Quote from Bent

[Olneythelonely]

Gabby seems to be getting in the right positions to score.

[Risso]

Gabby seems to be getting in the right positions to score.

That's because he's a much better all round player than Bent.  Bent as he has shown over his career, needs lots of chance to score.  He seems to have a 50% chance of either putting chances in the box into the net, or wildly misfiring and looking like a chump.  I reckon Redknapp's wife Sarrrrndra could have put those two away at the weekend.  Now we've sold Young and Downing, we're not going to create as many chances for him.

[eastie]

He still had and missed 2 excellent chances or did he conveniently forget that?

[Merv]

I'm not convinced Bent has been fully fit all season. This groin injury seems to have been troubling him since August.

[Simon Ward]

He still had and missed 2 excellent chances or did he conveniently forget that?

Missed sitters the last two Saturdays, although he is apparently carrying an injury!

[JJ-AV]

From here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/sep/19/premier-league-chalkboard-analysis?CMP=twt_gu

Darren Bent is one of the Premier League's best goalscorers – but does he offer much more? Now is a pertinent time to ask the question – after a goalless outing against Newcastle on Saturday, Bent's record this season doesn't look good. Not only has he failed to score in four of his five league games so far, he hasn't got a shot on target in any of those matches either. A lone goal against Blackburn is his tally for 2011-12.

A look at Bent's passing chalkboard shows that he rarely contributes to build-up play outside the box – he completed only 11 passes in his 86 minutes on the pitch, and two of those involved taking kick-offs, hardly likely to go astray. It was a similar pattern last week against Everton, where 10 of his 20 passes were completed (again, including two kick-offs). Bent rarely sets up others for goals – he has only recorded four assists since the start of the 2009-10 campaign.

Villa's system has changed since last season and so has Bent's role. His initial impact at Villa was huge but all nine of his goals were assisted by players no longer at the club – Stewart Downing, Ashley Young, and Kyle Walker. At the weekend, Villa used Gabriel Agbonlahor, a striker, and Charles N'Zogbia, a player more concerned with beating opponents than crossing the ball, on the wing, and service rarely arrives. Bent might have to fend for himself and play in others, and it remains to be seen whether his style will suit Villa this season.

[eastie]

The problem is he was bought for a certain style of play where we had top quality players to provide service and he was the lethal finisher we needed-those providers are gone and our style of play is very different to under houllier , bent is not best suited to being part of a 2 up front as he has shown at previous clubs,and in the system deployed by mcleish he is nothing like the same player-i would not be at all surprised to see him depart in january.

[Chris Smith]

I think we need to wait and see what impact Jenas has on the way we play before draw any firm conclusions. The manager clearly recognises there is an issue with our midfield, that's why he signed him, so I think any criticism is misguided at present.

[Villanation]

Gabby seems to be getting in the right positions to score.

That's because he's a much better all round player than Bent.  Bent as he has shown over his career, needs lots of chance to score.  He seems to have a 50% chance of either putting chances in the box into the net, or wildly misfiring and looking like a chump.  I reckon Redknapp's wife Sarrrrndra could have put those two away at the weekend.  Now we've sold Young and Downing, we're not going to create as many chances for him.

This is true Gabby is a far more complete player than Bent, on the other hand if you wanted to elect a player to be in the 6yd box and giving you every chance of scoring when he receives ball to feet you would probably go for Bent, unfortunately modern football is getting less and less like that and the old style Centre Forward is a thing of the past, what you want is a player like Gabby and as he showed on Saturday with back to marker, shielded the ball, turned his player and moved in on goal and scored, this is what you want.

[kippaxvilla2]

I said on the match thread the midfield needs to be sorted to ensure we are maximising his strengths - because whatever else he doesn't do, he can finish well when he is confident - quite simply we haven't had anyone of his ilk since Yorke.  I will not criticise him at the moment because he isn't getting the same amount of supply as last season, so the knock on effect of that is he is becoming tense about the pressure to finish the scraps he does get and ends up missing them.  The guy saved us from relegation last season and doesn't become a non scorer overnight.

[Risso]

I think we need to wait and see what impact Jenas has on the way we play before draw any firm conclusions. The manager clearly recognises there is an issue with our midfield, that's why he signed him, so I think any criticism is misguided at present.

I think the best thing that you can say about Jenas is that he's "athletic" (when he isn't injured that is).  I can't say that I'm expecting him to transform the drab rubbish that passes as our football these days.

[Surrey Villain]

I said on the match thread the midfield needs to be sorted to ensure we are maximising his strengths - because whatever else he doesn't do, he can finish well when he is confident - quite simply we haven't had anyone of his ilk since Yorke.  I will not criticise him at the moment because he isn't getting the same amount of supply as last season, so the knock on effect of that is he is becoming tense about the pressure to finish the scraps he does get and ends up missing them.  The guy saved us from relegation last season and doesn't become a non scorer overnight.

Yes you can say Bent saved us from relegation last season but you also have to say we were in that position because the defence was leaking goals, particularly late in games. McLeish has certainly tightened that up, or perhaps it is simply the players involved want to play more for him than McLeish, so now let us hope the midfield and attack improvements will follow. He must provide service for Bent and Gabby and that is likely to come when (if?) N'zogbia gets some form and Albrighton plays from the start.

[PaulWinch again]

I don't think we should be throwing Bent to the Wolves yet. He'll come good and score a lot of goals for us this season.

[VillaAlways]

I don't think we should be throwing Bent to the Wolves yet. He'll come good and score a lot of goals for us this season.

I don't think we should be throwing Bent to the Wolves yet. He'll come good and score a lot of goals for us this season.

Correct

[Pete3206]

If he scores the winner at QPR, all this is forgotten. Bent is quality and the goals will come.