Bent out for rest of season

[Steve R]

It's stretching it a bit to say having Gabby or Heskey up front rather than Bent suits our style of play better. It suits McLeish's.

That doesn't mean we will be any better to watch or more likely to register points. We will merely be one spectator fewer.

I have a feeling it will be Heskey up front rather than Gabby. Having a big get playing up front is the most likely consequence of trying to play 'Hit the big get up front early' football.

I don't see how Bent's absence means we are more likely to play a proper 4-5-1 game. The 4-4-1-1 that wasn't really working will be ditched as a result of Keane's return to the new world, rather than Bent's injury.

It wouldn't surprise me if the injury merely opened the door for a rigid 4-4-2.

[N'ZMAV]

We should sign Shefki Kuqi on a free transfer.

[Concrete John]

It's stretching it a bit to say having Gabby or Heskey up front rather than Bent suits our style of play better. It suits McLeish's.

That doesn't mean we will be any better to watch or more likely to register points. We will merely be one spectator fewer.

I have a feeling it will be Heskey up front rather than Gabby. Having a big get playing up front is the most likely consequence of trying to play 'Hit the big get up front early' football.

I don't see how Bent's absence means we are more likely to play a proper 4-5-1 game. The 4-4-1-1 that wasn't really working will be ditched as a result of Keane's return to the new world, rather than Bent's injury.

It wouldn't surprise me if the injury merely opened the door for a rigid 4-4-2.

We hardly played a traditional 4-4-2 all season.

I'm as big a Bent fan as anyone, but the fact remains our two best performances this season were Arsenal away and Chelsea at home, in which he didn't play.

I've give up trying to guess AM's team selection, but there is still a good and well balanced 11 we can pick without Bent.

[ktvillan]

I think you mean Arsenal home and Chelsea away John.  He scored in the latter, and in the former, Gabby failed to get on the end of a multitude of decent balls into the box.  Without Bent and Keane, what little scoring threat we had has all but disappeared I'm afraid.  Gabby will get a few, if selected, but not as many as Bent, and not enough to pull us clear of the danger zone in any great hurry.  We have a manager who is not only shit, but he's unlucky as well.  Our season is shaping up very similar to Blues last season, minus the cup - just above the drop zone and injuries to key players for the run-in.  Blues only managed 9 points in their last 12 games.  The rest of the season is going to be squeaky bum time. 

[DerHammer]

I never remember Sunderland playing the dominating, possession football required for Bent when he was there and he scored a shit load of goals, why is it any different for us?

Because we're Villa & we can make great players shit

[Concrete John]

I think you mean Arsenal home and Chelsea away John.  He scored in the latter, and in the former, Gabby failed to get on the end of a multitude of decent balls into the box.  Without Bent and Keane, what little scoring threat we had has all but disappeared I'm afraid.  Gabby will get a few, if selected, but not as many as Bent, and not enough to pull us clear of the danger zone in any great hurry.  We have a manager who is not only shit, but he's unlucky as well.  Our season is shaping up very similar to Blues last season, minus the cup - just above the drop zone and injuries to key players for the run-in.  Blues only managed 9 points in their last 12 games.  The rest of the season is going to be squeaky bum time.

We all know Gabby won't score as many as Bent, but he will give us more team play.  What that SHOULD do is bring the attacking midfielders into the game more, such and N'Zogbia, Ireland and Super Marc.

Even if we did only get 9 points from the rest of the season, which would represent a significant drop off of our form so far, then 38 points would probably see us safe.  From what I can find, Blues were only two points clear when they went on that run.

[Monty]

I never remember Sunderland playing the dominating, possession football required for Bent when he was there and he scored a shit load of goals, why is it any different for us?

I've always argued that that is the way Bent scores more goals - when he is the main outlet. In a counter-attacking side, he doesn't need to do so much by way of build up, can stay relatively high up the pitch and utilise his excellent movement to find and exploit the space on the counter and wait for his moments in a game. In better teams with higher reputations, against whom ten-man defensive walls are often put up, he will be found more wanting at the highest level because his technical attributes in the build-up of slower moves aren't his strong suit. That's not to say he's useless in such systems - just significantly less effective.

Of course, we're not playing any sort of strategic counter-attacking system or anything like that at the moment - we're just playing cowardly, negative boof-ball which suits absolutely nobody.

[David_Nab]

I don't think Bent is that bad on the ball he keeps possesion more than not and lays the ball off.What he can't do is create from wide positions and take a player on.

With the right players or formation he would score ..it's very daming that he was more dangerous playing for Charlton than us.At this point it doesn't matter who we play upfront the support from the midfield and wide is hopeless the wingers are so concerned with tracking back they don't get forward.

[ktvillan]

I think you mean Arsenal home and Chelsea away John.  He scored in the latter, and in the former, Gabby failed to get on the end of a multitude of decent balls into the box.  Without Bent and Keane, what little scoring threat we had has all but disappeared I'm afraid.  Gabby will get a few, if selected, but not as many as Bent, and not enough to pull us clear of the danger zone in any great hurry.  We have a manager who is not only shit, but he's unlucky as well.  Our season is shaping up very similar to Blues last season, minus the cup - just above the drop zone and injuries to key players for the run-in.  Blues only managed 9 points in their last 12 games.  The rest of the season is going to be squeaky bum time.

