Ollie Watkins claims he CAN play with Harry Kane up front for England at the Euros – and believes they could replicate success of the Bayern star’s partnership with Son Heung-min at Spurs
- Watkins is yet to feature at the European Championships after being left on the bench against Serbia
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Ollie Watkins believes twins between him and Harry Kane could repeat the success the England captain had with Son Heung-min at Tottenham.
For now, Aston Villa striker and fellow Kane understudy Ivan Toney are being forced to play the role of opposition frontmen in training.
But Watkins insists he can form a partnership with Kane even if he doesn’t tell Gareth Southgate in person.
“Yes, definitely,” he said when asked if they could play together. ‘I would like to play with H, because he is in deep. He can play the role of number 10 and gets a lot of passes. I think it would be similar to when he was at Tottenham and picked up the balls and passed them to Son. But I know we are blessed with a lot of talent in the No. 10 role.”
Is this tactic already being applied to training?
Ollie Watkins (R) says he could play up front with England captain Harry Kane (L) at the European Championship.
The Aston Villa star awaits his first taste of European Championship action after being left on the bench for the 1-0 win over Serbia
“No, we didn’t,” Watkins said. ‘We did a lot of tactical things, but normally Ivan and I pretend to be Serbs! Actually we weren’t that bad. Ivan is a good Mitrovic and I was Vlahovic.’
Watkins may be planning to tell Southgate about his grand plan for a new front line, given his current role in training. So, will he?
‘No, I do not think so!’ he said. “I feel like he probably has to make a lot of tough decisions when you look at the squad. There are a lot of good players and it’s probably giving him a headache, so he doesn’t need me to cause another one! I’m just saying that Harry is a world-class player and I enjoy playing with top players.’
Meanwhile, Watkins, who scored 27 goals for Villa last season, believes he was undervalued by the media and was miffed when he was regularly left out of expected European Championship squads.
“From my perspective, the media may have underestimated me,” he said. ‘I had a very good year, got the most assists in the league, scored a lot of goals and people still didn’t include me in their squad to come to the European Championship.
“Everyone has their own opinion, but I don’t feel like I have that big of a profile where I’m talked about, or where people would say, ‘Oh, I can do that.’ I don’t think they don’t like Ollie Watkins have chosen. But I’m happy that I’m here now and that I deserve to be here because I’ve worked very hard.’