Darren Bent

[smetrov]

Just out of interest, how do you know that?

I think at the very most the £3m would come out of lamberts transfer kitty. (so if he doesn't play him he gets £3m extra in jan) I really can't see Randy imposing a sale TBH.

[VillaCas]

I see today that Redknapp wants Bent back

Now i know Lerner has made baffling decisions in the past which make no sense but surely he isn't stupid enough to sell him to one of our relegation rivals

Bent is no world beater. Bent will be no more use to them than he is to us. To be honest I'd rather get £12m from QPR than have them go out and spend the same amount elsewhere on someone more suitable

[Morpheus]

^{When he leaves I can't say I will miss him. I have never really taken to him despite his goals. I think its down to his lack of work rate and the fact if he isn't scoring he is doing next to nothing. When the chips are down he isn't the kind of player that will bust a gut for you. He is arguably the best goalscorer we have had since Dean Saunders but sadly he doesn't have the heart that Deano had. He'd have sweat blood for Villa where has Bent hardly breaks sweat.}

^{He will score goals for his new club but so be it. We will hopefully spend the 10 - 12 mill we get for him wisely and move onwards and upwards. Facts are that despite Bent being here we have continued in the main to struggle. He is a luxury player. The final piece in the jigsaw if you like but as things stand we are lacking the players to supply him and we certainly can't afford to carry him.}

The simple solution to that would be to buy the players that would get the best out of him which would stop us struggling and it wouldn't hurt Benteke either to have decent crosses coming in from both flanks to feed on.

I actually can't believe posters on here are so willing to sell him when it is so obvious that Lambert hasn't set the team up to play to Bent's strengths.

Be careful what you wish for her people as we have sold our better players before and have continued to struggle as a consequence.

[coda]

Redknapp sticks his nose in. What a **** odious man. I hope we stuff them on Saturday.

[brummybloke]

Bent is no world beater. Bent will be no more use to them than he is to us. To be honest I'd rather get £12m from QPR than have them go out and spend the same amount elsewhere on someone more suitable

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.

[Morpheus]

^

Sums it up perfectly.

[VillaCas]

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.

You will find that football tactics have changed - Robbie Fowler, Darren Bent fox-in-the-box types are a dying breed. Teams are moving towards a lone forward who can hold the ball up with a number of attacking midfielders quickly moving up to support

More and more teams are going 4-2-3-1 and playing a narrower style (so out and out wingers are also a dying breed) and in a formation like that Benteke is the type of forward required not Bent. A few teams will persevere with 4-4-2 but in the end they will lose out to 4-2-3-1 teams who will domitate midfield possession

This is exactly the reason why Hernandez doesn't start for MU

At best Bent is a player who would sit on the bench and come on if you are desperate for a goal. Bent is a luxury that we cannot afford, probably not financially and and definitley not tactically

[Morpheus]

Redknapp sticks his nose in. What a **** odious man. I hope we stuff them on Saturday.

He hasn't said anything there to warrant your statement so i don't know what your on about.

The only thing that concerns me is the report stating that Bent could be available for as little 8m which i sincerely hope is bullshit and the fact that Harry is interested.

Mistake one is to sell him and that would be compounded by letting him go to QPR unless they include Hoilett in the deal which would sway me a little.

[VillaCas]

^

Sums it up perfectly.

No, not even close

[Morpheus]

No, not even close

In your opinion.

[VillaCas]

He hasn't said anything there to warrant your statement so i don't know what your on about.

Mistake one is to sell him and that would be compounded by letting him go to QPR unless they include Hoilett in the deal which would sway me a little.

QPR can have him - I'd rather them waste their money on Bent than spend it on a better option elsewhere

Also, why do you constantly defend and champion Redknapp

[Richard]

^

Sums it up perfectly.

In your opinion

[markavfc40]

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.

That would be a very short sighted way to look at things. Despite Bent being in the side over the last 18 months or so we have struggled to score goals. Now Bent may score 18 goals over a season out of a 38 goal team total. What would be better though is for the team to be scoring say 55+ goals over a season regardless of what amount any individual player is scoring.

I doubt that Lambert will be looking for a direct replacement for Bent in terms of simply a poacher. If he wanted that you may as well just keep Bent. I 'd imagine he will stick with the current set up of a focal point in Benteke and players either side who can play off him which is currently Gabby and Weimann who bang in a few goals,work there bollocks off and are happy to run the channels and track back when needed. Another forward may well be brought in but they won't be in the Bent mould.

What we really lack is goals from midflield. A couple of midfielders who will bang in 8 -10 goals a piece a season. We really need the team as a whole to be contributing more goals. The last season we scored a shit load of goals I think was 07/08 and goals were coming from all areas. We need that again and I would think that is what Lambert is trying to build not focus on building a team around/to accommodate one player.

