Current Team – CSKA Sofia
Nationality - Scottish
Age - 25
Height – 182 cm
Position - Forward
League Career stats
2010/2011 Airdrie United Scottish League 1 – 15 apps 3 goals
2011/2012 Celtic Scottish Premiership – 3 apps 2 goals
2012/2013 Celtic Scottish Premiership – 20 apps 5 goals
2013/2014 Celtic Scottish Premiership – 2 apps 0 Goals
2013/2014 Lierse Belgian Pro-League – 15 apps 9 goals
2014/2015 Standard Liege Belgian Pro League – 13 apps 2 goals
2014/2015 Charlton Athletic English Championship – 22 apps 5 goals
2015/2016 Charlton Athletic English Championship – 14 apps 2 goals
2015/2016 Cardiff City English Championship – 9 apps 2 goals
2015/2016 Blackburn Rovers English Championship – 9 apps 1 goal
2016/2017 Charlton Athletic English League One – 16 apps 2 goals
2016/2017 Hearts Scottish Premiership – 16 apps 1 goal
2017/2018 Charlton Athletic English League One – 1 app 0 goals
2017/2018 OH Leuven Belgian First Division B – 11 apps 1 goal
2018/2019 St Johnstone Scottish Premiership – 29 apps 3 goals
Overview
Let’s get the obvious point out of the way then, did you know he once scored the winner against Barcelona? Since then Watt’s career has taken him to England, Belgium and back to Scotland and he will soon be playing in Bulgaria having agreed to join CSKA Sofia next season. He has played for a remarkable number of clubs despite being 25 and seems to have been a favourite scapegoat of several managers in his time. The goal against Barca may have been a curse for him, with many expecting him to be a prolific striker when his game is more about dropping deep, taking a man on and creating chances. Let’s have a more in depth look at some parts of his game.
Strengths
Deep lying forward – as alluded to in the introduction, Watt is not the type of striker who looks to get in behind the defence. He prefers to drop deep and link with the midfield. St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright often talked about how Watt needed to get into the box more and get more goals. The fact was that it was St Johnstone who needed him to do that because they lacked any players with that ability. This would have taken away Watt’s best ability and hurt his natural game. When he does drop deep, he has the ability to hold it up, take on a player and win free kicks in dangerous positions. His game is suited to having a midfield with pace that looks to get beyond him. It will be interesting to see how CSKA plan to deploy him and how he performs in a new league.
Work Rate – As I’ve said in previous reports, the easiest thing in football is to gain a tag, the hardest thing is to lose it. Criticised at former clubs for being overweight or not working hard enough, it was a pleasant surprise to see how hard he worked in the St Johnstone team last season. He would chase down loose balls and often regain possession or win a free kick and put pressure on the opposition to make it hard for them to play out from the back. He perhaps lacks the stamina to maintain this intensity for the full 90 minutes every week but being a talented player who also works hard makes him a much more important part of the team.
Game Management – Its not something that fans can get particularly excited about but Watt’s ability to retain the ball in the corner when seeing out a game is incredible. Particularly this clip at Charlton where he takes minutes off the clock, you can almost see the belief drain away from the opposition as they fail to get the ball back.
Weaknesses
Finishing – it can’t be ignored that Watt does seem to lack the natural instinct in front of goal to put the ball in the back of the net. He does also come across as the type of player who needs to feel confident when shooting. He had a game against St Mirren last season where he missed an open goal and a penalty, it seemed to destroy his self-belief and saw him drop deeper looking for the ball and not posing a goalscoring threat. This may seem hypocritical to criticise this when talking about him being the type of player who prefers to create than score, but he needs to improve in front of goal to become an all-round striker and perhaps put himself back into international contention.
Theatrical tendencies – I will preface this by saying a lot of the time Watt is fouled when he goes down easily however he has a tendency to “swan dive” or throw his hands up in the air when fouled and it started to leaf to referees not giving a foul. As a player who is great at taking a man on and drawing a foul, it undoes all that great work if the reaction puts a doubt in the ref’s mind as to whether it was a foul or not. It can also embolden the opposition to think they can commit more fouls and get away with it.
Future potential
Watt signed a reported 3-year deal in Bulgaria, so they clearly have faith in his signing and see him as a big part of the side. They will also feature in Europe next season so a decent run could give Watt a big stage to show his abilities. In terms of international ambitions there could be a concern that playing in a country with no real football coverage in the UK could see him forgotten about so perhaps getting a British team in the Europa League could be a good thing to keep him in the mind of Steve Clark.
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