Aston Villa fans have mixed views on Gabriel Agbonlahor
Exmidlander2: Gabby, for all his faults is still one of my favourite Villa players, I agree he can look headless at times but he does have something special about him confirmed by some the goals he has scored.
Also whereas players like Carew show little desire to play regularly, Gabby has always shown a 100% desire to play.
Ever since his last game for England, when he didn't have one of his better games his confidence has dropped dramatically and Mon has to be blamed for persisting with him instead of giving him a break.
Its a real shame that he has been made to be the scapegoat, but it doesn't surprise me because he has never been a fans favourite prooved when fans on this site couldn't be bothered to raise a thread of congratulations when he got his first senior cap for england earlier this season.
Canzy 77: Definitely agree that MON should bare the responsibility for the burn-out, and whereas Carew gets his name sung even when he's not in the squad, Gabby & Ashley Young don't get the recognition they deserve. The ironic cheers really made me sick and I was one of the handful chanting Gabby's name in response.
Harry: I think Gabby has been blamed for the defeat but in truth the team does not have the cutting edge of only a few weeks ago and there were a number of poor or below par performances so I think the blame needs to be shared. Having said that strikers are in teams to score goals and I can only recall one shot from him which was straight at the keeper (I did say on another thread that he did not have any shots so I stand corrected) and most fans would agree he never looked like scoring.
Added to that his attitude looks poor. I say looks, it may very well not be but to the fan in the stand he looks like he is not bothered. I remember two seasons ago the Gabby of old putting on the after burners and zooming back to put in a crucial tackle just like Young does many times in a game. I just think he needs to perhaps stop believing his own hype. He is a fabulous player on his day, the hat trick in the Man City game was world class but at the moment we are just seeing glimpses of that player.
I agree the ironic cheering was not helpful, I did not cheer myself but my thought subsequentially has been, was the cheering aimed at Gabby or MON? One interpretation was that it had taken MON 80 minutes to realise that Gabby was struggling and needed to be taken off?
Mike 728: What I find most frustrating about Gabby is his apparent lack of passion. When his first touch is poor, or his pass goes to the opposition, or he fails to beat a defender, he seems to shrug his shoulders and shuffles off to take up his position of marking the defender.
One of the Stoke fans said after the match that on his current form he was more use to them than us. Yes, there are others who are underperforming but they don't seem to show the same lack of passion.
AVFC456:Villa fans always seem to have this mentality that there must be a scapegoat, McCann, Vassell, and most recently NRC, now Agbonlahor is the new scapegoat
You'd think it was Agbonlahors fault that we lost on Sunday, when two errors from flapsel ultimately cost us, which seems to have gone unnoticed
As for the cheering when he went of, well thats just a joke, and I don't see any defense to publically humiliating a player, and further knocking his already low confidence, the man people should be pointing the finger at is MON for leaving him in the firing line for so long when he has been on such a poor vein of form, but then again a sub by MON is something most of us dream of, and even when they do come, they normally baffle most or come to late, which especially in recent games has been the case.
TRO: ....The ironic cheers were clearly aimed at O'Neill imo and not Gabby
Gabby is an enigma for me much in the same mould as Vassell.... whether he will in time improve his overall game, i don't know, but I do know that one dimensional pace won't keep you at the top level you need other attributes.
As for Carew I believe there is something going on between him and O'Neill and for my money is not helping the club. JC has his detractors for being slow and cumbersome,which i beleive is a little unfair as he has had a serious back problem.... I choose to see his undoubted nouse and his improvisation at times is clearly commensurate with the quality continental players....his goal against Stoke could not be easily repeated by anyone else at our club... it was class.... and thats why he attracts the chants.... the stand clearly want a hero.
Martin and John, need to make their peace for the benefit of AVFC.
