Gabby Agbonlahor

[adw95]

It's quite simple that if played as an actual striker he will score, not as many as top level strikers but he will score. 

[briny_ear]

 

Once Gabby is under pressure from a defender and doesn't have time to think, he'll usually hit the target. When he's clear through, you worry

 

thats a bit of a myth though. He got a few goals when he has been well clear of the defence and had lots of time to think

 

interesting these are his 5 favourite goals and surprisingly a lot of variation but his positioning in these indicates his problems of recent seasons

 

 

Nice to see that first goal from a glancing header (nice to see an accurate cross as well!).

 

He hasn't scored one of those for a while, unless my memory is failing me.

[Stevo985]

Not recent, but his goal vs Man United at Old Trafford when we beat them up there was very similar to that glancing header vs Blues wasn't it?

[smetrov]

I think he deserves his place just for the worry factor - poor as he is at times - defences have to track him.   I really wish he would stay in an attacking position for opposition corners - you would need 2 blokes on him then

[adw95]

I think he deserves his place just for the worry factor - poor as he is at times - defences have to track him.   I really wish he would stay in an attacking position for opposition corners - you would need 2 blokes on him then

 

Been wondering for a long while why we have every player back for corners, surely leaving 2 or even 3 players up-field will lead to many counter attacks...

[Zatman]

im sure Chelsea always leave Hazard on halfway line with another speedster. If we had Gabby and maybe Delph or Weimann on halfway line for corners we would be a lot better if we cleared it. Im sure we used to do it with MON

[Stevo985]

Yeah Mourinho is a big fan of leaving two up front. 

 

I guess the theory is that forces the other team to leave more men back so you're never at a disadvantage in the box.

[romavillan]

Yeah Mourinho is a big fan of leaving two up front. 

 

I guess the theory is that forces the other team to leave more men back so you're never at a disadvantage in the box.

 

yup leave two up and they need 3 back...

way way way better than everyone in the box, I've never understood not leaving at least one on the halfway line. Argument for two wide and one in the middle too.

[KHV]

Yeah Mourinho is a big fan of leaving two up front. 

 

I guess the theory is that forces the other team to leave more men back so you're never at a disadvantage in the box.

Agree leave two up top, I'd leave Gabby up top cos he is cack at defending and someone like Nzogbia/Sinclair/Gil/Wiemann depending on who is starting

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Oh look at me, I'm ddid and get things right.

What did facts ever do for anyone?

PEDANT!

I almost googled it to check on myself but thought nah bollocks, I'll ride that shit #YOLO

[darrenm]

It was a record time as well, 5 minutes for a perfect hat trick I think. IIRC Rooney has the record for the fastest hat trick of any type.

[DCJonah]

That Blackburn goal was incredible! Was it against Bolton when he finished off that amazing passing team goal?

Yes. I've wanted to see that goal again for ages!! Remember it being a great move.

[Stevo985]

It was a record time as well, 5 minutes for a perfect hat trick I think. IIRC Rooney has the record for the fastest hat trick of any type.

Wouldn't Fowler's still be leading that one?

[darrenm]

It was a record time as well, 5 minutes for a perfect hat trick I think. IIRC Rooney has the record for the fastest hat trick of any type.

Wouldn't Fowler's still be leading that one?

Maybe. Can't remember and can't be bothered to look ;-) it was a record for something for a while anyway.

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

His touch the other night was actually pretty sublime. It wasnt bouncing off him and he actually had close control. Gabby slalomed through about 3 players before Lescott hacked him down. His best performance since Arsenal away last season. Keep it up Brudda

[momo]

 

Gabriel Agbonlahor reignites a curious career to give Aston Villa hope

The striker has been an enigma during 10 years in the Premier League but is again showing his worth when a critical situation demands

Gabriel Agbonlahor's goal against West Brom was his fourth of the season and his first since 24 November. Photograph: Neville Williams/Aston Villa FC via Getty Images

 

It was a goal that had Tim Sherwood manically sprinting down the touchline, re-energised Aston Villa and lifted Gabriel Agbonlahor up to 45th place on the all-time Premier League goalscorers’ list, level with Brian Deane and Chris Armstrong. Or, to look at it another way, one position higher than Eric Cantona.

