Gabby

[Toronto Villa]

I think GH had it bang on with the comments about his added muscles. The balance is somewhere in between where he is string as an ox, but remains as fuck or something like that...

[Dave]

When you look at the *cough* quality *cough* of the England strikers making squads Gabby can definitely get in.

His place will go to someone like Defoe who can't get in the Spurs team.  It's the England way and arguably why we've not won anything since 1966.

The main barrier is the manager. We play 4-4-2 and nothing but that, so I expect Hodgson will pick players that fit that formation, even if they don't do it very well.

As someone mentions above, he's neither the correct player to play in a two up front, or as a full-on winger. If we played 4-3-3 then he'd be nailed on.

[Clampy]

When you look at the *cough* quality *cough* of the England strikers making squads Gabby can definitely get in.

His place will go to someone like Defoe who can't get in the Spurs team.  It's the England way and arguably why we've not won anything since 1966.

The main barrier is the manager. We play 4-4-2 and nothing but that

It's funny you should say that. Whilst I was half watching the England game last week, I tried to pick an England side based on the same system we play. I couldn't think of 3 decent midfielders in the squad that Hodgson picked that could do a similar job that our boys do.

[cheltenhamlion]

Delph, Westwood....

[paul_e]

When you look at the *cough* quality *cough* of the England strikers making squads Gabby can definitely get in.

His place will go to someone like Defoe who can't get in the Spurs team.  It's the England way and arguably why we've not won anything since 1966.

The main barrier is the manager. We play 4-4-2 and nothing but that

It's funny you should say that. Whilst I was half watching the England game last week, I tried to pick an England side based on the same system we play. I couldn't think of 3 decent midfielders in the squad that Hodgson picked that could do a similar job that our boys do.

That was my biggest complaint about the midfield we picked.  It just didn't feel balanced.  Hopefully he'll see sense before long, Gabby, Walcott, Sturridge and Welbeck (although I'm still not convinced Welbeck is up to it) all play as 'inside forwards' so you pick them, With Rooney and a central target man (Carroll if he can stay fit and find a bit of form).  You then have Wilshere, Lampard, Delph, Westwood, Gerrard, Cleverley, Oxlade-Chamberlain and few others to pick from to build a midfield and you start to get a decent side together.

A lot of the names above are based on the squads he's picked rather than my personal choices, I wouldn't take Gerrard for example, he's not the player he was and has never really settled as a regular performer internationally, despite getting fuck loads of caps.

The defence is messy but hopefully a few central defenders will stand up this season, I'm a big fan of Phil Jones if Man U start giving him some time as a central defender rather than using him as a utility defender.

[supertom]

You know with Gabby he gets a lot of criticism as being a player who can't pass a ball, can't control, not a great finisher. For me he has these abilities. What he sometimes lacks is a bit of composure or just some concentration at times. I've re-watched Gabby's 63 premier league goals vid on AVTV. What you see is a striker who scores with his right foot, left foot, his head. Inside the box, outside the box. He's got frightening pace, he's strong. He can run at defenders. If anyone thinks Gabby Agbonlahor can't control a ball, they should re-watch his goal against Everton in 07-08. Remember? Carsons goal kick, Gabby controlled it perfectly out the air and then finished brilliantly. I mean it was almost Bergkampesque.

Now I'm not saying he's got Bergkamps touch, but I do think people sometimes underestimate just how much ability he has. People debate whether he can play wide. I think he's shown more than enough to suggest he can play wide.

He was getting a bit stagnant here in Houllier and McLeish's time. He had injuries of course, that didn't help. Also when the team is doing well, Gabby generally does well. I mean lets face it, under TSM in the second half of the season when Gabby had to take the mantle with Bent injured, along with Petrov and Dunne out too, he wasn't great, but almost everyone else, to a man was woeful too. It was shame because Gabby actually started that season very well. He set up a lot of goals for Benty, and he'd scored half a dozen too. We were so horrifically negative after jan though that he tailed off along with everyone else.

Since Lambert took over though, Gab has had a renewed hunger. The club feels positive. Even when we had our awful run last season, everything remained remarkably bright from the club to be fair. We never reached the doom and gloom levels of the previous year. Players were still adamant that we'd come good, and we did. Now we're set up in a way to utilize Gabby's strengths. We're an attacking side now. We can play quick tempo passing football and Gab isn't out of place either. He can actually link play very well and holds the ball up well. I think he's probably laid off the weights too. He seems to be picking up less injuries than 18-24 months ago. He's regained a yard or two of pace he'd seemingly lost.

