Not how the expert commentators saw it: “Gray. Super finish. What a smart goal from Andre Gray. A cheeky chappie strike”. Brilliant. Amazing (QSF). Ballet pirouette to completely outfox the defenda .... What a striker. If that was Aguero, Kane or Mane it would be lauded as a touch of class. All poor Andre gets is ‘lucky, almost an own goal, fluke’ etc If he wasn’t earning so much I’d almost feel sorry for him..
The thing is you are judged on what goes on before. Had it been Aguero, Kane or Mane it would have been lauded because their technical skills are often excellent. Gray doesn't even know which boot to put on which foot. If he scores a goal like he did on Friday, then it's clearly a fluke.
If it had been Deulofeu it would be classed as a wonder goal, but it was Gray so it was a scruffy fluke.
A bit harsh. Judge what he did after - a super floating chip over the goalie - if he’d done that 4 seconds earlier it would have been perfect. But it took that long for his brain to engage, so it hit row Z. Didn’t have time to think about the back heel - it was instinctive. So not a fluke imo.
If we beat Burnley we put ourselves in with a reasonable shout of surviving. Southampton and Palace probably going to lose and then you've got Villa/Newcastle and Everton/Norwich - I wouldn't be surprised to see the table looking something like this by the end of that weekend: Burnley 15 Brighton & Hove Albion 15 Crystal Palace 15 West Ham United 13 Aston Villa 11 Watford 11 Southampton 8 Norwich City 7 If you look ahead to the week after you've got Liverpool v Brighton, Chelsea v West Ham, Norwich v Arsenal, Utd v Villa and Leicester v Everton.
Exactly.....you've actually explained it. Gray has no skills. He just swings a leg at the ball. Sometimes it connects, but often it does not. The fact that went in was a fluke. The only time I've ever seen him hit a ball cleanly was this season against West Ham. Now that was a great finish. Most of his goals are shanks or mishits. He messes up so often, that when something does comes off for him, I consider that lucky or flukey. Where Gray is good....very good in fact....is sniffing out a chance. He's the best in our entire squad at that (albeit I've not seen enough of Welbeck in a Watford shirt to contradict that). He doesn't hide either, which is to his credit. I think he's probably bit of a Dorey though, in that if he misses a chance he's forgotten about it moments later so it doesn't effect his game. I actually like Gray, but he's so bad at times, it's actually quite funny.
I agree with this. While he continues to score he has to stay an option for us, particularly given our injuries, no matter how awkward he looks and how many chances he misses....
Both of Kabs' yellows were nailed on. No arguments. He was showing his usual mix of occasional world class, physical challenges, followed almost immediately by ineptitude and shoe gazing. We've seen enough of him now to realise that the latter is just part of his DNA and will not be overcome. Like most of our centre backs, he's fine as an option off the bench or in an injury crisis, but there should be 2 better centre backs starting as first choice ahead of the mediocre/poor batch we rely so heavily upon.
Because that isn't how context works. If you judge it on what happened, it was a fine goal. We all cheered. Job done. If you're going to assess Gray, his intent, his likelyhood of carrying off an audacious move, you need to look at what went on before. I remember a friend of mine had never played darts. The rest of us were throwing arrows in the pub and cajoled him into joining in. He stood up, took a dart and threw it straight into the bullseye. He was as shocked as the rest of us, but sat down, refusing to touch another dart ever again, as having had the perfect first and last throw. I can judge it was a fluke, because that guy has not got the ability or experience to be able to throw bullseyes with any degree of consistency. Similarly, 99/100 Gray attempts that pirouette back heel and ends up on his arse having missed the ball. It's a fluke.
I think that comparison would be ok if your mate ended up with the highest points per throw of any of your mates over an 18 month period rather than just one throw .... he scores a lot of flukes and I'm happy he does as he gets in the right places eg that shinned volley at Burnley last season...
That's a fair point and a testament to Gray's one, redeeming quality, which is an ability to get into the goalscoring positions in the box, however, as a team, we already are asking too much of our wing backs and midfielders, as we compensate for the fact that we have to play 3 centre backs due to the low quality of our players in that position. We can't just make allowances for a player who can't do anything else. Gray makes us weaker all over the pitch. We can look at goals in isolation, but it is foolish to ignore the fact that his losing posession all the time, his failure to play in team mates, his inability to hold up play and thus invite pressure back on our defence, indirectly leads to defeats and weakening of the side. His goals paper over the cracks but the cracks are very, very deep.
I agree and I think when TD or DW are fit, he will revert to being an option from the bench though a pairing with TD is an option esp at home when chasing a game.
I've agreed with you earlier that Gray is a liability for our team because he lacks the basic skill of being able to control a football with his first touch on a consistent basis. That doesn't mean he can never do it. Aguero, Kane, Man(eh) etc. do do it on a much more consistent basis hence they're much better footballers. But they don't get it right 100% of the time. So what do you say when they get it wrong? That it was a 'fluke' or that on that occasion they 'messed up'? Aguero 'messed up' at least twice yesterday. It seems unfair on Gray to berate him whenever he gets it wrong but then to find a new category, 'a fluke', when he gets it right. His 'getting it right' record is a lot better than 1 in a hundred. And Aguero's etc. record a lot less than 99 in a hundred. But much better than Gray's.
I don't remember an 80's TV game show called "Treble 20" where you can win a speedboat. There was that crap quiz on Radio 1 with DLT thought, I suppose.
I am not going to dig my heels in over this. I think your point is fair enough and there clearly is a middle ground to be found. Gray isn't the antichrist, but IMO we should have found someone far better than him by now and I don't believe we've recruited well at all up front or in defence. It does destroy me a little bit watching him play, but ultimately, he does score a few goals, though, I believe, does enough other bad stuff around it which negates a lot of the positive benefit from them.
I am no darts player and the darts team were short for a league match and asked me to help out and I now have a medal at home for a 180 ! I still lost the match though
Something I've got to add about Grey's 'fluke'. He had an earlier chance when he was just outside the 12yd box and, it's something I've noticed particularly with him as it's happened a few times, as he was facing the wrong way after he trapped the ball he took an eternity to turn (this is maybe because we're 'spoilt' with the PL having so many quick-reflex strikers) before attempting a shot - I think, in this case, it was blocked by a defender.
Michael van Gerwen tells the story differently. About how the experience kick-started his career. Just look where flukes can lead...
Haha - good summary. And liked for ‘bit of a Dorey’. I laughed at his attempted overhead clearance on Friday as no harm was done, but would have cried if it led to a Norwich goal.
You silly old sausage. I do believe you’re getting softer at the edges if you now think he’s not the Antichrist. I quite enjoyed your obsession. I take the Hornetboy route - “I actually like Gray, but he’s so bad at times, I think it’s quite funny.” I mean, that attempted chip was so badly executed when he had all that time it just made me splutter in my beer. And the ‘Dorey’ expression on his face after that ****up made me chuckle. He’s a bit of a Dorey, but he’s OUR Dorey.
Only because it's quite rare for sides to draw that much, I imagine. If anyone can break the mold, it's Quique!
I see both Foster and Deulofeu made Crooks team of the week! On Deulofeu he posted Not sure what that says about Crooks or Arsenal to be honest
I said that to my son (about the chip effort). Should of tried it a touch or 2 sooner. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Pivotal few games, hopefully goes all in our favour but if we don’t mess it up most likely be 1 or 2 surprises Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
