Is the biggest club in Bedfordshire a) what a large man in Biggleswade plays golf with b) Pryzm in Flitwick c) what the biggest gorilla at Whipsnade zoo hits the other gorillas with?
Gray isn't criticised because he has missed 1-on-1s. Rather, because he ALWAYS misses 1-on-1s and hasn't given anywhere near the required level of performance to remain in the team. Morata by contrast has been highly influential for Chelsea, and has given a number of MOTM displays. He has earnt the right to have a few bad games. The last match was an improvement for Gray. He needs to build on that, or - quite rightfully - he should be criticised and replaced by somebody better.
Agreed although a piece in the Times today could have been the Gray naysayers on here verbatim: Morata no first touch, can’t do 1:1s, by implication no confidence. The q is when is judgment day for Gray. Over the last 8, we’re averaging 0.5 per game. This gives us 33 at the season’s end & almost certain relegation. For that reason, I’m in the Be Positive camp & I’d exit Gray.
I don't think we would take much of a hit at all. He'd be very attractive to Championship clubs, and the going rate there is £12m for a proven striker at least. I doubt we've paid the full £18m that was touted either. He's only 26 too.
Why are people still criticizing Gray after scoring last week. Leave him alone. He's the best we have at the minute so deal with it. Offloading him when we got no one else is braindead talk.
He deserves an extended run in the team in my opinion. He's clearly determined to prove the doubters wrong.
If it was not for the fact that he played for L***n he would be well accepted, he is doing his best and it can't help him knowing that the supporters don't like him. Give the poor bloke a chance.
I doubt AG18 is on this forum but maybe he does just need to feel a bit of love & acceptance. In previous years Uncle Troy would have been the one to put an arm round the shoulder. More broadly, is the churn factor making us particularly brittle? Fine when the sun's shining but immediate & complete collapse at the first sign of difficulty.
He should take a leaf out of Cleverley's book and stop using social media, the fans on match day are supportive of Gray, and any criticism on a match day is by such a minority I doubt he'd even know about it. I heard more abuse about Watson at Brighton than anyone else. If snaky Silva can put his ego to one side and switch up the formation and style of football to something a little less continental then I think we could see the Gray every Watford fan wants to see. I'd love to see Okaka and Gray up front against Bristol City, I think Okaka's mere presence draws defenders out of position which should help Gray. I'd also like to see less tippy-tappy nonsense and a bit more direct play, once again, balls through to Gray would be more beneficial than balls to his feet when he's got his back to goal after passing it around the back for 3 minutes. Not his biggest fans by a long stretch but there's a far bigger issue as to why Gray isn't playing well and it's starts with the man in charge.
This is what I don't like about Silva. Gray after scoring gets dropped for Deeney thus losing any chance of gaining any momentum/form.
Troy said nice things about Gray in his programme note. Said playing up front on your own is "the graveyard shift". I wonder who else might have suffered from that, when Gray isn't playing?
The Times reckons Gray is our highest paid player on 70k a week! Think that must be a mistake!! Deeney surely ?
I'd imagine they're assuming he's on that because he wanted that at Burnley and they said no and sold him to us.
So, I watched Gray for a little bit on Saturday as the game it's self was pretty dull, and I was baffled to see that he was almost marking the centre back, not the other way round - whenever the centre back moved away Gray followed! I also can't stand his lame Sunday-league football attitude of ducking out of headers, he see's the ball coming and moves behind the opposition player, which at times is great as it means if a mistake is made he can jump on it (and lose it straight away because of his poor first touch) but 90% of the time it often seems that he just doesn't want to get into a physical battle with the opposition. Then there's losing the ball and giving up straight away to get it back... He desperately needs to play alongside someone as these aren't what you look for in a lone striker. Grumble over.
He's just not good at football. It's that simple. The club dropped an enormous bollock paying a club record fee for him, but mistakes happen. They need to swallow their pride and accept that signing him was the biggest transfer mistake in the history of the club and bring someone else in to replace him. While we're in the premier league it doesn't matter. But if we were to go down and are saddled with his wages, it could be catastrophic. Dark times.
Some of the comments on Gray are laughable. Hes been scoring recently. The trouble with some of you lot is that you are overanalysing a certain player so you can then have a laugh about it on here. its rather childish if you ask me. If you analyse other attacking players like you do Gray in other teams every game you can do the same thing. Criticise a bad first touch, or a bad header, or bad positioning they can do it also. By all means feel free to comment on players not contributing for us but in future just use a brain cell before typing. Hes the best striker we have at the moment so the least you can do is get behind the lad.
I’m all for giving people a chance, but I think it’s quite hard at this point to argue anything other than at best, he’s nothing more than a bit crap.
If you would have seen Rich play last night, having not seen him play earlier in the season, you wouldn't be thinking that 3 months ago we were talking about him being a world beater. Has he suddenly lost all his talent? No. What he's lost is confidence. Same applies to Gray. He's become a scapegoat because, rightly, he's not scored enough goals. I don't feel however he's got anything near a fair chance to prove himself. He scored in consecutive games, and hasn't started since, so how does that affect a players game? As others have said, he needs a strike partner alongside him. There is little point asking a player to be a hold up player, when its clearly not part of his game
Gray's never been good at this level. The burnley fans were thrilled to be rid of him. It's nothing to do with confidence and everything to do with him being appalling.
I think he's obviously not a technical player, his game is never going to be suited to holding the ball up. I know people scoff at the idea his running was influencial early in the season, but I think it was. He allowed others space to run into where the centre half had vacated. If he's still not scoring when he's played alongside Troy, then I'll happily admit he's a dud. But I do feel with the right service he'll get goals. Also, worth pointing out that its not the easiest division for strikers to get goals. Hernandez has 5, Rashford has 4, Giroud has 4. Its not like Gray is the only striker in the league who isn't banging them in
I'm sure the fans of those teams are calling those players ****s too... I hope you are right but after all this time I've seen no evidence he is good at any aspect of being a striker. He can't control a ball and on the rare occasion he's got into a scoring position he's muffed it up, including one on ones. It seems like the service he needs is for the ball to be on the goal line so he can tap it in. Yes the fact he's ex luton makes him easy to hate now he's struggling, but that connection would also have made him easy to love - it would have been ace for one of their heroes to now be banging them in for us. But because he isnt, he'll always get a hard time. Add to this the homophobia, the cupping behind the ears thing to his own fans, the horrific tattoos, the z list girlfriend, the appalling dress sense and it all adds up to a man very easy to despise with every fibre of your being. But bang in a few goals and all that will be forgiven and forgotten in an instant.
I'm sorry but the fans of those teams are not calling their players "****s". In fact, Arsenal fans I know are devastated to see Giroud leave, whilst Rashford is constantly praised for being such a great potential star for both England and Man U. Whether you agree with them is subjective, but at least they aren't calling for their strikers head - simply because of a poor touch.
I have no idea how other teams fans view their players to be honest, nor do i care much. All i know is all those players mentioned are miles better than gray. Are you suggesting he's on their level?? It's not the lack of goals that's concerning with gray anyway, it's the complete lack of ability.
They may be better in ability but they aren't goal-wise this season. Anyways, even if they are better, it is why they would all cost us more than Gray has. Gray performed quite well yesterday tbh. He passed in a great ball to Doucoure whos shot was blocked. Score that, and Gray has had a part in changing the game. Yet, I don't see you bashing Doucouré's poor form.
Maybe we will see more from Gray if he plays in 2 up front like against Southampton in the 2nd half ?