Are we slowly destroying Grant Holt

[Hackedoff 0]

I''m not sure. He seems beleaguered. This season he just doesn''t seem the same. The spark from his eye seems to have fizzled out and serioulsly think his days at this club are numbered.

With the arrival of RVW and hopefully 4-5 more players. Including another striker, i just can''t see him stayin. Plus if we are still after Hooper then he wil prob be used as a player + coin deal

[ZLF 271]

players need to adapt. Last season when grant was not scoring he was still inspirational - working the lines, defending from the front even when coming on as a sub.

However the last 8 weeks have not been good enough or the grant holt that earned our reverie.

Yest performance was not grant - an awful stamped tackle was his intro which summed up a performance of belatedness and aggression ill-directed. Channeled correctly its awe inspiring - we have not seen that very often this season.

That is NOT the managements doing - but an internal mindset from the player.

That Kei has made a greater impact and deserves to be starting ahead of grant shows more how far grant has fallen rather than how good Kei is.

However there is no reason to assume the first blip in his city career is a terminal plummet - a good close season should seem him back and ready come august.

[Stig 0]

[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]players need to adapt. Last season when grant was not scoring he was still inspirational - working the lines, defending from the front even when coming on as a sub.

However the last 8 weeks have not been good enough or the grant holt that earned our reverie.

Yest performance was not grant - an awful stamped tackle was his intro which summed up a performance of belatedness and aggression ill-directed. Channeled correctly its awe inspiring - we have not seen that very often this season.

That is NOT the managements doing - but an internal mindset from the player.

That Kei has made a greater impact and deserves to be starting ahead of grant shows more how far grant has fallen rather than how good Kei is.

However there is no reason to assume the first blip in his city career is a terminal plummet - a good close season should seem him back and ready come august.[/quote]

But it''s the managements job to manage a player so they DO direct their passion/frustration/whatever into the football....... And no, I think if Grant Holt goes into this summer in the same mood he is now, it will only be worse for him and us next season.

[Citizen Journalist Foghorn 0]

[quote user="Paris aint German"]The desire hasn''t been there since the failure to get in the England squad. ![/quote]I disagree, it looks like he has been trying too hard in recent games...  And got himself booked in the process.  Unless you expect him to go hell for leather after he has picked up a booking.He is not too different to the Holt of previous seasons, just there are fewer chances this time around due to a defensive formation, and he is finding it tough as a lone striker which has affected his confidence.Simple fact is RvP could probably be up front in this side and look poor.

[Mr Brownstone 0]

Clearly there is something seriously amiss with our Grant. I don''t know whether it''s frustration at the tactics, annoyance at losing his place to Kei or something else, but whatever it is it''s making him a total liability at present. 3 games running he''s come off the bench and been lucky not to have been sent off within a couple of minutes.

 

Whatever it is it''s vitally important that he and Hughton sit down this week and sort it out because we need him badly. It really pains me to say it because I''m a huge fan of his but with his current mindset I wouldn''t have him anywhere near the team for Arsenal.

 

I really hope it can be resolved, I''d hate to see a true NCFC legend end his career here in such a manner.

[PurpleCanary 5,553]

[quote user="Citizen Journalist Foghorn"][quote user="Paris aint German"]The desire hasn''t been there since the failure to get in the England squad. ![/quote]I disagree, it looks like he has been trying too hard in recent games...  And got himself booked in the process.  Unless you expect him to go hell for leather after he has picked up a booking.He is not too different to the Holt of previous seasons, just there are fewer chances this time around due to a defensive formation, and he is finding it tough as a lone striker which has affected his confidence.Simple fact is RvP could probably be up front in this side and look poor.[/quote]

 

I wonder if this is a factor in Hughton not starting with Holt. I haven''t seen the incidents but supposedly in the last three or so games he has risked being sent off for late challenges soon after coming on. This may just be frustration born out of not getting on until late, and if he started he wouldn''t be so anxious to get involved. But it could also be that Hughton is afraid that this lack of control might manifest itself at any time; that Holt could get sent off early on, and we would play most of a game with 10 men.

[PurpleCanary 5,553]

Posted the above without seeing Mr Brownstone''s post!

[Dr Greenthumb 746]

Trying too hard, there''s otherways to go about it instead of injuring fellow players. The Sunderland challenge wouldn''t have surprised me had he been sent off. He''d bottled it completely, I find it hard to believe it was the same striker that scored that beauty against Wolves last season. I want him to come good I really do, I just think his head has been turned and he''s not really that bothered.

[Salopian 1]

We owe a lot to Holty. He is brave, putting his head or his body in danger for the sake of the cause,and  in his first season in the Premiership was the second highest England-qualified goal scorer.

 

Most people will have to accept that technically he is well short of people like Michu, and other strikers, and he lacks pace. I suspect that if you look over the reports of the last four years, and compare our chances to goals ratio, we are not outstanding. Under Lambert we created more chances than others teams, - we had to because defensively we were a little frail. Holty as our spearhead was as guilty as anyone of spurning good chances.

His achievements were going to be lower this year, as other teams noted that we relied heavily on him and adopted tactics to deal with this, such as getting him booked.

He may be his own worst enemy - he sulked last summer before re-signing and he sulked when he was not picked for England (- which he repeated again recently.) Whether this meant that he was not as fully fit last summer as he clearly was superbly in 2011, or whether he had slowed down a little, as several people claimed to have noticed, I don''t know.

 

I think that his success last season often came as the result of success by Wes, - Holty was quick enough to fasten on to the good through balls provided. Perhaps Wes has not been at his best for parts of the season, so the supply has reduced., or perhaps Holty has slowed.

 

The point I am making is that his relative failure in scoring this season has not necessarily been due to the CH defensive formation entirely.