The 71st top-flight goal of Agbonlahor’s career, and in particular the performance he produced during the first half of that crucial 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday night, was like being taken on a trip down memory lane. Quick, direct and aggressive, this was the Agbonlahor of old, the centre-forward to whom Fabio Capello gave three England caps and Martin O’Neill described as a “priceless asset”.

Agbonlahor was unplayable – only not in the way that many Villa fans had imagined beforehand, when the consensus seemed to be that Tim Sherwood had made a serious error of judgment by starting with a forward who had failed to score in his previous 14 league games.

“Strangely excellent” would be one way of summing up Agbonlahor’s display against Albion. As well as scoring the opening goal he ran Joleon Lescott ragged, ought to have had a penalty when Ben Foster cleaned him out and he saw two efforts cleared off the line. All of that happened before half-time and when he was substituted eight minutes from time a standing ovation followed.

“I think it was appreciated by the fans the other night, they were singing his name, you can’t imagine how much players grow from that,” Sherwood, the Villa manager, said. “I’ve managed one of the hottest strikers in English football at the moment, Harry Kane, he had to win over them Tottenham fans.”

At times it was quite an ordeal for Lescott and it is safe to assume that the Albion defender will not relish the prospect of coming up against Agbonlahor again, when the two teams meet at Villa Park in an FA Cup quarter-final. “Joleon 10 years ago wouldn’t catch him. It’s nothing to do with age or players,” Sherwood said. “Gabby Agbonlahor is an extraordinarily quick player. Every game I’ve told him to play on the shoulder and look to get in behind, because once he gets in behind you, he’s hard to stop.”

Yet Agbonlahor can also look like a player who needs a set of jump leads to get him started. He scored two in the first four games this season, picked up a new four-year contract at a time when Villa were feeling generous beyond belief (Paul Lambert also signed a long-term deal in September) and then scored once in his next 21 appearances. At times this season Agbonlahor has given the impression that he is going through the motions, rather than the gears.

His is a curious case in so many respects. Born in Erdington and picked up by Villa at the age of 14, he has never been viewed as a footballer blessed with natural talent – “The one thing that attracted us to him was his pace, he had absolutely nothing else,” Bryan Jones, Villa’s former academy director, told the Guardian in 2008 – yet this is his 10th season as a Premier League player and there are moments when he can be absolutely devastating. A stunning seven-minute hat-trick against Manchester City back in 2008 sticks in the mind.

He is part of the furniture at Villa Park and it will be a strange day when there is no Agbonlahor in the team photo. Given his debut under David O’Leary nine years ago this month, Agbonlahor has had more strike partners (17) over the years than Villa have scored league goals this season. Juan Pablo Ángel, Milan Baros, Luke Moore, Kevin Phillips, Chris Sutton, John Carew, Marlon Harewood, Nathan Delfouneso, Emile Heskey, Darren Bent, Andreas Weimann, Robbie Keane, Christian Benteke, Jordan Bowery, Nicklas Helenius, Grant Holt and Libor Kozak have all tried their luck with varying degrees of success and failure.

Agbonlahor is a survivor and yet it is hard not to look back over his career, in particular that period when he was in his early 20s, in and around the England squad, scoring 11 (2007-08), 12 (2008‑09) and 13 (2009-10) Premier League goals a season, and question what has happened since and why performances such as the one against West Bromwich have become the exception and not the norm.

One school of thought among those that know him well is that life has been too comfortable for too long for Villa’s longest-serving player and that the desire, hunger and determination to push on no longer burns inside. Agbonlahor has been loyal to Villa but also extremely well paid. The four-year contract he signed in 2010 was worth £60,000 a week. Why leave? And would Agbonlahor have got that lucrative deal he signed in September anywhere else?

