Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was delighted with Ollie Watkins' 'fantastic' performance against West Ham
Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa
Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa(Image: Getty Images)
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Unai Emery wants Ollie Watkins to continue using his disappointment at being left out of the England squad as motivation to produce his best form of the season.
The striker’s performance against West Ham, where he doubled Aston Villa's lead, was one of his best of the campaign.
Watkins knows he must perform in the final seven league games of the season and score goals to win back his place in the England squad, after Thomas Tuchel preferred Dominic Solanke and Dominic Calvert-Lewin instead.
“He is a fighter. Three years ago he wasn't in the national team when he deserved to be there,” Emery said in his post-match press conference.
“He must recover his fighting way. When he does his task, his numbers are coming, like today.
“Today he fought with the centre-back and he got duels and won them. He held the ball up and played safe passes. He got in the box to threaten them. He did a fantastic, fantastic job.”
Asked about Villa’s overall performance, the Spaniard said: “We are delighted how the players responded to the game plan. When you are not winning, everything looks more difficult. We needed to recover our way and structure.
“The structure means many things, but overall and mainly it is the positioning tactically. Also, emotionally it is about how the players can feel, confident or not. Through it, try to settle the game plan with our idea and style.
“Today we did it fantastically. When we won lots of home matches in a row, our performances were similar to today.
“The last matches at home we did not perform like that. Today, everything we did was dominating and deserving to score goals.
“Today we can watch the players how they showed their quality to do a really good match.”
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