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lake district canary

Lewis Grabban

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Can a player improve his finishing ability?   This is the big question with LG.  He is a handful for defenders and has good movement around the pitch and can score goals.    But at this level he needs to take his chances when they come to him and be more clinical in front of goal.

So can he improve that aspect of his play?   I love to see players developing and improving and would really like to think that Grabban can learn to and rise to the level needed.   If he does, we would have a top striker on our hands - if he doesn''t he may not get enough starts in the team and if we get someone else in he may drop down the pecking order.  He has everything there in place except that little bit of being more clinical in front of goal.   Jerome looks the business, if Grabban can be the same, we have two top strikers in the AN mould that could carry us through the season, with the help of Hooper and maybe RvW, or whiever else we might get.

So can he improve?   I think he can, but he needs to show it soon. 

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At 27 I don''t think he can improve his finishing enough which is mainly a natural attribute. He''s also not as strong or as quick as Jerome.

In my opinion we can''t risk solely relying on Grabban as the alternative to Jerome, we need to bring another striker in the Jerome mould in.

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I agree with Cantiaci...

Lewis Grabban is a decent hard-working player.

I believe he can help keep Norwich in the Premier League this season.

If we achieve this, I can''t guarantee he''ll be here next Summer.

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Latest rumour is that Bournemouth are looking at Grabban and Defoe - would be happy to let him go if we got Afobe in.

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I wish we had signed Callum Wilson first and then tried to sign Grabban last season, instead of the other way round.Grabban does have qualities and will score goals, I just do not think that he will score enough to warrant his place in the side.

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Johnson certainly improved his shooting technique for last season, and we saw the result - shots on target instead of over the top.

But strikers need very quick judgement, positioning and execution, and I am not quite sure whether this can develop. It would be a pity, as his all round game is impressive, apart from heading, perhaps.

It could be that if he were to score a few, and confidence mounted, that scoring goals could become more instinctive, but he has had plenty of opportunity and also encouragement from AN, and somehow....

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I see Lewis Grabban has surged clear in the race of the seasons scapegoat after Martin and Whittaker both scored last week.

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You have a good point... Why do NCFC fans always look for a scapegoat... Heaven forbid we''d have an entire team playing well.

I think Grabban is very under-rated, and I think AN believes this too as he often opted for Grabban over Jerome last season.

Both are decent players and definitely worth keeping.

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Scapegoated for what exactly?Can we not discuss players perceived  attributes and shortcomings anymore?If you discuss potential signings then it follows that the players they will hypothetically replace should be brought up too.Nobody on this thread has "scapegoated" Grabban for anything.

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Lewis Grabban has played just over a half of 1 premiership game for us...still that''s enough to write him off with these day''s isn''t it?

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[quote user="jas the barclay king"]Lewis Grabban has played just over a half of 1 premiership game for us...still that''s enough to write him off with these day''s isn''t it?[/quote]

I have read all the comments on this thread and nobody has "written" Grabban off, why make stuff up?

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i think the difference was clear on sat between jerome and grabbans performance levels and why jerome will continue to start - not scapegoating simply recognising that we have two players performing at different levels.

 

Grabban can improve,   but simply needs to learn quickly.   He remains a far better option than hooper, rvw or lafferty though so will continue to get 15-30 mins each game,  until the new target is signed - after that his opportunities are likely to reduce so he has to develop and impress fast.

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[quote user="YorkshirePudding"]It''s not about scapegoating, he deserves some criticism for his miss v Palace.[/quote]

One miss does not a player make.  All strikers miss sometimes, even the best ones.  We need Grabban to score a few and hopefully he will, but overly criticising him for the odd miss does not reflect his worth to the team.  On form he is a real handful and can create and stretch defences. That will be his worth to the team as it creates opportunities for others to score, as well as himself.   That is why he was first choice so much last season - and is also why Jerome has improved - he had to, to get in ahead of Grabban. 

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I saw it from day 1 with Grabban, he is not clinical. There is nothing wrong in saying it.

Some players reach their level, Andrew Crofts realised he wanted to move to Brighton as we went up and admire him, he knew he had reached a pinnacle. Had a great long career in the championship.

For me Grabban was a good championship striker, a top 10 team striker. Did he show enough to improve that view? In my eyes no, over the course of the season that is where he is.

As we have gone up we can get better and I expect him to drop behind Cam and a new addition; however I would expect RVW or Hooper to be ahead as they are different to grabban, unless injury or suspension take cam and a new addition out he will then bump up.

Nothing wrong with recognising your level, but for me Bournemouth fans made it clear... he needs 5 chances to score 1 and has confidence issues.

