Rudy Gestede

[Gary Thomas]

10 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

Nobody should be surprised at his two goals on Saturday, he is a very capable goal scorer at this level.

That is why I couldn't understand people clambering for Dwight Gayle who hasn't been a proven scorer at any professional level.

Rudy could be a very important player this season.

I remember a Sheffield Wednesday fan saying exactly this.  I suspect a lot of teams will try and sit back against us, especially at VP.  Having a target man like Rudy will be very useful IF we can provide him with the service.

[mjmooney]

Remember, though, he started off in the Premier League with a cracking goal, and we all thought he was going to be great. Followed by a whole lot of nothing. 

[sexbelowsound]

Thought he played well but I don't understand why sometimes he can play like that and then other times refuse to move outside of a 5 yard radius.

Edited August 15, 2016 by sexbelowsound

[sparrow1988]

3 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Remember, though, he started off in the Premier League with a cracking goal, and we all thought he was going to be great. Followed by a whole lot of nothing. 

While playing in a struggling team with no real game plan, shit service and the ball being in our half for probably 70% of the match. 

Play to his strengths then he will do well. Not saying he is indispensible or anything like it but he has his uses.

[Gary Thomas]

He's not top class but he can be good in this division with other (better) players around him - could easily see him getting 15+ goals in a 46 game season. I am hoping the good performance on Sat was a result of the work being done on the training ground with RDM, Clarke are Bond etc. so we will see more of it. Agree with others that service is key for him.  Last year he did OK in the early part of the season (e.g. Liverpool away, Blues in the cup etc) then Amavi got injured our service became very poor.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Gary Thomas

[TrentVilla]

30 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Remember, though, he started off in the Premier League with a cracking goal, and we all thought he was going to be great. Followed by a whole lot of nothing. 

True. But he didn't have a proven track record in the PL.

Besides he would have scored more in the PL if we had continued giving him service like we did at Bournmouth.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

1 hour ago, sexbelowsound said:

Thought he played well but I don't understand why sometimes he can play like that and then other times refuse to move outside of a 5 yard radius.

For the most part he didn't. He acted a bit like a swingball post, with the other three buzzing around him. Put simply, we figured out how to implement him correctly. That and he didn't have the touch of a Heskey for a change. 

It wasn't a massive revelation, more a combined effort to utilise his strengths. 

That and he buried his chances. Without that we're talking about a different result and another frustrating afternoon which he would have been ripped for. 

Edited August 15, 2016 by dont_do_it_doug.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Edit - he did play well mind, man of the match for me. 

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, sexbelowsound said:

Thought he played well but I don't understand why sometimes he can play like that and then other times refuse to move outside of a 5 yard radius.

thats the thing for me, all this "if we play to his strengths..."it also helps that he played out of his skin, best performance by him for us by a mile full of determination, the criticism that he'd had before was deserved, the criticism he'll get if he goes back to playing musical statues will be deserved

[sexbelowsound]

32 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Edit - he did play well mind, man of the match for me. 

to be honest your opinion is more valid than mine as i've seen at most 9 minutes of the match whereas you saw the whole thing.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

1 minute ago, sexbelowsound said:

to be honest your opinion is more valid than mine 

Fixed and thank you. 

[sexbelowsound]

1 minute ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Fixed and thank you. 

Tit. 

Edited August 15, 2016 by sexbelowsound
Added the smiley so hopefully I don't get a warning....

[DCJonah]

10 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

For the most part he didn't. He acted a bit like a swingball post, with the other three buzzing around him. Put simply, we figured out how to implement him correctly. That and he didn't have the touch of a Heskey for a change. 

It wasn't a massive revelation, more a combined effort to utilise his strengths. 

That and he buried his chances. Without that we're talking about a different result and another frustrating afternoon  which he would have been ripped for. 

I have to disagree. I thought he looked a lot more mobile. He was winning all headers but he was finding some space and linking up well with others. His run for the 2nd and for the chance he missed from ayew's cross was the sort we've rarely seen from him. 

I think his dominance in the air the first 10 minutes just shot his confidence right up when he realised he could have his own way. 

[grayslickuk]

I took my 8 year old lad to the game and spent most of the journey up the M5 proclaiming Gestede was the worst target man I'd ever seen at Villa. Doh.

Played very well, looked hungry and took his goals well.

He missed a sitter for his hat trick.

I'm not sure I would want to rely on him for the rest of the season.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

11 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I have to disagree. I thought he looked a lot more mobile. He was winning all headers but he was finding some space and linking up well with others. His run for the 2nd and for the chance he missed from ayew's cross was the sort we've rarely seen from him. 

I think his dominance in the air the first 10 minutes just shot his confidence right up when he realised he could have his own way. 

I wasn't very clear, my fault. I meant that I have seen him play like that a few times, miss a couple of chances and be slated for his performance. 

However I totally accept your point that scoring a goal early on gave him a massive confidence boost and the wider point that we've not seen that nearly enough from him. I still strongly suspect he will have a **** stinker tomorrow and we're back to square one. 

Or, hopefully, I'm talking out of my bollocks and that little confidence boost is all he needed to take off.

Either way, they've clearly been working hard on the training pitches to figure out how best to amalgamate our front 3/4. They clicked on Saturday which is very promising indeed. 

[Spoony]

Perhaps he was a bit disaffected by the attitude of the rest of the team last year. Hard to get motivated when no one around you can be arsed. I think he was as guilty as anyone in the "not trying" department last season. I'm hoping that with the added impetus he can keep up his performance against Rotherham. 

[TrentVilla]

As I've said previously, he will out score Gayle this year for League goals and one of our main rivals paid £10m for him.

[Butterfingers]

His 2 goals on Saturday were not typical Rudy goals.  The more I watch the first one, the harder it looks to not only get across the defender but also to get such a powerful, accurate header in.  The second one was opportunist thanks to a wonderful pass from McCormack.

It was the other aspects of his game that impressed me but lets face facts,  Rotherham were a very poor side.  All of our players looked good on Saturday.

[StefanAVFC]

What I'm liking (and I know it's early days) is that we've changed from having a team of utter clearings in the woods who turn up, swan around and don't give a shit, to a team of likeable players.

Gestede, even though he was pretty pants last year, was always likeable. Now he's getting his rewards. Hope he keeps it up.

[omariqy]

Impressed with his second goal. He was very quick to the ball and alert. Something that hasn't been attributed to since he has been here. Pretty impressive front three with McCormack, Ayew and him, with Grealish in behind.