Gabby

[KevinGage]

Bent should be in south Africa and heskey shouldn't be!

Bent isn't good enough for international football and Heskey, despite what we think of him, does a job for his country that Bent couldn't.

I'd take Bent over Heskey in the Villa side any day of the week, but I'd play Heskey for England ahead of Bent.  Weird, but true!

I think the older I get the true realisation hits me that I know nowt about football.

Heskey personifies that. I get the theory, genuinely I do. "He's unselfish/brings others into play," et.c. Maybe. But he's hardly an asset phenomenon.   It wouldn't be the hardest job in the world to get a semi-decent forward to hold the ball up a bit more often and lay it off. Or is that too simplistic an approach?

Find a guy who does that and Heskey becomes redundant.

He doesn't exactly excel in those areas in a Villa shirt either, lets be clear.
One of the few footballers it seems in the world game who doesn't need to worry about club form to cement a place in a major international starting XI.

Perhaps I'm doing him a disservice. Perhaps he only saves his best form for the international platform, like a bulkier slightly uncoordinated Darius Vassell. With even less of a goal threat, obv.

[pauliewalnuts]

I can see he does things for England.

Whether he doesn't do them for Villa because he needs a more natural striker alongside him than Gabby, or because the way we play doesn't suit him or whichever reason is neither here nor there, really.

He hasn't done it for us, he's not going to start playing alongside Wayne Rooney for us, and we're not going to start changing the way we play to suit him, so I hope he moves on this summer.

He won't, but I'll have my fingers crossed anyway.

[Villa'Zawg]

With Heskey it is not so much what he does for the "other" strike partner, it is what he does for the midfield. Rooney and Gabby are not necessarily more effective with Heskey on the pitch compared to Carew/Crouch, the attacking midfielders are.

I'm not exactly sure what it is specifically that he does differently but it seems to be that he looks to find the counter-attacking midfield wave as opposed to trying to find his own way through on goal.

Carew = big striker, holds the ball up well, creates space for himself, finds route to goal.
Heskey= big striker, holds the ball up well, makes space for others, finds route to goal for others.

I think.

[Chris Smith]

With Heskey it is not so much what he does for the "other" strike partner, it is what he does for the midfield. Rooney and Gabby are not necessarily more effective with Heskey on the pitch compared to Carew/Crouch, the attacking midfielders are.

I'm not exactly sure what it is specifically that he does differently but it seems to be that he looks to find the counter-attacking midfield wave as opposed to trying to find his own way through on goal.

Carew = big striker, holds the ball up well, creates space for himself, finds route to goal.
Heskey= big striker, holds the ball up well, makes space for others, finds route to goal for others.

I think.

Carew doesn't hold the ball up nearly as well as Heskey does. He's much more dangerous in the box but we keep hold if it far better when Emile is on the pitch. I think that's why Capello likes him because retaining possession is not something that England sides have always been good at.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

With Heskey it is not so much what he does for the "other" strike partner, it is what he does for the midfield. Rooney and Gabby are not necessarily more effective with Heskey on the pitch compared to Carew/Crouch, the attacking midfielders are.

I'm not exactly sure what it is specifically that he does differently but it seems to be that he looks to find the counter-attacking midfield wave as opposed to trying to find his own way through on goal.

Carew = big striker, holds the ball up well, creates space for himself, finds route to goal.
Heskey= big striker, holds the ball up well, makes space for others, finds route to goal for others.

I think.

Carew doesn't hold the ball up nearly as well as Heskey does. He's much more dangerous in the box but we keep hold if it far better when Emile is on the pitch. I think that's why Capello likes him because retaining possession is not something that England sides have always been good at.

Carew does hold the ball up better. He doesn't allow himself to fall over when a player breathes on him as he's holding up the ball.

Emile Heskey is probably the worst signing MON has made. He's such an awful player. I really cannot believe he's in the England squad. It shows how shit Englands strikers must be for him to get in it.

[Chris Smith]

With Heskey it is not so much what he does for the "other" strike partner, it is what he does for the midfield. Rooney and Gabby are not necessarily more effective with Heskey on the pitch compared to Carew/Crouch, the attacking midfielders are.

I'm not exactly sure what it is specifically that he does differently but it seems to be that he looks to find the counter-attacking midfield wave as opposed to trying to find his own way through on goal.

Carew = big striker, holds the ball up well, creates space for himself, finds route to goal.
Heskey= big striker, holds the ball up well, makes space for others, finds route to goal for others.

I think.