Last season he showed that throughout the season, he still scored, but that tells you the amount of chances we did get.

If he was more clinical we would have team sniffing around for his signature, instead there are none.

Good luck to him, but some players have a maximum ability that cannot go any further, his movement is good, his strength can improve but his finishing and first touch are not good enough to be first choice. Nothing wrong in saying that after watching him during our champ promotion season and reports from Bournemouth fans.

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It''s not about just this seasons one game, Grabban went off the boil in the second half of last season and looked half the player we signed.

Given that we need to upgrade to survive this league, there''s no point in having 5 strikers. Hooper, Grabban, RVW will be considered surplus to first choice and with the right offer will probably be allowed to leave.

I''m not that concerned about loosing Grabban or RVW, but like others Hooper is a player I would like to see stay.

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Love how everyone jumps on the scapegoat word. It''s the new Binner/Plastic that people throw out if they disagree.

In answer to the original question, if you take it out of context of specifically Grabban, can a player at the age of 27 improve on what for a lot of quality strikers is natural talent/instinct?

You could argue both ways but my opinion is that he will have a level of natural ability that you can improve with training and experience. Historically Grabban has not played at this level but if you consistently play against better players, your game will improve. However, I do think that it would be your overall game that would improve.

Learning the runs you make to beat better players, learning the passes to make to beat better players, where to put your shots to beat better keepers. These are all things that I feel you can absolutely improve through training and playing against a better level of opponent but there will always be a roof to someone''s ability. The natural gift of talent will potentially mean that Grabban may always need more attempts on goal than others.

The big issue here is that we don''t necessarily have the time/capability to afford this to Grabban. I said a similar thing of Redmond in that I feared at some point we would have to weigh up the pros and cons of giving players time to improve against the fact we''ll possibly be fighting for survival each season to begin with. Thankfully Redmond has increased his trajectory quite rapidly and long may it continue.

Binner/Plastic/Scapegoat Howsonisnow

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[quote user="lake district canary"][quote user="YorkshirePudding"]It''s not about scapegoating, he deserves some criticism for his miss v Palace.[/quote]


One miss does not a player make.  All strikers miss sometimes, even the best ones.  We need Grabban to score a few and hopefully he will, but overly criticising him for the odd miss does not reflect his worth to the team.  On form he is a real handful and can create and stretch defences. That will be his worth to the team as it creates opportunities for others to score, as well as himself.   That is why he was first choice so much last season - and is also why Jerome has improved - he had to, to get in ahead of Grabban. 




[/quote]

True dat, LDC. Just look at (an albeit rusty) Aguero against Chelsea at the weekend - eventually took the fifth great opportunity he had. Sadly, we need the sort of striker that doesn''t need lots of chances to score - exactly the sort of striker we can''t afford.

But I agree re Grabban''s general play - works very hard and I think he will feature in most games, probably from the bench.

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Thing is, I think there''s always room for hope when a striker gets himself into the positions that Grabban did for his howler against CP. Players like Hooper just don''t get into those situations often enough. If they''re as clinical as Thierry Henry then it doesn''t matter, but Hooper is not, so it does

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He does miss chances, but he has the instinct of being in the right place at the right time so generaaly gets more chances. He also seems to strike me as a bit of a confidence player as we saw last season with his two hot streaks. If he can get a goal I expect that he might go on a bit of a goal scoring run.

Also people seem to have short memories as a lot of fans though the team might struggle after he got injured after the Ipswich home game as he was is such good form. Thankfully Jerome stepped up, but Grabban was definitely the main striker at that point. Now after one and half games he is being written off. Surely he deserves the chance to prove what he can do!

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Grabban will score goals given enough chances. The trouble is you don''t get that many chances in the Premier League. For what it''s worth if you cast your mind back to August last season when we played Blackburn, injury time, there keeper is up for a corner we break Grabban gets to within about 6 yards of the goal and still manages to hit the remaining defender on the line. Admittedly he scored the rebound but it was at that precise point that I realized he wasn''t a natural finisher and would not be able to score consistently in the Premier League.

Good play in the Championship, not good enough for the PL unfortunately.

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If only grabban had hoopers finishing;   mind you he would probably be playing for another team and be outside our price range.

 

 

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I''m a big fan of Lewis Grabban and think he definitely is a player we shouldn''t give up easily! In my opinion he is never going to be a prolific goalscorer and i don''t think he can improve that bit of the game.

Where he is the perfect player is when we''re up 1 or 2 goals and we want to win the game, take off the striker i.e CJ or another and put Grabban on, the way he runs at and upsets defenses and his control of the ball means we''d be able to hold onto the lead and wind the clock down.

Its getting the lead first that we need to work hard on.

