brummybloke

your conveniently forgetting we score less goals without bent than with him in this current formation im sure holman played behind benteke in the last game? so infact NOTHING would have needed changing apart from 1 player for another, bent for holman

bent started 6 games we scored 5 goals in those 6 games ( 1 of those we were down to 10 men) games bent has not started 8 scored 6 and in one of those bent came on as a sub and scored so the stats this season also prove we score more with him than without him so we are factually LESS likely to score without him in the current system

why would we need to change 10 players to accomadate 1? swapping weiman or gabby for bent is all it would take how many goals has gabby got? how many assists in this current formation? bent has 2 league goals, gabby? 1 and gabby has played more than bent if lambert wants players such as gabby and weiman to be attacking midfielders, why not uses some of the attacking midfielders we already have? bent is not the be all and end all or the answer to all of thw worlds problems, he is however the player in our squad with the best goal scoring record and is proven,has done it for his entiore career and can be relied upon to score goals on a regular basis even under the ginger ape he managed to score goals before he was injured. while benteke has been very good, he has yet to show he can do it consistantly over a season at this level, so using one who has with one who hasnt but who both provide a significant goal threat would seem the common sense thing to do and if benteke gets 5 yellows or a red card? or injured? who is going to score the goals we need to stay in the league? 1 goal gabby? someone posted up the villa stats for when bent plays to when he doesnt and the goal ratio is significant, its a fact.. we score less goals without him playing, whether that be him scoring or another team mate scoring so saying we score more with him not in the team is just untrue. it used to be we created shed loads of chances and we had no one to put them away as we had heskey , we have one of the best finishers who has played for a variety of managers using a variety of formations and tactics including internation matches and european matches, he has been a regular scorer in every team in each formation each manager chose, so why do you think if the rest of the team pulls thier socks up that he cant score regularly under lambert?

when bent is sold, if he is to be sold in january then i can only hope we have a player replacing him who will fit into this system which isnt working at the moment. until we get the replacement player/s then we should use bent as without him we are not getting enough points or scoring enough goals the defence is starting to look more stable, not helped by 3 new players in the back 4, the midfield is starting to look a bit better, again with new players being used but we still are not scoring, so something is clearly not working the way it is set up at the moment now the young players have found their feat a bit more, we are not looking as bad, that is down to them getting used to the standards of the top league, not due to bent not playing. so the defence and midfield are sorting themselves out but we still dont get goals? it seems obvious bent should be playing with benteke, gabby 1 goal in 33 league games? cant even say he is providing loads of assists, we are not scoring from anywhere apart from benteke and he isnt getting enough goals for us to win matches on a regular basis

im not saying we cant beat them, im pointing out that we are less likely to score the amount of goals we would with bent playing bent is only 1 player,but if he does his job and he keeps his career scoring stats of a goal every 2 games or so and the rest of the team do theirs then we should win more than we lose, which is not the case at the moment lescott is a good player, how old is he now though? i would think he would not cost us as much as we are hardly a threat to man city any more but still a good 8 million pounds worth of player on 60k per week if we were to get him i would guess? for me we really just need 2 or 3 players, a winger such as downing, a left back ( lescott can play left back) and a solid midfielder in the mold ( player wise not personality wise) of barton

i understand that but due to the position in the league we are in, can we afford to take the gamble on letting our best goal scorer go now? if bent is to be sold then so be it but to not play him until he is sold and miss out on the goals per game ratio he brings and miss out on the (obviously no one will ever know as its impossible to predict) but potentially missed points due to his missed goals? we have the 2nd worst goal difference in the league, we are not scoriing goals and we are conceding goals, while putting bent back in the team wont help us conceding goals it most likely will improve our scoring, so even using short termism to get us more points on the board it seems very foolish to not use him while he is still here. cutting your nose off to spite your face is a saying which brings to mind in what is happening.

