He is crap but gets away with it. People seem to lick their lips at the prospect of having a go at AG when he misses a chance, but GD can spend 90 minutes delivering free kicks and corners into the first man and the fanboys still won't have a bad word said against him.
I’m not even sure it’s a lack of a footballing brain, his ability is so bad he can’t even do what his brain wants him to do anyway. The ball bounces off him like a pinball machine, I think he knows what he wants to do he just can’t do it on most occasions.
There are quite a lot of things that I think could be laid at the door of our various coaches, involving individual player-improvements. Why has nobody told forwards to attack the near post, to cover the overhit corner, to pass in front of the man, not behind him, to shoot early and hard, to look up when carrying the ball forward, to sometimes attack swiftly instead of by numbers, how to kick a football and so on and so on?
It could be both, no doubt Gray has plenty of passion about the game but he seems to have pretty limited non-footballing intelligence, and so that prevents him from applying his mind, in terms of thinking outside the box and realizing his own limitations, for instance, making sure the few chances he gets always fall on his strong foot, or at least only attempt to use his weak foot in a select number of ways and depending on the situation. Vardy seems a bit thick as well (hence his quote about not liking Indian food, and preferring English food like pizza and Chinese, and not showing much emotion when he scores), it's just fortunate that just about all his grey matter is connected with pretty much all the requirements needed to be a top level striker where it matters - positioning, awareness, technique, hitting the target under pressure etc.
This because he is a good footballer in the sense of his ball control, passing etc. Gray is just not but shouldn’t be berated for this. It’s not his fault, it’s WFC’s for paying multi-millions for him. (I thought Deulofeu was terrible at Leicester, by the way.)
Delafoo is technically gifted and can score some worldies, but he can also be quite lazy and try to take on all 10 of the opposition by himself. Gray is a good player for getting into spaces but cannot hold the ball up as well as Deeney can. His first touch ball control is terrible but I would bet on Gray scoring from close range if he improved his touch.
The reason it’s ok to have a go at Gray is that if this is true https://www.spotrac.com/epl/watford/payroll/ he is our joint top paid player, gets 70k a week. Now however you look at it that is a **** load of cash to be paying somebody who is not a regular starter. Puki by contrast is paid 6k a week, It must be demoralising for the players paid less who are regulars in the starting 11. if your job is to come on to the pitch and hit a ball hard at the goal and your being paid 70k a week to do that, it’s not unreasonable to expect that you should be able to perform this task. If the goal keeper gets in the way or a defender makes a tackle fair enough, but get in the right place and hit the ball hard at the goal. This post isn’t particularly anti Gray I’m sure he doesn’t choose to come on with 3 mins to go , or choose to fluff his lines and think in a different squad he might be alright. Question is can we really afford to keep paying him £70k a week to come on as a sub
Why does the amount he’s paid make it “ok to have a go at Gray”? Again it’s WFC’s fault for agreeing to pay him that much.
I get paid to do a job, if I can’t do it my company will get rid of me and I will have to do something else. I don't think it’s reasonable to personally attack Gray but it is reasonable to say that we don’t get £70k a week of value from him. You would expect our joint highest player to be one of the starting 11. And yes I think you are right it is WFC fault , we purchased believing he could do a job for us, but should have moved on over the summer and replaced with somebody more suited to the way we play.
Well, it suggests a certain lack of charisma, which is a pretty common feature in less intelligent people (not saying that doesn't exist in those of high intelligence, of course). Or maybe he's just naturally reserved, I don't know, I can't remember seeing him being interviewed. Anyway, it doesn't matter as long as he continues to deliver the goods for Leicester and hopefully the England team in time for Euro 2020 if and when he reconsiders his desire not to be a regular, as when Kane's not on form we have virtually no reliable scorers.
It doesn't. But suggesting that a chow mein or a pizza is 'going for an English' does. Actually I rather like the bloke. A cheeky chappie with his heart in the right place and very grateful for his late rise to fame.
Sadly no one else will pay that sort of money per week so we are saddled with him until his contract expires at the end of season 21/22 so we are only half way through his time with us. He wont leave for less money so unless we pay the difference between what another club would pay and £70k pw then we live in hope he comes good (next season in championship )
But do we have any real idea whatsoever if it is true? Seems kind of bizarre to me. And also very disruptive within any squad if those discrepancies were true. What is Pukki's agent doing? Does he have one?
agree it looks kind of odd, however with Gray would guess about right , he was our biggest signing so stands to reason that he would be one of the highest paid. Doucs re signed last year (I think) and would have argued that he was the most valuable player at that point. Surprised a Deeney isn’t up there with them. You would however be pissed of if you were foster , paid 5k a week less than the reserve goal keeper, or Mariappa paid 5k a week less than Zeegelaar
At the same time, when he’s on the pitch, the other team do not press up on us so much as they are well aware that occasionally he will collect the ball on halfway & go through & score; they are concerned by that potential & sit off us a bit more which increases his impact on the game significantly.
We wouldn't sign Gibbs from Arsenal when he was asking for 70k and I would take Gray salary talk with a pinch of salt. That said, whatever he is on he is currently stealing it.
I've just seen the supposed 'pen. incident' yesterday on the telly. I didn't think it was one. Neither did Keyhole, or Sheep Fleecer or Big Ears. 'Not enough in it' they said. I agree. And within that gentlemen lies the lesson of objectivity v subjectivity. Our 'big, mouthy Brummie' and our persistent correspondent from Shenley are biased and subjective. Refs aren't and neither are MotD pundits. We remain 1-4 down re. VAR this season and five points lost. No more and no less. Don't let anyone else with their poorly argued and biased agenda convince you otherwise. Nobody's 'got it in for us' specifically. It's just paranoia.
People can make their own mind up on how many VAR decisions have gone for and against us. They don't need to be told what to believe. You have to look at what is given against us, and compare it against what is given for. A good example is the Leicester penalty. A jostle in the box is given for Leicester at a vital stage of the game. Most considered it was not a penalty. I think the vast majority of people would consider Cahill's headlock on Deeney was a far more of an offence and worthy of a penalty than the Leicester one. Yet, we are penalised for a minor event, but a more blatant one is not given. This theme is repetitive. Even by your own account we are behind on VAR decisions, so you're not doing a very good job of convincing everyone we are not getting a rough deal (as always) from officials.
Last week you were saying it was 5-1, now you're saying it's 4-1. Did VAR disallow one after a review?
That's not what I remember them saying. As far as I remember, Lineker didn't offer an opinion, Shearer said it wasn't a penalty and Keown said it was a foul. Certainly didn't remember it being unanimous in the way you're making out.
You'd expect a player putting their arm around an opposition player's neck, then hauling them to the ground to be a free kick anywhere else on the pitch wouldn't you?
