The Gabby Appreciation Thread - Update: 4 year deal

[bill]

Playing with Bent would IMO put the mockers on Benteke.

Benteke is in my opinion a great target man who will score a fair few goals. Bent is a poor target man, who feeds off a guys playing that role, and wil leasily  outscore Gabby. Benteke and Bent offer a far better prospect of goals. We should persevere with their partnership.

[Percy McCarthy]

Ah I see. So you're basing Gabby's future performance on his worst ever run. That seems fair. And by definition, not typical either.

[ktvillan]

There's a reason why someone has spent 18 m on Bent and not on Gabby.  To say that Benteke and Gabby are "developing a partnership", on the basis of one link up and one goal seems a bit premature. 

[Percy McCarthy]

Did you not see them destroy Lescott and Toure at Man City?

[Matt Collins]

Surely the other point is that gabby can play wide enabling us to play 4231, as we have been. Bent can't.

[peter w]

As far as I can see Gabby's our leading scorer in November and has scored in every game since the 1-1 draw at home against Norwich. In the last 3 games he's started he's scored 2. Great stats.

[Percy McCarthy]

He's also had probably fifty times more touches than Bent would have had outside the box and been a much more useful partner to Benteke than Bent would have been.

[MoetVillan]

The ballboy below our seats has fifty times more touches per game outside the box than Bent

[Percy McCarthy]

...and they usually give it us back.

[ktvillan]

Did you not see them destroy Lescott and Toure at Man City?

No I didn't.  I gather Gabby played well there but so did the whole team from what I heard.  I couldn't tell you if there was any particular link up play between him and Benteke.  I haven't seen any evidence of it in our other PL games.  I know you think the sun shines out of Gabby's backside but he's got to do a lot more on a far more consistent basis to convince me he's going to be a first choice in the long run. 

[Percy McCarthy]

Hmm, well I think he's a good player if that's what you mean. Agree about the consistency. I mean, if you take the first three months of last season, it's obvious he's capable of being a much better all-round player than Bent, but hasn't done it enough.

Have you not seen the Man City goals though? For Gabby's first, him and Benteke played a nice, neat one-two before Gabby's burst through to finish, and for our third, Gabby ran on to a Benteke flick-on, had a shot parried and CNZ tapped in the rebound. Gabby also put a good ball in for Benteke's first miss at Spurs, as well as putting a couple of great crosses in against WBA, which Benteke just failed to get on the end of.

In many ways, it's similar to the start of last season when, before his injury, Gabby kept up with Bent's scoring rate while setting his partner up with a few tap-ins as well. That's the potential, but again, consistency is the key.

What I find encouraging about the gabby/benteke partnership is the fact that it's a two-way thing, whereas at the start of last season, while Gabby worked hard to set Bent up, it was never reciprocated.

[ktvillan]

Just seen all that stuff about the criticism of Gabby being associated with his race.  I don't doubt there are a few ignorant souls that would denigrate any black player but ye Gods that really is scraping the barrel to defend him.  In interview terms he's no more brainless than countless other English footballers, but if the cap fits, why should one have to tread on eggshells because he happens to be black?  I fail to see how the using the word "brainless" means you are getting at him because of his race.  Or even his accent.  This is just a wild stab in the dark but is it really beyond the realms of probability that most people who call him brainless do so because they find him a bit brainless? In much the same way that I've often seen Hutton or Warnock described as brainless.  But perhaps it's because one is Scottish and the other is - oh er hang on I'm struggling now.  Perhaps he's just brainless. 

[pedro25]

If the midfield chipped in with a few it would take the pressure off somewhat. N'Zog, Ireland, Bannan, Holman etc. should all be capable of scoring a few.

[N'ZMAV]

He is brainless. :-)

[ktvillan]

Hmm, well I think he's a good player if that's what you mean. Agree about the consistency. I mean, if you take the first three months of last season, it's obvious he's capable of being a much better all-round player than Bent, but hasn't done it enough.

Have you not seen the Man City goals though? For Gabby's first, him and Benteke played a nice, neat one-two before Gabby's burst through to finish, and for our third, Gabby ran on to a Benteke flick-on, had a shot parried and CNZ tapped in the rebound. Gabby also put a good ball in for Benteke's first miss at Spurs, as well as putting a couple of great crosses in against WBA, which Benteke just failed to get on the end of.

In many ways, it's similar to the start of last season when, before his injury, Gabby kept up with Bent's scoring rate while setting his partner up with a few tap-ins as well. That's the potential, but again, consistency is the key.

What I find encouraging about the gabby/benteke partnership is the fact that it's a two-way thing, whereas at the start of last season, while Gabby worked hard to set Bent up, it was never reciprocated.

Fair enough, there may be a bit more evidence than I thought.  But as we have agreed, it needs to be sustained.  Gabby has a habit of having a blinding spell of 5 or 6 matches and then disappearing off the radar for the next 15-20.  You can't do that at premier league level.