lowton 4 year deal signed benteke 4 year deal signed westwood 4 year deal signed bennett 4 year deal signed bowery 3 year deal signed looks like they already have good length deals weiman baker clarke bannan all have contracts to 06/14 so they may need theirs looking at after january as they seem part of the first 18

i think people are hypothesising rather than taking anything for gospel, different scenarios are being ran through by all of us and they are being discussed, i bet none of us will know for sure any time soon if ever the real reasons for what is happening

at the expense of not scoring any goals? that 3 million pounds for bent to play against qpr stoke norwich in the quater finals liverpool chelsea spurz wigan swansea before january 2nd, that 21 points, we play 3 teams around the bottom of the table i think having him scoring goals in these crucial games is worth more to the club than 3 million pounds

i would have thought most of our new young signings would have had 4 year contracts as standard? they are getting more money than they had at their last clubs, a significant amount more i would guess so to give them more ould be counter productive in my view. remember lee hendrie? looked terrible each time a new contract for more money was given but looked a world beater ( well maybe not that good) in the last year of each contract if after the first year benteke has banged in 18 goals then maybe altering his contract to include incentives may be wise but villa are trying to keep wages managable so any wage increse would have to be carefully managed, the players may also think they have'made it' if after 12 months their already hugely increased wages go up more.

but he has scored more than wellbeck who is a regular for england, utd have 4 top forwards who would get into most of the sides in the premier league, only possibly 2 other teams would wellbeck and 'chico' possibly not be starters each week goals are what win matches which is why forwards 90% of the time will cost more than any other position on the pitch because their task is arguably admittedly, the most important 'end product'. and with bent you are getting the 'end product', you just dont get all the fancy packaging

that is the most likely reason in my view i think a deal with liverpool may have been pencilled in already, shame as with downing looking likely to be leaving liverpool it would for footballing reasons, have been worth a cheeky punt getting him back in to occupy the left or right side of midfield, benteke and bent would have reaped the rewards and i think so would the team as a whole as downing also pops up with 7 or 8 goals per season oh what could have been

gabby who has scored 1 goal in 33 league games? thats been working hasnt it? the squad we have NOW is whats important , not who we may or may not get in the summer, as it stands we dont have midfielders to score 8 or 10 goals, infact at the moment of the players who are being picked we have only 1 player who looks to score 10 or more goals this season, so the focal point will be on one player, something which you suggest we shouldnt be doing? so get rid of the player who most likely will hit the 18 goals and stick with the rest of the team who between them havent mustered 11 goals in 14 games ( bent scoring 2 of them), hmm? while bent is still a villa player he should be in the first 18 at least unless injured based purely on footballing reasons, the stats show it. i find it odd also that now we do have another forward scoring regular, he isnt team up with the other regular scorer, bent hasnt had a regular scoring partner since he has been here

hernandez has started 9 out of 17 games for utd who play with rooney and van persie as the main forwards he has scored 9 times for them in those 17 games so hernandez still gets in the team more often than not despite players of the quality of wellbeck, rooney and van persie also being used, so Fergie who si not a shit manager, can see the value in this type of player. if formation was that simple there would be 3 defenders 6 midfield and 1 up front as you wouldnt need 4 or 5 defenders if every team played with 1 striker i would have though tplaying to your strengths was the best 'formation', our best attacking threat since he arrived and still is darren bent, his goals per game record show this, it is down to the manager to make the right formations if he knows he will get a goal every pther game from him he should set his team up accordingly, he knows in benteke he has a certain type of forward , one who bullies defenders and has a physical presence, he also knows in darren bent his work rate is about movement, finding the space most other forwards dont have and having the rare knack of being in the right place at the right time more often than not, working on the shoulder of the last defender. so 1 forward who has defenders constantly thinking about where he will go and another who keeps defenders physically busy there is nothing to stop the formation still being 1 up front, with bent being that forward and benteke behind him who can choose to hold the ball up, lay it off or flick it on to bent whose movement is the best we have for the forwards we have. while most of villas forwards who have become heroes where battlers like gray, withe, mcinally, carew and to a lesser degree gary thompson becasue they put their bodies on the line and the effort was easy to see for everyone, you need to look closer to appreciate the work rate of the other types of forwards who dont throw everything they have at the defenders or the ball.