Others highlight the fact that Agbonlahor is Villa through and through and point to mitigating factors behind his deteriorating goal return. It is certainly true that Villa have been in steady decline across the period when his goals have dried up – he has scored only 25 in the league in the past five seasons and nine of those came in 2012‑13. There is also a legitimate argument that any forward would have struggled to make a mark for so much of this season, when the football was dire under Lambert and chances at a premium.

Perhaps the biggest thing that can be said in defence of Agbonlahor’s form over the second half of his career is that he has spent far too long playing out of position since O’Neill left the club. Gérard Houllier, Alex McLeish and Paul Lambert all deployed Agbonlahor wide, where he never looks comfortable. He was arguably at his best for Villa back in the days when Carew was playing alongside him up front, in the same way that Christian Benteke did against West Bromwich.

“That strike partnership [Agbonlahor and Benteke], outside the top six clubs, they’ve got to be the best two,” Sherwood said. “But on paper it doesn’t make any difference, you have to go and prove it and go and do it. And it’s about this time when Gabby normally comes out and starts keeping this team in the league.”

The last comment was accompanied with a smile but has some substance. Two years ago, when Villa were mired in yet another relegation battle, Agbonlahor decided to turn it on and scored six in seven during the last nine games of the season to help them survive. What Sherwood and Agbonlahor would do for a repeat of that run now, with a couple of trips to Wembley thrown in.

Link

[HanoiVillan]

Good article. Do enjoy reading Stuart James on Villa. 

[DCJonah]

Gabby hasn't helped himself and the way the clubs been since MON left haven't helped him as a player.

Hopefully Sherwood can help gabby finish his villa career on a high over the next few years.

[Dave J]

 

 

Gabriel Agbonlahor reignites a curious career to give Aston Villa hope

The striker has been an enigma during 10 years in the Premier League but is again showing his worth when a critical situation demands

Gabriel Agbonlahor's goal against West Brom was his fourth of the season and his first since 24 November. Photograph: Neville Williams/Aston Villa FC via Getty Images

 

It was a goal that had Tim Sherwood manically sprinting down the touchline, re-energised Aston Villa and lifted Gabriel Agbonlahor up to 45th place on the all-time Premier League goalscorers’ list, level with Brian Deane and Chris Armstrong. Or, to look at it another way, one position higher than Eric Cantona.

The 71st top-flight goal of Agbonlahor’s career, and in particular the performance he produced during the first half of that crucial 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday night, was like being taken on a trip down memory lane. Quick, direct and aggressive, this was the Agbonlahor of old, the centre-forward to whom Fabio Capello gave three England caps and Martin O’Neill described as a “priceless asset”.

Agbonlahor was unplayable – only not in the way that many Villa fans had imagined beforehand, when the consensus seemed to be that Tim Sherwood had made a serious error of judgment by starting with a forward who had failed to score in his previous 14 league games.

“Strangely excellent” would be one way of summing up Agbonlahor’s display against Albion. As well as scoring the opening goal he ran Joleon Lescott ragged, ought to have had a penalty when Ben Foster cleaned him out and he saw two efforts cleared off the line. All of that happened before half-time and when he was substituted eight minutes from time a standing ovation followed.

“I think it was appreciated by the fans the other night, they were singing his name, you can’t imagine how much players grow from that,” Sherwood, the Villa manager, said. “I’ve managed one of the hottest strikers in English football at the moment, Harry Kane, he had to win over them Tottenham fans.”

At times it was quite an ordeal for Lescott and it is safe to assume that the Albion defender will not relish the prospect of coming up against Agbonlahor again, when the two teams meet at Villa Park in an FA Cup quarter-final. “Joleon 10 years ago wouldn’t catch him. It’s nothing to do with age or players,” Sherwood said. “Gabby Agbonlahor is an extraordinarily quick player. Every game I’ve told him to play on the shoulder and look to get in behind, because once he gets in behind you, he’s hard to stop.”

