emery is wary of putting too much pressure on the 19-year-old, he will be used extensively in a supporting role.
Villa also recalled winger Bertrand Traore from a loan spell at Istanbul Basaksehir on deadline day, having been quoted big fees for their primary forward targets and deciding it would be better to wait for the summer before committing major money.
Left-back Alex Moreno was their only other addition of the January window.
Emery said: “I am perfectly happy with the squad because we are not playing in Europe, we are not playing in cups.
“We have options, we have two players for every position. I think that’s enough.
“They have shown me their skills level, now I want them to be competitive and demanding and they are doing it.”
