Gabby

[hawkeye]

Gabby is one of the few players I would want to keep, he still has huge potential. The issue is can he play with Bent who is an excellent finisher but a poor footballer, his technique and touch is worse than Gabby. The Bent Gabby partnership has not been given much chance. The reasons we are not scoring more goals is because Downing and Young for all of thier posession in attacking positions rarely choose  to deliver the killer ball.

[TheSandman]

I'd keep Gabby. He is a great option from the bench, possibly as a partner for Bent and gives us something useful with his pace that can be utilised tactically if we choose him to start ahead of Bent.

Poor technique or not but a striker with pace can produce goals solely by scaring the bejesus out of defenders. He is not the finished article and he has his rough edges but any replacement will be the same.

[SoccerHQ]

Gabby was shite yesterday but should be kept.

For his pace, for his knack of getting important goals etc.

The striker we should be letting go this summer has to be Heskey surely?! Hardley played since Bent's come in, 30 + and on high wages and blocking the Fonz or Weimann getting a place on the bench.

[SoccerHQ]

  For me theres something lacking in Downings game that stops him being top class.Yday was a casing point, plenty of the ball, good areas, poor delivery.

  For me neither Downing or Ayoung pick a player out.Albrighton does, and has a beteer cross than both of them.

 I would keep Downing, but if an offer of £15m+ came in then i would be very tempted to sell and get Jarvis in tbh.

Albrighton's been absolute shit since January.

No he hasn't.  He was the best player on the park at Bolton but has not been seen since.

We always have these negative threads about individual players after a defeat.  Go back to the aftermath of the West Ham game and we had a "Gabby Appreciation Thread".  It's definitely become Hormones and Villains on here over the the last year or two.

(For what it's worth Gabby showed some excellent touches yesterday as well and didn't have that bad a game.  Neither did Petrov who made some good bursts forward and generally used the ball well).

Albrighton's done nothing of note since January. Before January he was excellent but he's lived off that since. It's the 'young player' syndrome where all the fuck ups and poor performances are ignored or brushed under the carpet because he's young and shouldn't be criticised.
A Young and Downing only have to fart and they get slaughtered on here despite the fact they've probably set up most of our goals this season. I like Albrighton but he's gone missing for the last 4 months and deserves a kick up the arse for it.

he was overplayed in the first half of the season. Started too many games when he was flagging around the 60 minute mark. We should've rotated him much more over the first few months so he'd hit his peak in the final months of the season rather than being stuck on the bench now.

I'd say it's wrong to say he's been shite since January. As Haz says, he was excellent at Biolton, very good at home to Blackburn and the fans booed him going off against Wolves. I prefer not to recall anything of that game but he must have been playing o.k for that sort of reaction?

[Villa'Zawg]

Gabby is one of the few players I would want to keep, he still has huge potential. The issue is can he play with Bent who is an excellent finisher but a poor footballer, his technique and touch is worse than Gabby. The Bent Gabby partnership has not been given much chance. The reasons we are not scoring more goals is because Downing and Young for all of thier posession in attacking positions rarely choose  to deliver the killer ball.

I don't think that can be right. Young and Downing are both in the top ten for Premier League assists this season. Only Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea have a pair with more assists.

[KevinGage]

I was actually a wee bit concerned that with the current management in place Gabby might be on his way this summer. There are a number of clubs looking for a striker (Everton, Newcastle being the stand out cases) and us signing Bent + largely opting for one up top would make any forward have second thoughts about their long term prospects.

There was also mention (from MM and a few others) that the new regime (as was in Oct/Nov) were less than impressed with Gabby's attitude in training. Odd, as the one thing I always thought that stood to him was his willingness to improve and work at his game. Whether Gabby was the problem or whether he was simply just one of a number of players not impressed with the new set up (sound familiar?)  we can only speculate.

Now it looks like there will most likely be a change at the top, so -if anything- I think it it's more likely that Gabby will stay and a new manager will get him back to something approaching his best.

[olaftab]

We need to keep Gabby...local boy from Nechells!

[hawkeye]

Gabby is one of the few players I would want to keep, he still has huge potential. The issue is can he play with Bent who is an excellent finisher but a poor footballer, his technique and touch is worse than Gabby. The Bent Gabby partnership has not been given much chance. The reasons we are not scoring more goals is because Downing and Young for all of thier posession in attacking positions rarely choose  to deliver the killer ball.

I don't think that can be right. Young and Downing are both in the top ten for Premier League assists this season. Only Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea have a pair with more assists.

That would sugest that the majority of our attacks are through those players, yet we have been in the bottom part of the league for most of the season, the problem is that considering the amount of time they get in offfensive positions thier effectiveness is in doubt. I think Downing has played well this season, he makes himself available and often gets in position to hurt the opposition, yet considering this he too often makes very poor decisions.

[Mazrim]

It's definitely become Hormones and Villains on here over the the last year or two.

Nicely played. sir. Nicely played.

[Villa'Zawg]

Gabby is one of the few players I would want to keep, he still has huge potential. The issue is can he play with Bent who is an excellent finisher but a poor footballer, his technique and touch is worse than Gabby. The Bent Gabby partnership has not been given much chance. The reasons we are not scoring more goals is because Downing and Young for all of thier posession in attacking positions rarely choose  to deliver the killer ball.

I don't think that can be right. Young and Downing are both in the top ten for Premier League assists this season. Only Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea have a pair with more assists.

That would sugest that the majority of our attacks are through those players, yet we have been in the bottom part of the league for most of the season, the problem is that considering the amount of time they get in offfensive positions thier effectiveness is in doubt. I think Downing has played well this season, he makes himself available and often gets in position to hurt the opposition, yet considering this he too often makes very poor decisions.

If I had to pick out where the major deficiency was in goalscoring this season, I'd point the finger at Houllier's neutering of Carew and Agbonlahor.

[Matt Collins]

Fantasy football stats, international selections and my own eyes suggest that young, downing and bent have not been the problems this season. It's clearly been the defence and after that the crntre midfield that have let us down