Steven Gerrard has been very ‘surprised’ by one Aston Villa player in training

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Ollie Watkins’ desire for self-improvement has surprised new Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard, The Athletic report after a difficult start to the Englishman’s second Premier League campaign. 

Is Watkins suffering from a classic case of ‘second season syndrome’?

With just three goals in 11 games thus far – he had six at this stage of last term – there’s certainly an argument to be made that the symptoms are there. 

Watkins, however, is not the sort of character who will let his head drop, who will retreat into his shell and look to escape the glare of the microscope.

In the space of four years, he went from the fourth-tier of English football to scoring a hat-trick against the Premier League champions; say what you want about the former Exeter City starlet, he’s certainly not lacking when it comes to drive or determination. 

And it is those attributes that have caught Gerrard’s eye in his first few weeks as Aston Villa manager. 

Is Ollie Watkins about to explode under Steven Gerrard?

According to The Athletic, Dean Smith’s successor has been ‘surprised’ by Watkins’ tendency to demand more of himself on the training pitch.

It is understood that the 25-year-old is particularly critical of his own performances behind the scenes. 

And when you consider that ‘standards’ has been perhaps the stand-out buzzword of Gerrard’s Aston Villa tenure so far, Watkins’ reluctance to let his own standards drop will certainly have done his reputation no harm in the eyes of a manager who demands blood, sweat and tears from every one of the players at his disposal.

“Some of the qualities you see now in Ollie at Premier League level are some of the lasting images I have of him on a pitch playing for Exeter,” Kevin Nicholson, Watkins’ former coach at St James’ Park, told The Guardian a few months ago.  

“He was always very hard-working, very determined. He was his own biggest critic. He would always come to you and challenge you as a coach, to continually help him to develop.

“He would say: ‘What can I do better in this situation?’.”

Watkins scored the first goal of the Gerrard reign at Aston Villa, a ‘world-class’ solo effort as the Midland giants left it late to defeat Brighton and Hove Albion last week.