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Interesting points

Still think when the new guy comes in that Grabban drops to number three choice of that type of striker.

Hooper and RVW - are plan B and plan C.

Grabban will fall further down, it is the same with many of our players, Johnson for Brady possibly... as you get better, better players come in.

As the OP said I think players always have their optimum ability, coaches and teammates can lift that, but there is always a top performance level.

I just think Grabban is not going to be a striker in the first 11 of any premiership team for a whole season. He is a squad player who will play his part, hopefully if we stay up we will be in a position to improve our squad once more.

You are only as strong as our weakest squad member, that is not a criticism or making a scapegoat... I still think we need a centre half and potentially in the jan window a right back. Right now we are looking for a striker with Grabban looking to be the one that will naturally fall down the pecking order.

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Was chatting to a Bournemouth fan after the 1-1 draw at our place early last season. He asked how Grabban was settling in, to which I replied that five goals in five games was more than enough reason to believe he was settling in very well. He then said: "Has he scored a one-on-one yet? Don''t worry, he won''t." Unfortunately, everything I''ve seen leads me to believe that he does not have the composure in front of goal to be a clinical enough finisher to justify a place in the team. He scored 25-odd for Bournemouth in the season he was there, but the Cherries fan I was talking to said he missed a bucketful of chances too – the system was set up to give him chances, as it was for Wilson last season, and his profligacy cost them on numerous occasions despite his impressive strike rate. In the Prem, where chances are at a premium, he needs to take them to have any chance of being a regular starter. Would love to see him prove me wrong, but I genuinely don''t think he will make it at Prem level.

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Glad to see that all faith is not lost RE Grabban, I am a

big fan of his and am fond of his style of play. People saying he’s not

stronger than Jerome, whilst this is true, Grabban counterbalances this through

his sheer determination and aggression which I think he still just about shades

Jerome on- appreciating that Jerome’s off-the-ball game is much improved in

recent games.

 

It’s a real shame he didn’t get that goal against Palace

because that has fired up people’s niggling doubts into more aggressive concerns.

I’m not sure if others have looked back at the replays but, in fairness to the

guy, Whittaker’s cross firstly gets deflected, leading him to hesitate as the

ball was initially going behind him. Following the deflection he then has to

make 3 full strides before he’s within reach of the ball and he could not of led

with his other foot! That chance wasn’t about goal scoring prowess or clinical

finishing- it was just about getting there cleanly, and unfortunately for us he

couldn’t quite do that! Would be interesting to see if Jerome had got there but

we’ll never know!

 

As mentioned by others above, Grabban was actually Neil’s favoured

striker of the pair and it was only the injury and suspension that saw him fall

out of favour. I’m surprised how quickly some people seem to have forgotten

this. I feel confident that he has plenty more to contribute this season and I

would love to see him scoring goals! Whilst not boasting quite the same

predatory instincts as Jerome when it comes to finishing, he does, however, play

a more selfless game and looks to provide for others and we’ve already seen how

capable our other players are of pitching in.

 

For now, and I’m sure we all agree, Jerome is unmovable as a

starter but should his current rich vein of form start to dwindle, I - for one –

would not be alarmed to see Neil give Grabban a good stab at taking back that

mantle and returning to the top of our pecking order.

 

Of course, the above could all go to pot if we can pull off

a major signing!

 

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Grabban is simply a slightly better version of Simeon Jackson, he''ll work hard, use his pace to decent effect and pull defenders out of position, but his finishing is nowhere near Premiership level (it wasn''t even Champs level half the time), he doesn''t offer the overall strength and hold up ability that Jerome does, and frankly he''d already be our 3rd choice striker if we''d signed a new player (or if RvW and Hooper weren''t so unsuited to our style of play with a lone target man).I think we have to respect his contribution last season, but going forwards he''s always going to be a player that''s pushed further down the pecking order as we sign better players, and in his case I think that will be sooner rather than later (assuming the board can get some deals going).

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He''s not good enough and if Cams picks up a knock we will struggle.

Our saving grace may be the quality of our midfield and their ability to score, but it will be hard to stay up with a lame duck striker.

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Grabban makes fantastic runs and works tirelessly to pull defenders out of position.  This is his key strength.
Could his finishing be better?  Yes, it could.  He can work on that.  Thierry Henry was not always a great finisher until he arrived at Arsenal and Wenger got to work on him, so it can be learned.
Fact is against Palace, although Grabban missed a relatively easy chance, RvW wouldn''t have been anywhere near it, Hooper would have been jogging around the D in search of doughnuts, and only Jerome might have had a shot at taking the chance... which explains why Grabban is number 2 behind Jerome and ahead of Hooper and RvW.

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