i dont think anyone has said bent is a world beater, what he is though is regularly one of the top scoring FORWARDS in the top league in England i highlight forwards because peoples expectations of forwards seems to have changed from someone who scores goals to someone like christian ronaldo who is an attacking midfielder who scores shit loads of goals the forward ( or at least 1 of a 2 partnership) is there to score goals, not defend, not to dribble round 10 players, not to tackle in the middle of the park fighting for the ball, to plain and simple... score goals while there may be players like messi who can dribble round half the team, you will find he costs 80 million and upwards, the unrealistic bizarre comments being made about bent not being good enough for us because all he does is score goals, not run around like a headless chicken and not leap for every header when most of the time even if he won the header there was no where for it to go apart from to the opponents and not breaking a sweat in most of the games? listen to yourselves i would rather have someone who was clever enough to time his runs when he NEEDS to, to win headers when he NEEDS to and if it looks like he is not running after everything then so what? why waste your energy chasing every lost cause and then be getting your breath back when the good ball comes in for you? work rate comes in different forms for different players if bent stands still for 89 minutes and in the 1 minute scores the winning goal, he has done his job, his job for the team and his job for the fans becasue he is a forward. it makes me chuckle that now sitting in 17th place bent is deemed not good enough for us so sell him and what are you getting? are you getting your magical forward with the qualities of messi? even if benteke keeps his fine form up and we get another 'benteke', can two identical types of forwards play together? it is in my view certainly NOT a footballing reason why bent is being frozen out i look forward to seeing who he is replaced with and seeing if his going to have the same goal ratio that bent has, i very much doubt that will be the case but hope to be pleasantly suprised.

odd really, his job is to score goals and you are bemoaning that he will score goals, doing exactly what he is paid to do? would you prefer heskey back again? he did everything else but score goals, he won headers when there was no need to, he helped in the defence, he dropped back to midfield, he was well liked in the dressing room and had a good team spirit and did it all for the team.. but wait, he didnt score many goals?

try stop making rubbish up then, there is no respect for making rubbish up and pretending another poster has wrote it

25 goals a season? where did i say that, go look it up.... oh i didnt and where did i say bent was bigger than aston villa? jesus some people will bullsh1t to their hearts content making up rubbish. keep going

but he did what he is paid to do, score goals we had a forward before who used to put himself about and give his all going for all headers and the like .. it was emule heskey forwards need to be able to score as thats their job i dont understand ( not you personally) but this mentality that a player is not working hard, is guzan meant to do push ups and sit ups and jog on the spot when he is not saving the ball? becasue he wouldnt be working hard other wise same goes with forwards, if you have a goal scorer his job isnt to run like forest gump all game, its to score goals i bet the same people moan that a spin bowler doesnt smash 100 runs each game of cricket when its their turn to bat. different positions require different types of work, otherwise any player could play anywhere on the pitch

? 1 up front is still 1 up front and he scored regularly playing as a 1 up front didnt work for sunderland? i would say different, the 2 forwards did their job and they scored 33 goals between them, doing exactly what their job is 2009-2010 bent played 38 (0) scored 24----- jones played 24 (9) scored 9

he cant work as a lone striker? he did for charlton and playing 2 up front with one being a player like benteke? it worked for sunderland by playing kenwne jones and bent up front together the idea of winning a game of football is by scoring more than the opponents, while bent may be a one trick pony, his trick is scoring goals, thats quite a good trick, one which seems to evade most of our forwards benteke may score 12 -14 goals this season, we may have another player score 10, thats 2 players who between them may score the same amount bent scores season upon season when played, so i cant see this thing about him being a luxury player and we only play weith 10 men when he isnt scoring, because when he does score it could be countered that we are now playing with 12 men as he scores double the amount our other strikers manage lambert will sell him, we will score less goals and another team will benefit from his services thats football, but for me bent has done nothing wrong apart from being bigger than lambert and lambert doesnt like that and seems intent on goading bent until bent reacts.

