Milner or Bent

[Concrete John]

When we were previously discussing Gezza and whether or not he should be doing better, the argument often thrown up was "It's the same squad that finished 6th minus Milner."  And that got be thinking, now that we've signed Bent, does that make the squad stronger than last season or not?  Easiest way to judge it is how we would have fared in 09/10 if we had Bent instead of Jimmy.   

Would that goal machine we lacked have made up for the loss of of our best player?   

[Irreverent ad]

Milner as he has proved himself in a villa shirt. Bent has not yet.

Although if you ask me in a year I am sure my answer will be Bent.

[eastie]

Bent as he is a natural goalscorer and hugely vital to us- milner was great but bent will be more important!

[junxs]

We finished 6th with Milner and we finished 6th without Milner the year before and the year before that.
Having a proper goalscorer may have given us the edge especially as our defence was so strong last year.

Does anyone know if MON showed any interest in signing the player when he went to Sunderland.

[Concrete John]

We finished 6th with Milner and we finished 6th without Milner the year before and the year before that.
Having a proper goalscorer may have given us the edge especially as our defence was so strong last year.

Good point, but let's not forget that for those other two years of finishing 6th we had Barry, who was hugely influential to our side.

And for accuracies sake we also had Milner the year before, although playing wide and therefore not the same player.

[The Man With A Stick]

Can we have Milner but go back in time a couple of years and sign Bent for a pittance when we first had the chance?

[glasses]

I dont think there would have been much difference in that particular season. All ifs and buts, but I think the increase to the striking department, (Bent being more of an instinctive poacher type) would be negated by the decrease in goals from Midfield. I couldnt see any of the midfielders at the time chipping in with the assists/goals Milner did.

If we had both, I think we would have finished 4th and have two trophies in our cabinet.

[DrGonzo]

Why is everyone so keen to suck Milner's cock?  The guy is good, but not that good.  If we'd had a 20 a year man up front we could have broken the top 4.  Milner can be, and hopefuly has been, replaced.

[jembob]

If we had both, I think we would have finished 4th and have two trophies in our cabinet.

Agree with this. A team needs a dynamic player like Milner to set the tempo and to energise the team when things are flat. All too often over past seasons we've seen chances and opportunities going begging because we didn't have a player capable of being there. We may have even pushed Arse for third as they weren't that impressive over last season.

[ozzjim]

The Milner in central midfield carried us. Without him we would be well, where we are now. We still need to replace him, and it is testament to that in the way we line up with 3 in midfield at times.

[Shrek]

Makoun is like Milner, hopefully better, so by next season we will have both.

[Shrek]

The Milner in central midfield carried us. Without him we would be well, where we are now. We still need to replace him, and it is testament to that in the way we line up with 3 in midfield at times.

Or we had to play 2 up front every game because we never had a goalscorer, just depends which angle you look from.

[Dave]

Makoun is like Milner

No he isn't.

They're completely different types of player.

[Clark W Griswold]

Bent, all day. Purely because of the type of player he is.

[Ian.]

Bent any day. As much as I love Milner, it's been far too long since we had a natural goal scorer.