Ollie Watkins Voices Discontent With Aston Villa Role As Unai Emery Considers Rashford Partnership

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Ollie Watkins has expressed dissatisfaction with his limited role at Aston Villa recently. Despite this, manager Unai Emery is considering pairing him with Marcus Rashford in future matches. Watkins made an impact by scoring after coming off the bench in Villa's 3-0 victory over Southampton, aided by a brilliant assist from Youri Tielemans. This win has bolstered Villa's ambitions for Champions League qualification in the 2025-26 season.

Watkins has only been in the starting lineup once in Villa's last five games. Rashford has been leading the attack, including during their recent Champions League quarter-final first leg against Paris Saint-Germain. Watkins, who was reportedly targeted by Arsenal with a £60 million bid in January, is not content with his current situation. "For me, I'm not happy to sit on the bench," Watkins stated. "It's disappointing every game that I'm on the bench, but it's the manager's decision at the end of the day."

During Villa's win over Southampton, Marco Asensio missed two penalties saved by Aaron Ramsdale. Watkins was visibly upset about not taking the second penalty himself, having earned the first one. He has scored 73 Premier League goals for Villa and is just one goal shy of Gabriel Agbonlahor's club record of 74. "Am I aware of the record? Of course I am," Watkins said. "That is why I wanted to take the penalty as well, to equal it, then one more to get the record."

Villa faces a challenging task against PSG on Tuesday as they aim to overturn a 3-1 deficit from their first-leg defeat in Paris. Emery believes that Watkins and Rashford can form a successful partnership upfront but wants more time to work on this strategy during training sessions before implementing it in matches.

"The next step if I have time is to play them together," Emery told reporters on Tuesday. "We did with Rashford playing left side but now we are choosing more with both playing as strikers." Emery wants to test this approach thoroughly before making it a regular feature of their gameplay.

Villa's loss in Paris marked their third instance of losing by two or more goals in the first leg of a knockout stage tie in major European competitions. They failed to progress past similar situations against Royal Antwerp in 1975-76 and Olympiakos last season.

Watkins remains determined to break Agbonlahor's record soon and looks forward to achieving this milestone. Meanwhile, Emery continues to explore tactical options that could enhance Villa's performance both domestically and in Europe.