it doesnt help with lambert taking the piss out of him benteke and bent can play together, they did against southampton, we lost 4-1 or words to that effect if he wants to go down that route why not mention his forward lineup against man city last week? where his line up got smashed 5-0? i suspect he is doing this and treating him like scum is to get a reaction out of bent so it looks like bent has a bad attitude. im guessing liverpool or qpr is the destination come january and im guessing bent will score 12 goals from january onwards because he will be played in his new team for years we dream of having a top finisher, we get one and then dont use him, it can only happen at villa instead we will continue to have 1 striker on form and have to rely soley on him not getting injured to survive but the striker on form will net 12 to 14 goals each year then in 3 years of this we will be dreaming of getting a top finisher.............

bent needs to be put back in, no point playing with the 3 we have been playing with and not getting any points because we cant score strikers are there to score, i dont know where people get this idea that every forward to be good needs to be able to dribble around half a team and fire it into the net from 30 yards, needs to jump for every header, needs to track back each time we dont have the ball, needs to tackle needs to run none stop? we have a striker who scores goals but because he doesnt do all the above people are turning on him, the same player 99.9% of fans were delighted with when we signed him, knowing what we were getting. the same player who has had games where he has not touched the ball for 75 minutes but then scores the winner if we want to keep drawing and losing then by all means, keep not picking him. im sure Lambert will be pleased if his reason for not playing bent is personal ( which it is looking more likely every game that goes by) as he is getting what HE wants, unfortunately it is at the expense of the clubs league position and also no doubt affecting bents value weiman, gabby and benteke may be looking great at doing various things, they are not looking that great at scoring goals, which is their job. if lambert wants players running and 'putting in effort' then pick midfielders who can offer that support, if you want someone to score goals then pick the player who does it, not who ever can run around the longest. lee hendrie was a decent player for villa, every now and then he would put in top performances, but then follow it up with some poor performances, he was the same level as lampard at the time hendrie concentrated on running around everywhere, lampard instead decided to pick and choose when he ran and his runs. one of them burned out and faded badly, the other became one of the best midfielders in the country league wise either play bent or sell him and watch him hammer the goals in week in week out for a team like west ham or QPR , clubs who will spunk 10 million on someone who will score, he wont go to city ,man utd or chelsea because they can afford to spunk 35 million on a player who scores but also can pass it to a better standard than any of our players. this current policy reminds me of graham taylor as england manager picking players like carlton palmer and geoff thomas because they run around and 'put the effort in' rather than garry lineker who scored for fun but couldnt pass for shit.

we need an experienced battler in the middle of the park, we have plenty of youth which needs to be balanced out a little we also need a winger, ideally a left winger/ midfielder, i would bring downing back, im sure liverpoo still owe us a lot of money for him? as long as we keep given, bent and dunne then i think we would be good for the rest of the season if we add the 2 positions mentioned. we have a few young players for the left back spot so while it is not our best covered position i think we could keep them in to give them the experience and hopefully grow into it. we have 2 experienced cb and 2 young ones so that ( ok they seem injured or banned most of the time at the moment) forwards we have 4 the midfield we have lots of players but no hardman ( unless you count little heard) and no wide player who can constantly get the ball into dangerous areas right back we have 1 who is clearly first choice and 2 or 3 who can also play there keeper we have 2 experienced keepers

he had a good game i think, he is starting to put in decent performances on a consistant level, something we need when gabby has but 1 goal to his name in the last 30 league games. i still would prefer benteke and bent up front with gabby to provide the pace weiman as a good sub ( i know he played well the other day) we need to stop the long punts up to him though, there is far more to his game than jumping for the ball all the time, mixing it up would be far better for the team and for the players