Watkins flounders, Aston Villa are saved by the talent of Durán

Ollie Watkins to start the Premier League season goalless. But Unai Emery need not despair. His goals are being taken care of by a joker off the bench, young Colombian talent Jhon Durán. Linked with clubs like Chelsea and West Ham in the summer, the Aston Villa player hasn’t let go and is picking up points thanks to him.

“We believe in him and his potential. I don’t want him to leave,” Durán could read coach Emery’s words about him after the West Ham game. It was with a possible transfer to the Hammers that the Colombian striker was linked in the second half. But that didn’t stop him from coming off the bench to decide the game (1:2) with a goal in the 79th minute.

A similar scenario repeated itself on deadline day. Aston Villa made the trip to the newcomer from Leicester with a one-goal difference (1:2). Durán was again the scorer of the winning goal. Again after coming off the substitutes’ bench. Not to be outdone, the first Villans goal in both games was scored by summer signing Amadou Onana.

Something we’re not used to at the Midladns. But the 15-time England international has started the season unusually quietly. In the opening three games, he had just one assist.

With an average of a goal every 100 minutes last season, Watkins’ direction is in seeming decline. However, across the first three duels of the year, he played just 160 minutes. In each of the games, he subbed in an hour of play. Each time in Duran’s favor.

“Ollie didn’t feel up to 100 per cent. So we planned to use both players across the 90 minutes,” Emery commented on the substitutions against West Ham. Watkins missed several days of training during the national break due to a muscle strain. A rare occurrence when the otherwise always-ready cannonballer was among the list of absent mainstays.

Watkins is no longer indispensable

Fortunately for Aston Villa, the Spanish coach has a proper replacement for Watkins after years of strict dependence on his goals and assists. Twenty-year-old Durán joined the Premier League’s fourth tier last year in January 2023. Just under €17m went to Chicago in exchange for the left-footed teenager .

The seemingly high sum for a raw player with great potential has also forced interest from the continent. Eintracht Frankfurt was one of the interested clubs. Markus Krösche, the German club’s sporting CEO, made moves to make Durán part of an attack including Randal Kolo Muani, Rafael Borre and Lucas Alario.

Even then, Jhon Durán was a bit of a loose cannon. But not as much as he has appeared so far in the Premier League. With one goal every two games, he was nearing the end of his eight-goal, single MLS campaign. Of the four shots sent at the opposition goal every 90 minutes, 40% of his attempts went between the three posts.

In both respects, it was an increase over his comparably impressive, single full season in Envigado colours in Colombia’s Primera A. The data therefore suggests that Durán, with regular minutes, can be more composed in the final third than he has so far appeared in Aston Villa colours.

An excellent header and tireless worker, even at the cost of a large number of yellow cards, Durán lacks Watkins’ creativity. As a hammer in the box, but historically a more tractable player working around the opposition penalty area, he can be a valid double to the England pacesetter.

In the minds of the footballing public…

He remains a great unknown to many fans. “I didn’t want him at Chelsea in the summer,” Michal of the Premier Leaks podcast shares his perspective for Ruik. “He’s an unknown player for me. Apart from a few goals, I haven’t seen anything from him,” he explains.

And indeed, back in August, coach Emery himself urged the player to be patient. “He is young and sometimes he makes mistakes that a mature player would not commit,” Emery reproached Durán. Before the Everton game, however, the Spanish coach was already opting for a more accommodating vocabulary: ‘Last year, at times they [Watkins and Durán] played together. This year we can repeat it. I think Durán is maturing and becoming more and more confident,” Emery introduced a reason for optimism .

Sources: ClydebankPost, AstonVilla.news, NY Times, Transfermarkt, fbref