Ollie Watkins and Erling Haaland (Photo by Matthew Lewis, Matt McNulty/Getty Images)
Former Aston Villa striker Emile Heskey has made the rather bold claim that Ollie Watkins is better than Manchester City star player Erling Haaland.
Watkins has been a key performer for this increasingly impressive Unai Emery side, and he’s also had some big moments in an England shirt, most notably at Euro 2024 when he scored a late winner against the Netherlands in the semi-finals.
Still, even if Watkins is up there with the top players in the Premier League, there’s surely no comparison with Man City’s Norwegian goal machine Haaland, who has been scoring at an absolutely phenomenal rate in the last few years, and with his goals helping Pep Guardiola’s side to numerous big trophies.
Heskey, however, thinks that there’s a case for saying Watkins is the better player overall due to the amount he’s also involved in Villa’s build-up, whereas City’s system is tailor-made for Haaland to not have to contribute that much apart from being in the right place at the right time in the penalty area.
Is Ollie Watkins better than Erling Haaland?
Discussing the qualities of Watkins and Haaland with 10bet, as quoted by Team Talk, Heskey said: “I think they’ve (Aston Villa) got the best striker in the league after Erling Haaland in Ollie Watkins.
“There’s an argument to be made that Watkins could be on par or even better than Haaland at this moment in time because of his all-round game and what he gives Aston Villa on top of the goals that he scores.
“At Man City, Haaland doesn’t really need to get that involved with the play, whereas Watkins has to be involved all the time at Villa.”
There is perhaps an interesting debate to be had here, but most fans, even the most die-hard Villa supporters, would probably still pick Haaland over Watkins any day of the week if they were being completely honest!