We all know Gabby won't score as many as Bent, but he will give us more team play.  What that SHOULD do is bring the attacking midfielders into the game more, such and N'Zogbia, Ireland and Super Marc.

Even if we did only get 9 points from the rest of the season, which would represent a significant drop off of our form so far, then 38 points would probably see us safe.  From what I can find, Blues were only two points clear when they went on that run.

When they had 12 games left they were 3 points clear of third from bottom Wigan with a game in hand, and, incidentally, above us on goal difference with a game in hand.  But yes there was much less of a buffer last season between the bottom three and 15th place, which could well be our saving grace this season.  In theory AM would have to nightmare run-in of all time (very possible) combined with 3 of the teams below us recovering sufficiently (unlikely) for us to go down.  But I wouldn't put anything past McLeish, and since we've only averaged 1 goal per game with Bent, the points are going to be very hard to come by without him.

[darren woolley]

It's bad news losing a player like Bent for the season he his a natural born finisher I know Gabby will do the business upfront for us if AM plays Gabby up top.

[mr-villa]

Blues only managed 9 points in their last 12 games.  The rest of the season is going to be squeaky bum time. 

Thats quite true KT and if we take 9 points from our last 12 games we will easily stay up by at least 4 points cos there ain't no way that Wigan and Bolton are going to get 19 points from their last 12 nor are Blackburn going to get 18 points from their last 12 which is what these three would have to achieve in order to go past us.  Relax it just is not going to happen.

[N'ZMAV]

I never remember Sunderland playing the dominating, possession football required for Bent when he was there and he scored a shit load of goals, why is it any different for us?

I've always argued that that is the way Bent scores more goals - when he is the main outlet. In a counter-attacking side, he doesn't need to do so much by way of build up, can stay relatively high up the pitch and utilise his excellent movement to find and exploit the space on the counter and wait for his moments in a game. In better teams with higher reputations, against whom ten-man defensive walls are often put up, he will be found more wanting at the highest level because his technical attributes in the build-up of slower moves aren't his strong suit. That's not to say he's useless in such systems - just significantly less effective.

Of course, we're not playing any sort of strategic counter-attacking system or anything like that at the moment - we're just playing cowardly, negative boof-ball which suits absolutely nobody.

Bent had good partnerships with Gyan and Kenwyne Jones if i remember rightly..

[Monty]

I never remember Sunderland playing the dominating, possession football required for Bent when he was there and he scored a shit load of goals, why is it any different for us?

I've always argued that that is the way Bent scores more goals - when he is the main outlet. In a counter-attacking side, he doesn't need to do so much by way of build up, can stay relatively high up the pitch and utilise his excellent movement to find and exploit the space on the counter and wait for his moments in a game. In better teams with higher reputations, against whom ten-man defensive walls are often put up, he will be found more wanting at the highest level because his technical attributes in the build-up of slower moves aren't his strong suit. That's not to say he's useless in such systems - just significantly less effective.

Of course, we're not playing any sort of strategic counter-attacking system or anything like that at the moment - we're just playing cowardly, negative boof-ball which suits absolutely nobody.

Bent had good partnerships with Gyan and Kenwyne Jones if i remember rightly..

Yes, on the counter-attack. With Jones, the traditional 4-4-2 was used (as it should be) as a counter-attacking formation, with Jones as the target man outlet and Bent able to find space. With Gyan and Welbeck, they went 4-3-3 with pace and skill in wide areas and a compact centre-midfield, and they again counter-attacked. Charlton countered as well, as do most teams who don't have reputations which make oppositions sit deep against them. When he went to Spurs, who played a more proactive game (as opposed to a reactive one), he couldn't just drift off and do nothing but find space for the eventual final ball - against deeper defences, you have to create more as a striker, and that's not really his game. It's very interesting that, in the season he played more games for Spurs, he scored more goals but they, as a team, scored fewer than when he didn't start as many games.

That said, if the players around him are really creative, he can simply hold up and play short, as he can do fine when the ball's played into feet. However, he also needs the help of a training system designed to help all attacking players move off the ball and know which pass to make. The management set-up obviously limits that. But we don't even play to his natural strength on the counter-attack, because we don't even counter properly - we just boof it clear, desperately panicking to get the ball away from our goal, and he's never going to be a target man.

[Dave Clark Five]

Not wishing any harm to Bent, I think with our current squad the absence of him will work in our favour. We don't play to his strengths so only effectively play 10 men.

[Monty]

Not wishing any harm to Bent, I think with our current squad the absence of him will work in our favour. We don't play to his strengths so only effectively play 10 men.

I think there's a chance this could definitely be true. A player can be brilliant, but in the wrong system he can still fail like anyone. Riquelme and Zlatan both didn't settle at Barca, for instance - it just didn't suit them.