Ollie Watkins was fuelled by “anger” as he helped Aston Villa to a vital win. The England ace has had to play second fiddle to Marcus Rashford but scored one and made one to sink Newcastle after being recalled by boss Unai Emery.
But Watkins admits he was not happy to be left on the bench against PSG – and told his manager as much.
He said: “I’m not going to lie – I was fuming I wasn’t playing. I let him know that. He’s the manager at the end of the day. I respect his decision. But I’m not one of the players happy to sit on the bench.
‘It’s something I haven’t experienced before, missing out on the biggest stage. You always want to play, especially in the Champions League. Me and a few others are disappointed we didn’t start the game, but like I said, it’s the manager’s decision.
“I wanted to be starting in the important games because I’ve played a big part to get to where we are today. Rather than let it hinder you, you have to use that anger and let it spur you on to prove the manager different.”
Emery insisted: “It was a very good conversation. I want to try and help all my players. We have increased clearly the level and demands, before we didn’t have enough players to play. If I have two players per position, not only 11 players, then the squad has momentum.
“He’s fantastic when he plays like today. I’m very happy with my players.”
Jason Tindall again filled in for Newcastle boss Eddie Howe, suffering with pneumonia, but could not give an update on his manager.
He said: “It was a difficult evening and probably one step too far with the physical effort we’ve had. I will remain in charge until told otherwise. The most important thing for Ed is he rests and recovers. The more he does that, the quicker he will be able to lead the team again.”
Tindall revealed Fabian Schar went off with a hamstring issue.
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle in an unbeatable new deal that saves £192 and includes 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