Carew doesn't hold the ball up nearly as well as Heskey does. He's much more dangerous in the box but we keep hold if it far better when Emile is on the pitch. I think that's why Capello likes him because retaining possession is not something that England sides have always been good at.

Carew does hold the ball up better. He doesn't allow himself to fall over when a player breathes on him as he's holding up the ball.

Emile Heskey is probably the worst signing MON has made. He's such an awful player. I really cannot believe he's in the England squad. It shows how shit Englands strikers must be for him to get in it.

If you actually gave some thought to it instead of posting on blind prejudice you'd realise that the reason he is in the England squad is that results in qualifying with him in the side were excellent. However, it's not too late and I'm sure that the under achieving, know-nothing, charlatan Fabio Capello is waiting for your call.

[pedro25]

Heskey holds it up better than Carew, but doesn't do anything else better than him.  The second arew goal against Wolves was the perfect example of what Heskey does so well for England and the likes of Lampard and Gerrard.  He held it up and laid it off for the onrushing Sidwell to shoot for goal inside the penalty area, with it bouncing in off big John.  He just hasn't done it nearly enough for Villa and when he has we have duffers like Sidwell fluffing his lines usually and not clinical finishers like Lampard.

[peter w]

Heskey isn't shit. In the right team he can be useful we haven't found it because we don't use a system whereby the hold up masn looks for the midfield to come onto the ball with a strike partner who hangs off his shoulder. We're all about pace and swift breaks. That would work if we had a side, and indeed signed the right players throughout the team to fit into that.

We haven't yet got it right and that isn't heskey's fault. Whether he is good enough is another argument.

But this thread isn't about heskey, but Gabby.

[MoetVillan]

The fact England cant find a player that can hold up the ball and do what Heskey does, implies he is the best in the country at it.  The fact he cant hit a barn door with a banjo remains an incredibly frustrating part of his game, because he plays the same for England as he does for us.  I would love it if he could finish, but he would still be at Liverpool or higher up if it was the case.  I disagree that it is MONs worse signing, sorry.  I dont think he is a bad one at all

[Concrete John]

I always find myself wondering exactly why Heskey hasn't been more effective for us?  I agree with the point that he does as much for the midfield as his strike partner, but although we may not have Gerrard or Lampard, Ash, Milner and Downing are good enough that we should get some benefit from this.  Yet from what I can see, we don't seem to?

[peter w]

Again, this is a thread about Gabby, not Heskey, there are and have been loads of those.

[PaulTheVillan]

Heskey isn't shit. In the right team he can be useful we haven't found it because we don't use a system whereby the hold up masn looks for the midfield to come onto the ball with a strike partner who hangs off his shoulder. We're all about pace and swift breaks. That would work if we had a side, and indeed signed the right players throughout the team to fit into that.

We haven't yet got it right and that isn't heskey's fault. Whether he is good enough is another argument.

But this thread isn't about heskey, but Gabby.

Good post on Heskey.

[Chris Smith]

Again, this is a thread about Gabby, not Heskey, there are and have been loads of those.

It's relevant though as with the right partner I reckon Gabby will be even more effective. I've been saying for some time that I think he'd benefit from having a Keane type striker to play off, more of a number 10 than a traditional centre forward. If we could unearth the new Yorkie that would be ideal but failing that then Keane will do for me.

[Concrete John]

Again, this is a thread about Gabby, not Heskey, there are and have been loads of those.

It's relevant though as with the right partner I reckon Gabby will be even more effective. I've been saying for some time that I think he'd benefit from having a Keane type striker to play off, more of a number 10 than a traditional centre forward. If we could unearth the new Yorkie that would be ideal but failing that then Keane will do for me.

I would still have a concern about his footballing brain to make the right runs to fully benefit from this, but that kind of player would be best with him, IMO.  I guess it would need to be an older head to tell him where to go, so someone like Keane makes sense in that regard.

[Chris Smith]

Again, this is a thread about Gabby, not Heskey, there are and have been loads of those.

It's relevant though as with the right partner I reckon Gabby will be even more effective. I've been saying for some time that I think he'd benefit from having a Keane type striker to play off, more of a number 10 than a traditional centre forward. If we could unearth the new Yorkie that would be ideal but failing that then Keane will do for me.

I would still have a concern about his footballing brain to make the right runs to fully benefit from this, but that kind of player would be best with him, IMO.  I guess it would need to be an older head to tell him where to go, so someone like Keane makes sense in that regard.

I think his movement is good, he has a knack of finding space in the box because he's so quick but it needs somebody who thinks at the same speed to see it.