SO.. Who Do We Play Up Front v Baggies?

Vital Villa asked:

Who should start up front v West Brom?

Poll Date: 26 Sep 2012
Suggested By: Merlin128777

Benteke & Gabby 65%

Go for it with all 3 14%

Bent & Gabby 12%

Bent & Benteke 6%

Other options/one up front 3%

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Holtelower in our match thread>>> said:

I also cannot see why people are saying Benteke. He has scored 1 goal in English football, he is 21 yrs old – or put another way, Andreas Weimann has more experience and done more than he has. Benteke may be the next Alan Shearer – but he isn’t yet. In the last three games, he has missed about 5 sitters , and I mean sitters, that Bent would 99% of the time find the net with.

Bent is our best forward by an absolute country mile – in fact – hang on five , I’ll find the stats….

Darren Bent – 148 goals
Gabby – 54 goals
Weimann – 6 goals
Benteke – 45 goals

So Darren Bent 148 goals – the rest put together 105 goals

Or lets put Bent’s Villa career into perspective – 43 games 19 goals -so a one in two strike rate, in the worst Villa team I have ever seen.

It is 100% obvious to me, we play this style of football and Darren Bent will get at least 25 goals this year – put it this way, if he was on the pitch on Wed – and Gabby’s ball was parried – are you telling me Bent wouldn’t have been there to tap it in ? He also set Benteke up 3 times in 7 minutes against Swansea. Then against Southampton he put us in the lead – then Benteke had the chance to kill the game off and put us two nil up and missed – and the rest is history.

Gabby and Bent showed under Houllier they can be a formidable combination.

And now we have a manager who is going to play to their strengths, people want him dropped for a player who has scored 1 goal ?

I bloody hope Benteke goes on to be a Villa legend, however at the moment, he reminds me of Heskey, but he came from abroad, not Leicester so people somehow think he is fantastic. Unbelievable

Yup, I often wish he`d come off the fence and say what he really thinks as well!

Some comments from our original article: Who Do You Play Up Front v Baggies Then???

Normally I’m not shy about screaming my opinion to all my mates and telling them exactly who should play and why, but I’m very very glad i don’t have to make this decision. I’m also very glad that we’re in a position that makes us have to make difficult team selection choices like this.
Holte End Hero

Benteke and Gabby all day long. Bent needs a boot up the arse. Even though he scored last week, he misses FAR too many chances.
olofthegreat

Bent and Gabby. Bring on Benteke second half. Make West Brom adjust, he will course damage like he did against Swansea. Bent will be hungry to play and score. Weimann’s due a goal up front also.
Blitz



Gabby scores his first goals since November 5th and all of a sudden he is ‘the man’? Lambert last season showed he knows how to get the best out of his strikers to keep them on their toes. Grant Holt scored 15 goals but only started 24 games. For 12 games he was on the bench. If previous Villa Managers had benched our top scorer for every third game there would be a lynching, because apparently we know better than the managers. Personally I trust in PL to work with what he has to get the best results. There are arguments for and against all the options open to him. But as I have been saying for weeks now, get you money on Villa to be having plenty of goals in their games (both for and against) as the team takes shape. This season is going to have more ups and downs than whores draws and we should sit back, enjoy the ride and not get ourselves hung up on who starts, is benched, subbed or whatever. If you try to make sense of this season you will go mad. So get down to Villa Park. Enjoy the games. Play your part in making supporting the Villa fun again. UTV. The 19th minute.
voiceoftheholte

I personally would go for 3 up front and change it up later on. For me, Gabby, Benteke and Wiemann starting. Yes, I am very attacking minded :L I say Gabby for pace and splitting WBA’s formation apart Benteke for strength and skill and Weimann because he has very good shot accuracy and can find space if not make space as well as be a handful himself. 3 troubling attackers that will rip the defense and maybe even midfield apart.
Avfc94 we do



2 Reasons for the poll Voice 1. A manager gets all the flak for making ‘wrong choices’ so its interesting to see a diverse opinion on the options available and shows just how hard Lamberts job is . 2 If we dont discuss the team no point in having the site is there ? . For me personally more than happy to leave it to Lambert and my apologies for leaving Weimann out he deserves to be included, But what a nice problem to have after last season. UTV
Merlin128777

Some can’t see what is obvious to everyone else. Bent playing takes away from everyone else as he’s too much of a focus every attack as he can’t do anything else other than be the final touch on a move. Others can do that and a general job for the team. NOT all of us wanted a poacher, not everyone wanted bent or got a boner when we signed him.
Villan444