Dean Smith warns something will be troubling Ollie Watkins at Aston Villa this season

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Ollie Watkins has been one of Aston Villa’s key performers in the five years that he’s been at the club, firing them to the Champions League from the bottom half of the Premier League in just four years at the club.

However, former boss Dean Smith believes worries could surround the beleaguered England star at present.

Ollie Watkins, who signed for Villa under Smith in 2020 after playing for him at Brentford, joined the West Midlands club after they’d only escaped relegation from the top-flight on the final day of the campaign prior.

Since then, he’s taken them to new heights with double figures in each and every one of his top-flight seasons.

Notching 14 in his debut campaign at Aston Villa, his worst season to date was the 2021/22 campaign in which he still managed to score 11 league goals.

But after a slow start this time around including a missed penalty vs Bologna in the Europa League, Smith believes that his lack of goals will be worrying Watkins, even though he became the club’s all-time leading goalscorer in Premier League history in May at the end of last season.

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Dean Smith claims Ollie Watkins will be worrying about lack of Aston Villa goals

Watkins has been one of the Premier League’s best strikers for a number of years, earning himself regular England call-ups, which resulted in him scoring a vital stoppage-time goal for the Three Lions in their Euro 2024 semi-final clash with the Netherlands back in July 2024.

But with his first goal of the campaign only coming in the club’s 3-1 win over Fulham at the weekend, Watkins may be worried about his tally according to his former boss, despite notching double figures every season. Speaking to The Athletic, Smith said: “Ollie (Watkins) works his socks off.

“He probably worries — or used to worry too much — about not scoring. Now you guarantee 15 league goals a season from him.”

There is no doubting that Ollie Watkins is still one of Unai Emery’s key players despite his relative goal drought, but having worked with him for a number of years, Smith will be aware of how the talisman is feeling.

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Dean Smith now has a new goalscorer in Wilfried Zaha

Smith now plies his trade in the MLS with Charlotte FC, having come into the managerial hotseat back in December 2023.

He’s done well in North Carolina, winning 33 of his 76 games in charge, finishing fifth in the Eastern Conference in his first season before being dumped out of the play-offs by Orlando City. This season, they’ve embarked on a nine-game win streak which was only brought to an end last week by New York City FC.

And his marquee star, Crystal Palace legend Wilfried Zaha, has turned into what Watkins used to be – Smith’s main focal point for goals.

Arriving on loan from Turkish side Galatasaray, Zaha has eight goals in 29 MLS appearances, and Smith could not be happier with his influence.

Continuing on The Athletic, the former Aston Villa boss claimed: “Wilf has been brilliant.

“It took him a while to settle, as it does everybody. You have to acclimatise, you have to get used to the players and the standard.

“Our home pitch is on artificial turf as well, so having a 32-year-old body needs to get used to that.

“But the lads love him. He took them all out for dinner on Monday night. I asked him if he needed a sub (expense), but he said no, he thought he’d be able to afford it!”

It may not be the heights of Selhurst Park in Palace’s halcyon days, but Zaha is still running defences ragged.