Rudy Gestede

[Zatman]

9 hours ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

Those two, especially Lennon, would have been much better than what we ended up with. 

Lennon has been brilliant last month or two for Everton

[VillaChris]

6 hours ago, Czechlad said:

I just hate how one dimensional this guy is. He looks so bad with the ball at his feet. No first touch, can't pass if it's more than 5 yards, and has zero movement off the ball. Yea if we are going to just pump in 50+ crosses a match he needs to start, but if we attempt to play any type of passing game, he can't be in the team. 

Yep an ugly footballer to watch no doubt, can't run or even move, frequently miskicks and can't even hit shots with much power and amusingly he keeps on getting away with clear handballs.

That said he has 5 league goals, 6 for the season and not impossible he could get double figures. I said early on he's a sort of Zigic player, horrible to actually watch play but that sort of awkward presence that the ball will hit and go in and you're left wondering at the end of the season how he's managed 10 goals.

On balance I'd keep him and see how he does at a level he's much more comfortable at.

[Rob182]

One possible issue is that Lennon + Townsend would have cost £20m in transfer fees and presuambly would have wanted the same 65K a week that Gabby gets. I doubt we signed any player who's on over 35K a week.

I know we're going off topic here, but just to address this point (which I agree with).

If we brought in Lennon and Townsend, their wages wouldn't have been a problem if we didn't bring in Adama and one of Gana & Veretout. Our problem this year was bringing in too many players who didn't know the league and wouldn't be up-to-speed quickly enough.

[Stevo985]

18 hours ago, terrytini said:

I remain baffled as to why, when so much of what we do is worthless, we haven't tried a simple two proper wide men + Gestede ........flawed and outdated though ut us, I cant see it being less effective than anything else we've tried.  And I know crossing isn't high on our list of good points (what is ?) but a concerted effort of 20 or so a game should yield more than our attacking efforts usually do.

But we have played like that. Loads.

Not with traditional wingers, but we've played with our defensive midfielders to allow the fullbacks to overlap a hell of a lot. The problem is the crossing has been utterly woeful for much of the season.

IIRC Amavi had delivered more crosses than any player in the league before his injury and I'm pretty sure Hutton was near the top of the list too.

Our problem isn't so much that we don't set up to play to Gestede's strengths, it's more that the players aren't capable of it. Hutton and Bacuna especially have been dreadful at crossing the ball this season.

[rodders0223]

I have watched plenty of good crosses go into the box when Gestede has been playing.

He is usually standing on his heels on the edge of the box when they do. I don't know how he scored all those goals on the youtube because he is poor, zero awareness, zero instincts, zero desire.

 

 

[terrytini]

12 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

But we have played like that. Loads.

Not with traditional wingers, but we've played with our defensive midfielders to allow the fullbacks to overlap a hell of a lot. The problem is the crossing has been utterly woeful for much of the season.

IIRC Amavi had delivered more crosses than any player in the league before his injury and I'm pretty sure Hutton was near the top of the list too.

Our problem isn't so much that we don't set up to play to Gestede's strengths, it's more that the players aren't capable of it. Hutton and Bacuna especially have been dreadful at crossing the ball this season.

But that's the point, so we haven't played how I said....fullbacks are fullbacks. Hutton generally crosses from somewhere out  near the halfway line.  There must be a winger or almost anyone who can be told to do nowt else but cross from high up the pitch. Ray Graydon wasn't a world beater but when he followed orders and ran to the byline and crossed, we got end product.  That will never happen from midfield or fullbacks.

 

[foreveryoung]

He must have something, cause to be fair he scored 33 goals in 66 games for Blackburn, an watching a few, they were quality. He is a player you have to play to his strengths. I have no disrespect for him and think he has some quality. Problem is he isn't and never has been a good fit for this squad, a failing in my eyes from the scouts.

[VillaChris]

12 hours ago, Rob182 said:

I know we're going off topic here, but just to address this point (which I agree with).

If we brought in Lennon and Townsend, their wages wouldn't have been a problem if we didn't bring in Adama and one of Gana & Veretout. Our problem this year was bringing in too many players who didn't know the league and wouldn't be up-to-speed quickly enough.

Would those two have really made a massive difference?

Newcastle are still losing most weeks with Townsend starting.

Lennon barely played first half of the season and Everton have much better players than we do. Only thing I would say is he can cross with pace so that might've benefited Gestede a bit more.

[AntrimBlack]

To be fair to him, we have looked better offensively when he plays.

[PaulC]

I think he's one of our few players  I'd like to have next season in the championship.

[Bunnski]

He performs so much better coming off the bench, he needs to show he can perform for full games for me to want him to stay.  

[Wainy316]

Grealish and Adama as out and out wingers in the championship. Go direct.

[El-Reacho]

Townsend and Lennon would just have become engulfed in the toxicity of the club and been as crap as everyone else and we'd still be bottom.

[PaulC]

3 hours ago, Wainy316 said:

Grealish and Adama as out and out wingers in the championship. Go direct.

Yes we need a simple direct approach to football, none of this slow passing. I figure Leicester have the worst possession stats in the Premier League but they are top,

[Zatman]

41 minutes ago, El-Reacho said:

Townsend and Lennon would just have become engulfed in the toxicity of the club and been as crap as everyone else and we'd still be bottom.

maybe or maybe not, People seem to forget their was a sense of optimism around the club in the summer plus these players have both played at crisis clubs in their career so would be aware of how to deal with

[Dr_Pangloss]

1 hour ago, El-Reacho said:

Townsend and Lennon would just have become engulfed in the toxicity of the club and been as crap as everyone else and we'd still be bottom.

They are better than what we have and most likely would have contributed a lot more than the players we have. 

[Zatman]

40 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

They are better than what we have and most likely would have contributed a lot more than the players we have. 

not that hard though, me and you would probably contribute better than most of them have done 

[itdoesntmatterwhatthissay]

18 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Would those two have really made a massive difference?

Newcastle are still losing most weeks with Townsend starting.

Lennon barely played first half of the season and Everton have much better players than we do. Only thing I would say is he can cross with pace so that might've benefited Gestede a bit more.

I do see what you're saying but I feel what Lennon and Townsend both give you is what we thought Gabby would build on; relieving pressure.
In Gabbys case he's lost all ability to take pressure off the midfield and back four and it's been killing us for a few years. At least with Lennon and Townsend they have purpose to get forward and lord does it help when the opposition is on the back foot. They can also dribble.

The pace, the chance to play it early, the defenders on their heels, the space and time made, none of that should be underestimated and we see it in spurts when Traore plays. Wide players are key in this and so losing all width lets the opposition defend narrow and pack the middle. 

I've said it before and I don't think I'll stop saying it, whatever we thought about Albrighton's ability and fitness he relieved the pressure, he worried defenders because they knew he could and would swing in a cross (so they had to be tight), he tracked back and he pulled players sideways. 
Any manager worth employing would never ignore that as a feature going forward, it's one of the reasons I feel sorry for both Gestede (who knows he is limited) and Garde, who has dross at the club.

[srsmithusa]

Rudy is good when a ball is aimed reasonably well to his head.  But he doesn't seem to work all that hard in other situations.  Did he play like that in the championship and change for some reason when he got here?  Or did he never play really well off the ball, but his teammates hit is head often enough that it just didn't matter that he didn't work hard to do much else?

I'm interested because the answer implies something about Aston Villa, or something about the Championship.

[sne]

R Gestede, Gestede,

he's bigger than me and you,

he might move a yard or two

R Gestede, Gestede