This thread is about something I simply don't get - why all the hate for Andy King, the player that almost singlehandly took within a crap penalty of the playoff finals last season? He has played excellently for us since we dropped into League 1 - over 150 games - and was our captain in a lot of those games. He has been here since he was 15 odd - coming up the youth academy - and has remained loyal since then e.g. during his purple patch last season when Everton came sniffing. Admittedly this season he hasn't reached those heights but that is because he wasn't a hidden gem any more and teams focused on him and Sven tried to make him a pure DM or AM when he is a traditional British box-to-box CM. He gets injured and told that he is out for the season but manages to recover before then and because of how light our squad is, he is thrown into the team and is understandably rusty. In last nights moan in, people were out and out blaming him for all the clubs woes and saying that he should be gotten rid of and that is when we drew a game - on here people have said more or less the same all this season. Are we really that fickle? Are we really that disloyal to a 23 year old who has come back from basically his first major injury and who has almost single handingly been shouldering the burden of creating goals and scoring goals for the past 3 years? At this rate he will end up like Gally - looks like all of the tossers that hate him have won and he might be off at the end of the season.
SGE made him into an all round player, which didn't help him at all. If he'd been kept as an attacking midfielder, he'd have been better off. He isn't a box-to-box player imo. This season, ive seen/heard on the radio (in order) "wow, hes not good in this Sven formation" "wow, his all round game is coming on nicely" "hes crap along with all the other midfelders" injured "we need King back" "glad Kings fit again" "Kings crap and should be dropped" Some fans change their opinions of him more than they change their underwear. I'd be happy to have the attacking King back.
I dont think King's all round play is strong enough in a 2 man midfield. We seen the best of him last season when we played a 3 of Richie Wellens, Yuki Abe and King. King is a very good option to have though as he is always good for a goal but he doesnt influence play enough. With Gallagher its the nature of the position he plays that sometimes he is going to be hit and miss. Some of the abuse he gets is digusting, like abusing his pregnant wife. What has she got to do with anything but people target her. I would probably keep Gallagher as an option on the bench I think King and Gallagher should both be bench players for next season
