ESPN FC have an interesting article on 'worst misses of the season' based on xG.
They picked out only the top 5, but I kind of half expected Darwin to be featured at least once or twice, particularly given the narrative around his misses this season and the way he has been savaged by many, including our own fans.
Doesn't feature once.
To keep this on topic, Aston Villa's very own striker Olly Watkins - who it must be remembered had his own struggles in his early years in the Premier League - does feature. Watkins has 19 goals for the season and at 28 is at the peak of his career, but anyone who has followed him will know that long seemed a distant prospect. His first 2 seasons in the league produced 15 and 11 goals respectively, but much like our own Darwin, he was guilty of some bad misses. Clearly that hasn't changed, but what has changed is his maturity - that's the benefit of age and experience - and you can see it in the moments when Aston Villa need his mind to be at its calmest. 1 more goal and Watkins will be classed as a 20 goals in a season striker, with at least 2 - 3 seasons of his best ahead of him.
The moral of the story is we all have different life trajectories and sometimes it takes some a little longer to figure it all out.
