Gary O’Neil, manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers, has spoken about how difficult it is to work with Aston Villa attacker Ollie Watkins.
O’Neil appeared on Sky Sports Monday Night Football before Tottenham’s win against Fulham.
It was a fascinating insight into how a Premier League manager thinks and he spoke about how he sets up his current Wolves team.
Many expected the 40-year-old to be managing in the top flight this season on the south coast with Bournemouth.
However, his surprise sacking allowed Wolves to hire him following the departure of Julen Lopetegui and he got a satisfying victory over his old team at the weekend.
O’Neil discussed Aston Villa’s win over West Ham at the weekend with Jamie Carragher and pinpointed the threat of Ollie Watkins.
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The £130,000-a-week forward is in the form of his life now with five goals and five assists to his name.
The Wolves manager admitted that he thought his side dealt with the striker quite well earlier this month.
However, the 27-year-old gave him nightmares during his short spell in charge of Bournemouth last season.
O’Neil raves about Villa star Watkins
Speaking about Unai Emery’s impressive side, O’Neil said: “They are difficult to stop. They entice defenders in on top of their box, so [John] McGinn and [Nicolo] Zaniolo are in there and if you want to jump in with [Vladimir] Coufal like West Ham did, they just find a big space for [Ollie] Watkins to run down the side. He got the fourth goal from it.
“We suffered it last year with Bournemouth when we went to Villa and tried to go in on the box with full-backs, and Watkins just killed us down the sides.
“Very difficult to stop because they will kill you by playing through and if you try to stop them playing through they have [Moussa] Diaby and Watkins who can just kill you in behind, so they are tough to stop.”
O’Neil doesn’t have to worry about playing an in-form Watkins and his Aston Villa teammates until the end of March now.
The Wolves manager isn’t the only person raving about the England international right now, with Ben Mee admitted he’s one of the toughest forwards to play against in the league and Jack Grealish lauding his performance at the weekend.
On the anniversary of Emery’s appointment at Villa, it’s staggering to see how quickly he’s transformed the team.
Signings like Moussa Diaby and Pau Torres have elevated the team to another level.
They’re baring down on the top four although their current fifth place might be enough to squeeze into the Champions League next season.
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