the changes in holt

[The Great Wall Of Tettey 0]

seems like grant holts suspected ''dive'' raised a few eyebrows today, but this isnt the first time is it?

am i only one who has noticed that holt has changed over the years he has been at norwich ? when he first joined he was ''big grant holt'' the bruiser that used to fight for every ball and challenge and was constantly getting booked for hacking defenders down. this was the grant holt that norwich fans loved to pieces.

2nd season imo holt turned into an even better player, becoming less so the bruiser and turned into more of a complete footballer, looking to provide more for the team. take the ipswich game at home, grant holt battled with the CB to win the ball for his first goal, yet moments later you see him suspectly falling after minimal contact. this was clever play by going down when it was only vital that he did.

however this season he has done nothing but frustrate me especially as he looks a fitter and quicker player than he has ever been. against liverpool he was amazing, nothing you can take away from him. he came on and showed us all with his goal how to really fight for a ball and show how much determination he has. near enough all of the games he has played in this season he has produced 1 or 2 stupid dives, and today seems the biting point for me after coming onto the pitch and does nothing but fall over? norwich are 1 goal behind and need a stiker to come on and influence the game, but 3 times is just stupid. in all fairness he did get 2 freekicks but why does he have to overexadurate so much? sitting in the upper barclay i could do nothing but hold my head in shame as even from my position you can see how it was blatant play acting when the ball was just yards away from his feet.

my point is really why is he doing this when he has more than enough ability to win the ball fairly and score lots of goals like he has done in the past?!

[curly_whirly_tipz 0]

Yes he went down BUT he wasnt going to score from that angle and in fairnessthe slightest but of contact I think any other player would have done the same thing in that situation. He is coming on to try and salvage a point, not to keep 3 points so I dont think its a completly fair observation as he does win free kicks etc. In other season we have been on the front foot, opposed to the back foot and maybe that is the difference. I dunno just an idea.

[ca 1]

[quote user="curly_whirly_tipz"]Yes he went down BUT he wasnt going to score from that angle and in fairnessthe slightest but of contact I think any other player would have done the same thing in that situation. He is coming on to try and salvage a point, not to keep 3 points so I dont think its a completly fair observation as he does win free kicks etc. In other season we have been on the front foot, opposed to the back foot and maybe that is the difference. I dunno just an idea.[/quote]

But you have to admit that he goes down far too easily nowadays and its embarrassing, he doesn''t need to resort to those tactics with the ability he has.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Oooh Angel! Only one off 11k.

[smooth 114]

Holt causes centre halves problems.

Running at defenders or battling are the two attributes that many defenders in the prem don''t like. Morison and Holt have caused problems no question. Like stoke or Kevin Davies these forwards cause problems, Holt has come on from the subs bench and has been playing up a little.

Nothing worng with that, he won a number of free kicks where Mosion had been honest earlier and probably not forced the referees hand in giving us a free kick. In the penalty area yes when I saw it I was annoyed because anytime we have a chance to have the ball on the floor in the penalty area we need to stay on our feet, challenges will come in and penalties hence will come. So I was annoyed but there were other times.

Croft was fed into their box in the 2nd half and instead of running at the centre half and creating space to put the ball across, he delivered an early cross when no forward had space.

Holt however is making an impact, he is mixing it up and certainly I am pleased he is in our team and not in the opposition. I agree he is ''creating'' fouls more this season, but if he was playing a full 90 minutes it would not be seen as much as he would be running into channels holding up the ball etc.

I think that is it, its a cameo appearance and hence the creation of fouls is howing up a little more, but if we then had had good delivery today into the box when he and Morison were on the field. I would bet on one of them finding the target.

[Time to go Delia 0]

The dive in the box was pathetic , Holt ran away from the ball to run into the defender , quite rightly booked and it does Holt or the club no favours whatsoever . Better to go down giving it a go than to stay up by cheating , leave that to the foreigners .

[AJ 1,218]

I posted a similar thread the other day, he really annoys me now. We know he is a much better footballer than he''s currently playing at. Mind you, if Lambert has told him to go on and win some free kicks, then he''s done his job today I guess.

[Thirsty Lizard 3,158]

Prem 1 - Rooney, Scholes, Gerard, Owen etc never dive do they???

[Mr. Bump 0]

Would you still be moaning about Holt''s antics if one of the free kicks he won had been scored? I don''t have a problem with it, although it did make the ''Same old Arsenal, always cheating'' chant sound a little silly.

[The Great Wall Of Tettey 0]

[quote user="Mr. Bump"]Would you still be moaning about Holt''s antics if one of the free kicks he won had been scored? I don''t have a problem with it, although it did make the ''Same old Arsenal, always cheating'' chant sound a little silly.[/quote]

i dont have a problem if he goes down a little easy but diving is stupid. youve got a team working hard to get the ball up to the strikers and youve got him falling over and the attack is ruined. he has the strengh to fight so why not use it?

just watched the whole game again, besides the penalty give the first freekick out wide is appauling, mertesacker brushes into holts back and he goes down holding his face!

[yellowbib 0]

Will probably be shot down for saying this but I thought Grant Holts dive to win us a penalty in the second half was disgusting. I know we were chasing the game but there is no need for the captain to sink to such depths. Really going to find it difficult to defend him next time someone accuses him of being a diver.

