A lot of us (not everyone of course) recognised that last season we were on the end of some pretty stinking luck at times and didn't ever seem to be on the end of much good fortune, no player more so than our much-maligned record signing RVW. Interesting that so far this season we appear to have had some good fortune already, and perhaps no player more so than our new signing Lewis Grabban, particularly when you look at the four goals he's already scored in the past three games: Watford - nicely taken goal from outside the box that was helped into the goal, away from the keeper's reach via a deflection off a defender Blackburn - poorly taken penalty that rebounded straight back to him for him to smash in the rebound Blackburn - Needed two bites of the cherry to slot in our final goal after a quick counter attack from Murphy. He should have probably put his first effort in but again the ball rebounded off the defender perfectly for him to finish Ipswich - Marginally offside for his goal that on any other day could easily have been ruled out by the linesman, in fact I cautiously celebrated the goal when it went in as I thought straight away that he was offside. I'm not saying he didn't deserve his goals, and I'm certainly not saying we don't deserve just a bit of good luck, but I'd say that Grabban has had more of it already in just four games than RVW had all last season - let's just hope it continues and that this season turns out to be as full of good fortune for us as last season was full of the bad sort.
and is why, although he 'appears' to be on fire, I am reserving judgement on him. When he starts scoring 'clean' goals for fun, then I will lads done well
I'm in the same position. 4 goals is great, but none of them have really looked all that convincing. Certainly seen nothing from him yet to suggest he could do it at a higher level.
My biggest issue with our games so far is we aren't getting many "Simple goals" eg. getting to the by line and cutting the ball back or neat play around the box to provide a tap in. All the goals against Watford we're great strikes from out side the box, It took a penalty to draw us level against Blackburn and then another great finish from Johnson to take the lead, followed by a counter from a corner that Robinson had come up for. Then against Ippy it was atrocious defending and a bit of luck that got us that goal. I'm not complaining but we can't rely on beautiful strikes and bad defending every game. We have some lovely flowing moves but we still seem to struggle with the final ball. Hopefully as the season progresses we'll get a little more clinical and the finals balls will improve but it is something I've been worried about.
Two football expressions spring to mind. You make your own luck and goals give you confidence. It will be interesting to see who plays where when Jerome has fitted in and Hooper is fit - if he stays. Grabban might need more than luck to survive.
When the ball was headed back in to the box, he was a good 2ft off-side and beginning his run in to an on-side position. Berra was easily more than 1m, from the goal line.
we have created a good number of chances and it was a frustration that Grabban didn't put his foot throughout he two one-on-ones he had could well have been leaving with the match ball and cult hero status. This increase in chances seem to come from the fact that we are playing against a lower standard of player, there will be more mistakes, more poor positioning and not so much pace in the defences. We are also playing a much more attractive brand of football, we seems to be trying to thread ball in to the strikers and break quickly. I don't think its all about luck really we just create more chance and a percentage of those chances go in. I'm still of the view that the failure of our strikers last season was due more to the set up of the midfield than the profligacy of our strikers. Last season was also a constant spiral down in terms of confidence and attacking play. Adams has taken the shackles off and the players seem to be responding, if Hooper or RvW played on Saturday i think they would have buried a few more goals. We need to see where we stand with the squad next tuesday but at present I'm very happy with it.
I agree with your piece Munky and the sentiments contained. The beauty though about Grabben is that he has a knack of being in the right place and in that basis has made his own luck to a degree. RvW never had the service admittedly, but not sure that he made himself that accessible at times. We also need another of our strikers to start clicking on the score sheet otherwise defences will increase their marking on Grabben and snuff out our goals quite easily.
Totally with you there DH My son and I have been discussing this at length, to him he's the tits, to me he's had fortune with each goal, but more importantly he's missed a hat full ! I'm sure if Hooper had been given those chances his conversion rate would be much higher? Just my opinion.
RvW when he joined was very frequently making himself available however we rarely even bothered to try and pick him out ins tread passing to Snodgrass to carry the ball slowly down the wing and allow defences to settle. He slowed down when he was clearly injured but Hooper was still out and very rarely did he seem to bother after he came back always seemed low on confidence and probably wondering why he should bother if no one was going to pass to him any way.
RVW scoring 1 all season was not down to bad luck Grabban scoring 22 last season means he is strong and fast enough to get into scoring chances, for example a looping ball out of the binners defense and Grabban steams in pushes the defender away and unleashes a swerving volley that Gerkin parried. RWW would not have been strong enough or fast enough to get into that situation, Grabban doesn't just hang around waiting for the assist he actively makes things happen so he gets more chances and scores more goals. He may miss half the chances but he will keep making them . I am very impressed with the work rate and desire Grabban shows and he doesn't fear his opponents , he can score another 20 ugly goals for all i care.
Good post Munky. Very much agree. I do think that Grabban is very good at getting himself into scoring positions - it's obviously intuitive, helped by his pace (and our team now actually passing to those players in good spaces). But you're definitely right that his impressive statistics aren't necessarily backed up with his game performance or the manner of the goals. I am still going to reserve judgement because the way we have been playing he should have two or three more and I'm not wholly convinced by his first touch (as opposed to, say, Lafferty, who has not always played well nor has he scored, but I like his touch for a big man). If Grabban scores 20+ to help us get promoted, though, he can have a donkey's touch for all I care! Incidentally, further to Ricky's 3 min cameo debut in St Etienne's win against Reims, he got just over a third of a game in a 0-0 bore draw at home to Rennes.
I agree with this. If he creates 3 times the number of chances as others but scores half of them. Then we'll still be better off. I think so far considering he hasn't been with us long he's done a good job, but there is room for improvement. I think Jerome and Hooper (if he stays) will end up being ahead of him as our main striker, however I suspect Grabban will still play and Redmond may lose out. I also think Hoolahan's place in the starting 11 will come under pressure, especially when Howson is fit.
If Hooper stays and Loza develops then we will have the best strikeforce in the Championship. Beyond that I don't care which individual scores the most and if the ball goes in off the refs arse - as long as goals are scored. My only worry with RVW is that he is no more suited to French football than he was to our game and we get him back
Just to be clear here, I wasn't criticising Grabban in my OP, not at all. Regardless of whether he was a bit lucky/fortunate with his goals, he gets himself into the right positions as others said, and of course luck/fortune are big parts of the game nowadays so I'm not saying he's a terrible player who has just been lucky so far. However from my perspective there certainly has been an element of luck involved in all his goals and my point was that had RVW been on the end of some similar good fortune - particularly at the start of the season so he could have built up some momentum - then his City career, and our season last year might have taken quite a different shape.
RVW just looked like a skinny boy playing with adults he had no speed or strength so whatever skill he has was useless.
I thought he looked like he had bulked up quite a bit by the end of the season compared with the start, it's just that by that stage his confidence, our team's confidence and certain players' confidence in him seemed to have been well and truly shot.
If he bombs in France then we will have trouble getting anything back, i seem to have read that Max Gradel is at St Ettiene too i rate him.
