The Gabby Appreciation Thread - Update: 4 year deal

[Dante Lavelli]

I've got to be honest KTvillan, In amongst all this arguing I have forgotten what you even said about Gabby.  Therefore I'm out.

[ktvillan]

They're not getting any funnier.

[Ryu]

Ok then, I'm off to tell my mom she failed at raising me.

Back to Gabby, is regularly getting on the end of things and scoring goals not, in an attacking player, a sign that they possess some degree of this 'football intelligence'?  Or is that just far to obvious to be intelligent?   

[ktvillan]

Fair question.  Depends on how you define football intelligence or how/if you diferentiate intelligence from instinct.     With Gabby I always get the feeling he is working on pure instinct than intelligence, which for me is different, but I suppose some might define that instinctiveness as a form of football intelligence.  With other players, I think Owen, Kuyt or Van Der Vaart are good examples, I always get the impression they are constantly weighing things up in their minds and looking for ways to fool the defenders, and often finding them. 

[Ryu]

You see this is where we differ. When people say football intelligence I take this to pretty much mean instinct. You're of course correct to say there are players who have a more subtle and refined decision making process than Gabby but I think even the best strikers rely on instinct and experience to get in goal scoring positions. I don't think it denigrates gabby to say he works on instinct.

However one sign of intelligence he does have is that he clearly has applied himself to developing areas of his game, such as holding the ball up and coming deep when playing on his own up front and adapting himself to play out wide and the work defensively he does there. 

[Brend'Watkins]

The goal he scored on Saturday was a planned, organised, practiced piece of work.  Therefore, Gabby by definition, is an organised accomplished footballer.  He has acquired these attributes by good coaching and then practicing along with players who he has become familiar with and who too have similar attributes to Gabby.

Dean Saunders on 'Goals on Sunday' talked about forwards having an eye for goal and used one he put away against Sheff Wed to describe what having an eye for goal was about.  Deano knew from training with Ian Taylor that when Taylor was in a position to shoot for goal he invariably dragged his shot across the goal so thought it a good idea to be in the place where the ball might possibly finish up and if it did a tap in was on the cards, sure enough that's what happened. 

In both scenarios there is very little intelligence require except the ability to memorize.  There is no 'instinctive' reaction to the play that has gone before.  It's just a case of.... if I do this, he might or should do that and I might end up with a chance to score.

[Chris Smith]

The reson people struggle to define football intelligence is that it just a cliched piece of nonsense. It's one of those things that people say to make it look as though they are experts. I enjoy watching Gabby keep ramming their words back down their throats and them then scrabble around for a new way to run him down.

[ktvillan]

It's not a new way to run him down.  I've been saying it for ages, while acknowledgng his good points.   So have quite a few others.  You just dismiss everything you disagree with as a cliche, or say it's silly, or put it down to lack of knowledge.  Change the record for fuck's sake.  And, as with Petrov's forward passes,  you still haven't provided any examples of his clever runs to create space for others. 

[JJ-AV]

Gabby is an intelligent footballer, he's got an eye for goal and a knack of being in the right place at the right time.

Granted, he's not a poacher of Bent standards or an effortless technician, but Gabby plays the percentages and gets his rewards. He's also fantastic at reading situations defensively, I've lost count of the amount of times in the two away games we've had where he's covered Warnock and ushered the ball out for the goal kick.

He does have his flaws, but most of it is down to consistency as opposed to being limited. Infact I'd say he's quite rounded, he can play on the shoulder, or coming onto the ball from deeper in wide areas, he gets a shedload of assist, scores with his right, left, head. Scores six yard box goals outside of the box. He'll score a wider variety of goals than any other striker we've got or had in recent years, perhaps since Yorkie.

Quality player. Hope he keeps it up and sees out his career with us. I'd hate to see him anywhere else.

[PaulTheVillan]

I like Gabby, he just looks dumb.

I would like us to use his pace more.

[Villanation]

ktvillan: Spent a fair bit of time around football, have to say the notion of football intelligence is a whole new concept for me, most football is instinct its how players use that instinct and the awareness that kicks in that makes them different or better, you could say that is intelligence, the cliché Football brain or the lacking of as mentioned in an earlier post was born out of a statement Chris Waddle Waddle used to describe Theo Walcot, this was based on his opinion that Walcott and little or no awareness, didn't no how to run the channels, didn't know how to lay a pass of and be in box 2 to receive it back, and route 1 was is only option.

Gabby....how can anybody say that of Gabby Agbonlahor, he's played up front, he's played wide, he's more than capable of playing defensively, he can pass a ball, lay of a ball, from what i can see his shielding of ball to my memory has only ever been bettered by Kenny Dalgliesh in his playing days at Liverpool, he can head a ball, more often than not knows where he should be in the box instinctively, lets not even get into pace.

I would agree with you on the point that he works on instinct rather than thinking about his next move, but prey do tell when you have an athlete who's complete set up is based on pace and power, then that in itself determines what the end product will be, Villa benefit from that massively.

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Pretty good if you ask me.

[Ryu]

Said it all really villanation. Gabby doesn't roam about in between the midfield and defence causing problems with his movement like rooney or someone because he's a different sort of player doing a different job. You've pointed out the things he does do very well.  If this means he lacks 'football intelligence' then either I don't understand it or it hasn't been explained to me properly.

That or its a meaningless phrase used by unimaginative 'experts' to make themselves sound knowledgeable. 

[Rigadon]

He's instinctive and sometimes explosive.  His positional play is good but not sure how much of that is down to sheer pace enabling him to find space.  Anyway, he's one of my favourite players in the team.

[Dante Lavelli]

Instinctiveness vs Footballing brain, it's just semantics.

He's a good player, sometimes great when he gets on one of his purple patches, but as a striker he could improve on his movement in the box in my opinion.  If he is to become a winger then he'll need to learn a trick other than pace to get round players.  His crossing is good but I have to admit I don't remember too many subtle or visionary passes.

But as others have commented, for nothing he is one helluva player.

[Toronto Villa]

He's been announced as the clubs official ambassador for Acorns. Info on the OS. That gents is fucking ace when you consider how much time it would take and how much he must value the relationship. Top bloke.