Forget Sunderland's Wilson Isidor: Aston Villa have golden opportunity to sign 89-goal Serie A forward amid Man Utd competition
Aston Villa could be in the market for further attacking firepower after a dismal start to the season
Aston Villa are the lowest goalscorers in the Premier League after five matches and the need to find a striker to compete with Ollie Watkins for a starting spot has perhaps never been higher. At this point in time, he’s struggling to produce the same consistency in front of goal that he's shown in years gone by after blanking in seven matches across all competitions. He’ll hope to avoid making at eight against Fulham on Sunday.
"As a player, I think that he should be doing more for what he’s capable of doing,” said Ian Wright on the Stick to Football podcast.
“He’s a channel runner, gets in the box, he gets on the end of things. I think he could be a lot sharper with his finishing, and I thought that’s what he’d be working on. Just like the one-touch finish or the touch finish on both sides, those are the things that when you get to the level where you score goals in like semi-final of the Euros and that, those are the things you work on now, for getting the chance to stay in the width of the 18-yard box and taking your chance. He just doesn’t do that, he doesn’t do it enough.”
Do Aston Villa need to sign a new centre forward?
Ian Wright’s criticism of Ollie Watkins is harsh. After all, the 29-year-old is Villa’s highest scorer of the Premier League era with 75 goals in 189 matches and has never failed to hit double figures in a league season since joining the club from Brentford in 2020.
He’s also incredibly good at making decisions in the final third and the creative aspect of his game is perhaps underrated with him registering 36 assists in the Premier League across five seasons.
However, there is some substance to Wright’s argument as well and it is clear that Watkins in the early weeks of the season has been a shadow of the player we’ve become accustomed to. Perhaps, and most likely, it’s just a bad patch in an otherwise standard season for the striker, who has all the qualities to turn things around. And he’s not the only one underperforming with Morgan Rogers also dipping in form in recent weeks.
But the concern for Villa would be that they are perhaps overly reliant on Watkins to deliver the goals, and lack the options in reserve to take some of the burden off him if he’s going through a bad patch, particularly after selling Jhon Duran in January. Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford disguised this during their six-month loan spells but now they're not at that club it’s clear Villa are limited when it comes to striker options. Furthermore Watkins is 29, turning 30 in December and is rarely if ever rotated from the starting line-up.
Even the best players need a rest from time to time to perform at their optimum level and it increased the likelihood of an injury occurring if the England international is asked to play almost every match in what’s likely to be a 50+ game season, especially if Villa go far in the domestic cups and in Europe as Emery teams are accustomed to doing.
The 89-goal striker Aston Villa should be targeting
According to Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy, Juventus are considering selling Dusan Vlahovic this January to avoid losing him on a free transfer in the summer.
The Serbian has been at Juventus since January 2022 and has scored 62 times in 150 appearances for the Old Lady, including four in five matches this season. He was close to joining Arsenal before making the move from Fiorentina to Juventus and is a player that’s consistently scored goals in Serie A with 89 in the competition in total since 2018. However, he no longer appears to be the main man amid competition from new signing Jonathan David and doesn’t necessarily seem to be a big part of Igor Tudor’s plans moving forward, with most of his appearances this term coming from the bench.
Vlahovic, 25, still has most of his best years ahead of him and is likely to be available for a bargain fee that’s much less than the £66.6m Juventus paid for him earlier in his career. The former Fiorentina talisman would provide excellent competition for Watkins which could enable both to play to their maximum potential. He’s also incredible in the air and would offer a completely different dimension to Villa’s play when lining up against a low-block or a team that struggles to defend set piece situations. Vlahovic, unlike Watkins, who missed a penalty against Bologna, also boasts a formidable record from 12 yards, scoring 28 of his 32 penalties. Watkins, meanwhile, has scored just six in 13 attempts.
It’s a signing that would make more sense than moving for rumoured target Wilson Isidor of Sunderland at this point in time. Isidor, who has started the season exceptionally well with three in five, including one against Villa, is believed to be valued at around £35m. However, he’s only ever managed one league season in his career and that came five years ago in the fourth-tier of French football. Vlahovic, by comparison has proven himself in the Champions League and has bagged at least double figures all of the last five seasons in Serie A.