[I am a Banana 0]

Holt now has a reputation which he didn''t have 1/2 a year ago! He needs to stop it as he is starting to cost us scoring chances like his dive for a penalty late on. He could easily just knock it back to one of 2 possible players and we could (not saying would) have scored. We have more chance scoring keeping the ball in their box rather than trying to cheat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jack Barak 46]

Binner alert....Binner alert....clear off back to Poorman road binner!

[I am a Banana 0]

WholeHeartedly AGREE!! Well said OP!

[Baldyboy 0]

and if fatboy Dowd had given the bloody thing and Holt had banged it in everybody would be hailing him as a hero!!!!! This shows just how fickle some City fans are, get off  Holt''s back and support the man!!!

[Ruddygore 0]

Grant is a rascal at times but you must be a binner because you''ll never find a fan who is anything but proud of the bloke.

[Boyo 0]

Holt is a much better player than what he is showing by diving and cheating at the moment.  Looks like he could do with a kick up the backside.

[Baldyboy 0]

All this guff about Holt diving is absolute b******s!!!!  If the pen had been given and Holt steps up and bangs it in he would bew a hero!! some of you lot crucifying him are unreal, get over it and move on!!!!Do Chelsea fans treat Drogba like this, or Liverpool fans do it to Suarez? NO so you lot should be ashamed of yourselves for crucifying holt, he was clipped, and went down just like Reid did for WBA earlier in the season, and did their fans criticize him? NO!!!

[ricardo 7,384]

[quote user="yellowbib"]Will probably be shot down for saying this but I thought Grant Holts dive to win us a penalty in the second half was disgusting. I know we were chasing the game but there is no need for the captain to sink to such depths. Really going to find it difficult to defend him next time someone accuses him of being a diver.[/quote]Grow up, its part and parcel of the game. If he''d won a pen nobody on here would be complaining and its not as if he''s never done it before. Sometimes you get ''em sometimes you don''t and we''ve had plenty of duff one''s given against us.I thought he cleverly won a couple of free kicks as well. It amounted to the only threat we had second half.

[Boyo 0]

Lets be honest guys that dive was pathetic.  He is a Norwich legend but he is better than that.

[I am a Banana 0]

If it comes off then no one cares agreed.

When he tries it and it doesn''t work how bad does it make Holt and Norwich look? He would be much better just trying to look for a pass and let them have a shot.

 

 

 

Play the way your facing [y]

[Brendo 0]

I agree completely. Don''t get me wrong, I absolutely love him and prefer him to Morison (but that''s a whole other debate) but that was the worst dive I''ve seen him perform in a City shirt yet. I know he goes down easily, which I don''t like the idea of but love the consequences, but when there is no contact, it''s just stupid.Still, he caused so much havok when he came on. If only he could hold it up like Morison, that would be awesome.Have no idea what system we could use really. Maybe try a flat 4-4-2 and get loads of width going, drop Hooly. As for defence, well...

[yellowbib 0]

Bit rich I am a banana calling me a binner, just read your comments about Holt on another thread. Pot and kettle come to mind

[Shack Attack 0]

It was pretty embarassing to be fair and there were plenty of posters trying to take the moral high ground earlier in the season when we were on the end of a few bad decisions which were directly influenced by a dive. The worst thing was that he had the ball in the Arsenal penalty area and was being marked by the woeful Mertesaker. Rather than hold the ball and try and set up a team mate he chucked himself on the floor and got booked for it. If I were Paul Lambert I would have been fuming at that.

[Ruddygore 0]

Sorry Banana but perhaps you and a few others need to take a step back for the evening, perhaps we all do, we all feel a bit down here and there but the truth is that the whole team had their individual "moments" and unfortunately none of them managed to have their blinding moments together. If they''d all been playing the right notes this afternoon in the right order we''d be singing the roofs off.

Just one of those things, PL has worked miracles with what must be one of the cheapest sides in the Prem, sometimes we are up against some of the most expensive.

[MAJESTIC 0]

he has done it every game for the last 2 seasons i love it

[First Wizard 0]

Holt is a scamp isn''t he?....and I love him for it.[Y]

[First Wizard 0]

[quote user="baldyboy"]All this guff about Holt diving is absolute b******s!!!!  If the pen had been given and Holt steps up and bangs it in he would bew a hero!! some of you lot crucifying him are unreal, get over it and move on!!!!

Do Chelsea fans treat Drogba like this, or Liverpool fans do it to Suarez? NO so you lot should be ashamed of yourselves for crucifying holt, he was clipped, and went down just like Reid did for WBA earlier in the season, and did their fans criticize him? NO!!!
[/quote]

 

Huzzah![Y]

[forte 0]

Please shut up OP. "Disgusted", stop being so dramatic.

No surprise to see the uber serious 14yr old ponces banana and ''barnett is king'' agreeing though.

[Thirsty Lizard 3,158]

Holt was probably taking his cue from Koscielny who had performed a ridiculous dive (and got a totally undeserved free kick for it) only minutes before. But hey - one rule for Arsenal - a totally different one for us.