[VillaCas]

That would be a very short sighted way to look at things. Despite Bent being in the side over the last 18 months or so we have struggled to score goals. Now Bent may score 18 goals over a season out of a 38 goal team total. What would be better though is for the team to be scoring say 55+ goals over a season regardless of what amount any individual player is scoring.

I doubt that Lambert will be looking for a direct replacement for Bent in terms of simply a poacher. If he wanted that you may as well just keep Bent. I 'd imagine he will stick with the current set up of a focal point in Benteke and players either side who can play off him which is currently Gabby and Weimann who bang in a few goals,work there bollocks off and are happy to run the channels and track back when needed. Another forward may well be brought in but they won't be in the Bent mould.

What we really lack is goals from midflield. A couple of midfielders who will bang in 8 -10 goals a piece a season. We really need the team as a whole to be contributing more goals. The last season we scored a shit load of goals I think was 07/08 and goals were coming from all areas. We need that again and I would think that is what Lambert is trying to build not focus on building a team around/to accommodate one player.

/\ Sums it up perfectly (in my opinion)

[Morpheus]

QPR can have him - I'd rather them waste their money on Bent than spend it on a better option elsewhere

Also, why do you constantly defend and champion Redknapp

There probably won't be much better options available that Bent in January and i don't think defining the purchase of Bent as a waste of money is correct. He certainly wouldn't be and if Harry did buy him then QPR would be set up to supply him=goals. If Harry did come knocking on our door concerning Bent i would hope that Lambert would mention Hoilett in part exchange. Say Hoilett and 5m to put towards the DM we so badly need and the rest of our budget spent on someone to replace Bent.

I defended the above comment concerning Redknapp because in the article the poster was referring to, Redknapp said nothing derogatory about our club!

I am complimentary towards Redknapp because i think he is a terrific manager who buys players with good technical ability and gets his teams playing attractive football. The modern day 'Big Ron' and i would have loved to see him manage us for the aforementioned reasons.

In your opinion

Absolutely!

[brummybloke]

You will find that football tactics have changed - Robbie Fowler, Darren Bent fox-in-the-box types are a dying breed. Teams are moving towards a lone forward who can hold the ball up with a number of attacking midfielders quickly moving up to support

More and more teams are going 4-2-3-1 and playing a narrower style (so out and out wingers are also a dying breed) and in a formation like that Benteke is the type of forward required not Bent. A few teams will persevere with 4-4-2 but in the end they will lose out to 4-2-3-1 teams who will domitate midfield possession

This is exactly the reason why Hernandez doesn't start for MU

At best Bent is a player who would sit on the bench and come on if you are desperate for a goal. Bent is a luxury that we cannot afford, probably not financially and and definitley not tactically

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.

[Morpheus]

/\ Sums it up perfectly (in my opinion)

Yep and i accept that opinion without agreeing with it.

[brummybloke]

That would be a very short sighted way to look at things. Despite Bent being in the side over the last 18 months or so we have struggled to score goals. Now Bent may score 18 goals over a season out of a 38 goal team total. What would be better though is for the team to be scoring say 55+ goals over a season regardless of what amount any individual player is scoring.

I doubt that Lambert will be looking for a direct replacement for Bent in terms of simply a poacher. If he wanted that you may as well just keep Bent. I 'd imagine he will stick with the current set up of a focal point in Benteke and players either side who can play off him which is currently Gabby and Weimann who bang in a few goals,work there bollocks off and are happy to run the channels and track back when needed. Another forward may well be brought in but they won't be in the Bent mould.

What we really lack is goals from midflield. A couple of midfielders who will bang in 8 -10 goals a piece a season. We really need the team as a whole to be contributing more goals. The last season we scored a shit load of goals I think was 07/08 and goals were coming from all areas. We need that again and I would think that is what Lambert is trying to build not focus on building a team around/to accommodate one player.

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

[VillaCas]

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.

Robin Van Persie has played 1118 minutes and Hernandez just 387 minutes

Obviously because of the quality they have elsewhere MU can accomodate Hernandez in second tier games to keep him fresh and interested but when MU have a crucial game Fergie, who is not a shit manager, doesn't start him.

Playing Bent off Benteke might just about work if we still had the likes of Barry, Milner, Young and co in midfield. Sadly because we do not and are unlikely to have that kind of quality in the future, Bent is a luxury we can't afford.

If Bent had Gray's, Withe's or McInally's mindset this would'nt be a discussion but he doesn't

He'll be gone in January so this discussion is mute

End of

[VillaCas]

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 agree with this of course but I think there are other reasons why he is not being picked - my guess would be to avoid injury prior to January departure