Gab is a senior statesmen now. It's the time to have more consistency from him. We want him to frighten teams in every match. When we're against it he wins us so many free-kicks, or corners, or throws around the oppositions box. He gains us back a lot of territory and at key times when we're struggling to get a grip in a game. That first pen came at a time we were just easing into the game, without really managing to break through Arsenal. Gabby blasted into top gear and just ripped them apart.

Looking at him in pre-season too, he's looked really fired up. Possibly more so than I remember him looking for years. For the club on a whole it feels like a turning point. For Gabby, I think this is where he'll lead by example and help us push up the league. People say Gab could never play for a top 4 club. How many times has he mugged off top four clubs in matches over the years? Plenty. Ask Arsene Wenger if he wouldn't mind having Agbonlahor in his side right now. Gabby's solo goal against Crewe (I think) in pre season was brilliant. It proved a taster of how confident and up for it he is right now. Playing off Benteke has really given him a lot of fire back in his belly. To be fair to Gab, he loved playing with Carew. Part of the reason Gabby perhaps wasn't as frighteningly consistent as he could have been was that Carew sometimes struggled to play two games in a week. He was injured regularly, and had his own consistency issues. Tekkers is even better and fitter than Big John and it's part of the reason Gabbaldinho is flourishing.

He scores in big games. He's scored against all the top teams in this league. He scores in the local derbies. He scores when it matters. If he plays 30 games this season in the league, he'll hit double figures. 

Over the MON years I'd always talk to rival fans, be it Arsenal, Chelski, Liverpool, Utd, Spurs. In most cases when discussing the players they'd want to cherry pick from our club (and felt would happily come, the wankers), the name that came up the most wasn't Ashley Young, wasn't Gareth Barry, it was Gabby Agbonlahor. At times he seemed to get more appreciation for being a top quality player from outside the club than from the Villa fans.

[john e]

am gona read war and peace next !

[supertom]

am gona read war and peace next !

If you want a summation:

Gabby is the mutts nuts.

[warleyboy]

am gona read war and peace next !

Or the bible 

[LeeB]

What I mean by that is, in the MON years he seemed to be getting better and better. He then regressed badly for a number of years, injuries taking their toll etc. Last year saw a marked improvement.

I think that's a bit harsh to be honest. At worst, he was off the boil for a few months in two separate seasons post-MON.
Even under MON he tended to score in spurts. He did ok in his call-ups to England but he never seemed overly bothered about international recognition and I think Capello got fed-up with him pulling out of squads.

He had a tough year with Houllier who wasn't keen on his muscular physique:

He’s shown that in terms of speed and goalscoring he has qualities of a high level,” said Houllier. “Unfortunately for him, his injuries have set him back.

“When you build up too much it affects your joints and muscle. The fact is, I think he should stop, he’s too stocky.

“The Gabby Agbonlahor I saw when I was watching TV in France was different from what I see here. He was thinner, more wiry and wow, quick. So, I’ve told him to lay off the weights.”

Heskey was his golden boy for the big, target-man role. And he also had big John Carew, though he obviously wasn't too keen on him. But Gabby still popped up with some crucial goals that season like the winner at West Ham which effectively sent them down and helped keep us up. He started off the McLeish season blisteringly well - check the season review for his goals and assists against Blackburn and Wigan at the start of the season. A real noticeable change in strength and power to go with the pace.

Long-term I think his bulking-up has paid off - he has a brilliant knack for holding defenders off and drawing a foul from them - he does it at least a handful of times each match. Sometimes it's frustrating as he seems more keen on enticing the defender than concentrating on the ball but it works more often than not. Facing goal he still has that direct, speedy style that's enough for defenders to shit bricks as witnessed on Sat but when the pace goes I think his frame will make him a decent option as a central-striker in his 30's.

Eamonn, that's a great post.

And Houllier was right to a degree, he looks a different person to the one first playing under O'Neill, but long term that work's probably going to extend his career at the top level a lot longer.

For me, I think he's added aspects to his game every season and is starting to look the complete player, I think his best years are in front of him.

[LeeB]

And Supertom, that's a great post too.

His moustache is also ace.

[badluckeric(gates)]

and loyal.

[john e]

Gabby is a different player now than he has ever been before in my opinion, last season was his best, and this season could be better,
even when he had his best scoring year, about 13 goals, he wasn't as good as he is now, the fit with Benteke and Wieman is one of those fusions of perfection, Gray-Withe, Toshack-Keegan Yorke-Cole only there is 3 of them

[Percy McCarthy]

Gray-Little-Deehan. Now that was a three.

Don't recall Gray-Withe (wink).

[john e]

Gray-Little-Deehan.

Don't recall Gray-Withe (wink).

sorry brain freeze obviously meant Shaw- Withe