The latter. Though I think Gabbi himself has resigned himself to it too, looked pretty disinterested a couple of times I've seen him recently.
Not surprising. Listen to and take look at the fans next time you are at a match. The last time people were this pissed of with Saints was when Branfoot was manager. If you remember he sold our best players and bought absolute crap and then played hoof ball.
Gab is arguably our best player in terms of overall quality. Our manager doesn't seem to have a clue how to get him into the side. I am not surprised Gab is struggling now.
Gabbi's situation is a mystery to me. He started so well....was that just by chance or is he a poor striker....or not suit our style. Won't get a chance to improve without playing though. Our poor performance may exacerbate his problems.....a dry spell from him could be tolerated if we were scoring elsewhere....and then he would get chances to play and score for himself. I suppose he is just the wrong player in the wrong team.
Same mystery that applied to Boufal earlier in the season maybe? I'm resigned to MP2 being one dimensional and void of ideas. Boufal and Austin forced their way in and out of his vision, Gabbi may feel slighted and ready to GTFO and I woudnt blame him. MP2's formations have yielded zero goals time after time and he has made minimal effort to adjust for the players at his disposal. Early in the season Gabbi's movement was excellent but all we did was pass sideways and backwards for 90 min not trying to find him once. how many months later, Gabbi starts again and nothing has changed except he's unmotivated and running at half speed. All down to the manager IMO.
Yes, that's pretty much how I read it. Another reason to get someone new in, it would provide a new lease of life to people like Gabbi. He's a class striker.
Because he never starts? How is that his fault? How is it his fault that nobody ever spots his runs? Like Boufal, he needs a run in the team to get himself going again, but very little of this situation is his fault.
Like I say I think he's looked disinterested at times, look at Austin who wasn't fancied at all to begin with but when he was getting his chances he was working his bollocks off to make an impression whereas Gabbi has the look of a man who wants out sometimes. Let's not forget he started a lot of games at the beginning of the season and didn't perform in most just as much as the rest of the team. Let me be clear here, I really rate Gabbi (though not as highly as some), but he does seem to get an easy ride compared to most on here due to (as far as I can tell) a purple patch when he joined... It's the opposite of the Virgil effect that was spoken about earlier in the season imo. I genuinely think Shane is justified in keeping his place ahead of him at present. Though I'd like to see Gabbi get a few starts in the positions behind him or alongside him. Edit - while it's true no one spots his runs if that's the case you should find a way to try and impact the game still by coming deep for the ball etc. Or you become a passenger which we can't afford right now.
When he first signed for us, a lot of the Italian football journalists assumed he would be playing as a wide attacker for us. This is where he had played the majority of his matches in Italy For a multitude of reasons, playing him up top on his own has not worked. Pellegrino gets a lot of stick and this post is only going to add to it. I understand a reluctance to play two upfront, but the simple solution to keep the shape and add a goal threat is to play Manolo outwide a la Jay Rod and get him to get into the box as often as he can. For some reason and despite all the rotation and tinkering, this has never been attempted
I have thought this before, and the only conclusion I can come to is that Gabbi has been told he will play centrally, like a promise or something, when he signed. There was talk when he left Napoli that he wanted to play central striker and that was why he was looking to leave. I really can't think of any other reason. Before I thought it was because he was our best option centrally, so play him there. But now he is on the bench most of the time why not give him a shot on the right (the position he has played for the majority of his career?). Surely everyone at the club can see Redmond is massively out of form so why not at least give him a go there. Doesn't make any sense to me, unless there is something else behind the scenes.
I don't think Gabbi would have been given promises....only top players can add that to their deals. Managers have to be free to manage. He might have hoped that or even be told that that might happen, but certainly not part of a formal agreement. We may not suit his style and he doesn't play enough now to prove himself, but in our present situation we need a player that gets in the right place and out muscles others....like Austin. TBF to Gabbi, I thought he was showing good positional sense last season when he was on his hot streak....he just seemed to be in the right place then.
I don't feel that Austin is an out-muscling kind of player either, in fact. He rarely gets any change out of a big centre back, although he can usually be a good target for throw-ins in wide positions. Pellegrino said back in September, when asked about his striking options, that all three are players who like to be on the shoulder of the last man: the difference with Austin from the other two being that he works best within the bounds of the penalty box. None of them is a back-to-goal hold-up man, which imo is what we desperately need.
I agree with most of what you say, particularly the point you make about coming to look for the ball. He has done that at times, including, IIRC, one of his goals against Newcastle in October, but I agree that a good striker (Rickie being the obvious example) will always come deep and find the ball if he’s not getting good service. My main point though, is that he needs a run of games to find form, just like Boufal did earlier in the season. I like the idea of playing him as a wide forward, on the right so he can cut inside on his left foot, or arrive in the box to receive the ball from Long.
Obviously some players suit certain styles best, but (as Chilco says) a good player should search for chances if he's not being fed them.