Yet Agbonlahor can also look like a player who needs a set of jump leads to get him started. He scored two in the first four games this season, picked up a new four-year contract at a time when Villa were feeling generous beyond belief (Paul Lambert also signed a long-term deal in September) and then scored once in his next 21 appearances. At times this season Agbonlahor has given the impression that he is going through the motions, rather than the gears.

His is a curious case in so many respects. Born in Erdington and picked up by Villa at the age of 14, he has never been viewed as a footballer blessed with natural talent – “The one thing that attracted us to him was his pace, he had absolutely nothing else,” Bryan Jones, Villa’s former academy director, told the Guardian in 2008 – yet this is his 10th season as a Premier League player and there are moments when he can be absolutely devastating. A stunning seven-minute hat-trick against Manchester City back in 2008 sticks in the mind.

He is part of the furniture at Villa Park and it will be a strange day when there is no Agbonlahor in the team photo. Given his debut under David O’Leary nine years ago this month, Agbonlahor has had more strike partners (17) over the years than Villa have scored league goals this season. Juan Pablo Ángel, Milan Baros, Luke Moore, Kevin Phillips, Chris Sutton, John Carew, Marlon Harewood, Nathan Delfouneso, Emile Heskey, Darren Bent, Andreas Weimann, Robbie Keane, Christian Benteke, Jordan Bowery, Nicklas Helenius, Grant Holt and Libor Kozak have all tried their luck with varying degrees of success and failure.

Agbonlahor is a survivor and yet it is hard not to look back over his career, in particular that period when he was in his early 20s, in and around the England squad, scoring 11 (2007-08), 12 (2008‑09) and 13 (2009-10) Premier League goals a season, and question what has happened since and why performances such as the one against West Bromwich have become the exception and not the norm.

One school of thought among those that know him well is that life has been too comfortable for too long for Villa’s longest-serving player and that the desire, hunger and determination to push on no longer burns inside. Agbonlahor has been loyal to Villa but also extremely well paid. The four-year contract he signed in 2010 was worth £60,000 a week. Why leave? And would Agbonlahor have got that lucrative deal he signed in September anywhere else?

Others highlight the fact that Agbonlahor is Villa through and through and point to mitigating factors behind his deteriorating goal return. It is certainly true that Villa have been in steady decline across the period when his goals have dried up – he has scored only 25 in the league in the past five seasons and nine of those came in 2012‑13. There is also a legitimate argument that any forward would have struggled to make a mark for so much of this season, when the football was dire under Lambert and chances at a premium.

Perhaps the biggest thing that can be said in defence of Agbonlahor’s form over the second half of his career is that he has spent far too long playing out of position since O’Neill left the club. Gérard Houllier, Alex McLeish and Paul Lambert all deployed Agbonlahor wide, where he never looks comfortable. He was arguably at his best for Villa back in the days when Carew was playing alongside him up front, in the same way that Christian Benteke did against West Bromwich.

“That strike partnership [Agbonlahor and Benteke], outside the top six clubs, they’ve got to be the best two,” Sherwood said. “But on paper it doesn’t make any difference, you have to go and prove it and go and do it. And it’s about this time when Gabby normally comes out and starts keeping this team in the league.”

The last comment was accompanied with a smile but has some substance. Two years ago, when Villa were mired in yet another relegation battle, Agbonlahor decided to turn it on and scored six in seven during the last nine games of the season to help them survive. What Sherwood and Agbonlahor would do for a repeat of that run now, with a couple of trips to Wembley thrown in.

Link

 

Am i reading this right?? one half decent game, yes that's all it was half decent, and suddenly all is perfect in the world of Gabby. Well hold tight Gabby fans, your probably going to get another run of mediocrity at best. I cant believe how he gets away with it time after time. Just because he supports the club. i for one will not be fooled. sorry.

[Dodgyknees]

Maybe Gabby will be Sherwood's Adebayor, and not Benteke.