Comments

Dear oh dear. If you think Carew is a better option than Heskey then you are a fool. Heskey is by no means a great but he does blend well with the other players and links play well. His big let down is the lack of Goals. Carew is lazy, selfish and living on a good season last year. Whilst neither are ideal you miss some of the virtues of Heskey and demonstrate a complete ignorance of the game and the importance of blending a team with players who play well together.

agree. he’s the reason we never got 4th last year too. he’s utterly shit. at least a few years ago he had a modicum of pace. would definitely prefer delfouneso. by the way, selfishness is a good attribute for a striker - carew almost scored twice yesterday. i don’t believe he has been 100% match fit for a long time.

Totally agree with Oh My. Carew has appeared un-interested all season with the exception of Bolton at home. With Heskey playing we look to have more of a threat, I think the problem is who have we got to play alongside Heskey

Do we really need a big striker?

Both Carew and Heskey fail to hold the ball up most of the time, both give free kicks away by either fouls or offsides, and as pointed out, their goal ratio isn’t worth commenting on!

Give the Fonz a start!

Oh my days… i think you should be ashamed as to writing about such a quality player on the internet like this. I take it you are a fickle couch supporter and thinks that a tragetman should be scoring 30 a season. I do admit Heskey doesnt score often, and he has never scored many through his career even at Leicester he only scored 40 in 143 appearences for them. Gerard Houllier said these words about Heskey : “Some people like to criticise Emile, but I can produce plenty of facts and figures to back up how important he is to us, and how many goals we have scored that he has been involved in.” All you need to look at is the amount of goals Owen scored alongside Heskey not only for Liverpool but also for England, as does Rooney when partnered alongside Heskey.
Heskey’s work ethic is second to none and he will often help out in defence, unlike the “lazy” Carew. I’m afraid you can hardly critisce a player who plays every week through the pain barrier hence why he was substituted at half time. I don’t suppose you watched the spurs game where Carew was a true embarresment to any villa fan, he didnt hold the ball up he didnt defend; I feel he thinks too highly of himself. Carew is supposed to be much more of a goal threat than Heskey but yet has found the net on the same amount of occasions as Heskey has. The crowd sing his name like he is a twenty a goal season striker, when all he is, is a lazy striker certainly living on the highs of his 11 goals last season, added to that he should have scored twice last night and they were two poor efforts straight at the goalkeeper. Unfortunately Heskey is extremely injury prone, and unless Abgonlahor can understand how to link with Heskey better Martin will have to look elsewhere.

Clearly there is another cumbersome striker at Villa that riles a few of you and while I agree that he does also display symptoms of chronic laziness and can be at times equally as tear-your-hair-out frustrating, he does at least get more goals. This is emphasised by the fact that he has been our leading goal scorer for the past two seasons. As for the accusation of being a ‘fickle couch supporter’ I cannot hide the fact that I am an immigrant Brummy living in London, but I have payed my dues as a fan, after being put through many dire 0-0 draws with the likes of Middlesbrough and Sunderland and been subject to the torture that is Mark Delaney repeatedly floating a ball down the line to no one in particular. When I’m unable to make the trip back up the M40 to God’s country, I make sure I’m present at the League Cup final and at away trips to Palace in the Proper Cup, where I can witness the frustrating forward play of Emile first hand. Irrelevant of whether he was once good or not, he certainly does not display the kind of abilities that merit leading the line for England alongside the breathtakingly exciting Wayne Rooney. Carew might also be cut from the same lazy mould, but he is bigger than me or you and he might score one or two, which he does occasionally, as proved by his hardly jaw dropping 36 goals in 102 games for Villa, but it looks world beating in comparison to Heskey’s six in 40. Conservatively that’s one goal per six games and surely that isn’t good enough, is it?

I agree.

Carew played well on the weekend and if anyone is saying he was just lazy on the weekend in the second half when he came on, doesn’t knew what they’re talking about.
They’re just regurgitating the same old sh#t.

Heskey was aswful on Sunday. To be fair it wasn’t helped by the way they lined up and expecting Heskey to play up front on his own.
Yes he’s played slightly better just lately, but an improvement on darn right useless isn’t enough to say he’s deserves to be in the team.
I knew he wasn’t the answer when we signed him, clearly he’s not and it’s been proven.
We need someone talented with their feet who knows how to shoot properly and score goals.

All these comments and arguments are merely a matter of semantics. At Liverpool Heskey was merely asked to be an England centre forward in a team of outstanding players…At Villa they are more interested in work rate and ability to get involved in a game.

There was a time when the press said that my team (Fulham FC) was interested in buying Heskey. Roy is usually a very shrewd judge of a player but this would have been a total nightmare for us. We are a club even smaller than Villa (Villa fans just check out how well your owner does with the Cleveland Browns and if he even cares).

The very thought of Heskey wandering around aimlessly up front and then falling over whenever anything actually happens…That could be great for Liverpool, bad for Villa, but a total nightmare for us. We have to have a team of people who can (a)actually stand up and (b) work like crazy, just to stay up in the Premiership. So , please Villa, hang on to Heskey…

I accept that Heskey doesnt score that many goals and has never been renowned for his goalscoring ability, even at Leicester City he only scored 40 in 143 appearances for them. If you watch Heskey closely you will notice that he will win 90% of the balls pumped up to him and there is often nobody there where Gabby should be. This is unlike Carew who even though he is taller than Heskey never seems to win as many balls in the air. I will accept that Carew does score ocassionally but this season i have failed to see him put in 2 decent performances together and having only scored 4 goals this season (the same as Heskey) I feel the same way as many other fans on other forums do that Carew is not worth a starting place!

Good article. I agree with it.

Fans have been banging on about Heskey for a long time now and he has had more than enough opportunities to lose the negative tags but unfortunately he can’t. He’s just not a goalscorer. Never has been and never will be. Someone should stick him in central defence where he’d be more effective. I agree, I can’t quite fathom out what all these managers see in him.

As for Carew, well, he has been told time and again that he is the “darling” of the Holte End which he seems to have used to his advantage to not give a rat’s ass.

In terms of firepower, Heskey & Carew are damp squibs and should be confined to the bench or the reserves until some hapless manager comes in for them.

Villa have some promising youngsters banging in the goals left, right and centre in the reserves and they seldom if ever get a chance. How can they possibly be any worse than the utter shower that Heskey & Carew have become?