Opinion: Viv Will Impress This Season

For some bizarre reason, a lot of people that I have spoken to or been in touch with on social media sites have said that getting a new striker is our main priority. For me, this just simply isn’t right. We only play one up front; no matter the opposition. So therefore we need Donaldson plus a couple of back up players which we have got in terms of Vaughan and even Brock or Maghoma. I feel that unless we change to a different formation, then what is the point in trying to find a new striker.

Having made this statement, I had complaints that actually Maghoma in particular is a wide player and we are very short in this department also. Now I have to say even with Toral leaving, we have plenty of players whom play in the middle of the park and we are lacking in a few other areas. But this is the price you pay for not having financial stability, pardon the pun. We would love to have 2 world class players for every position on the pitch but this just isn’t possible or realistic. Instead we should look at the players that we have and try and play to suit them.

Arthur and Brown despite being naturally midfielders, could do a job out wide to gain experience and more importantly to gain an understanding of how the team plays. So these can be accounted for and therefore with Maghoma, Cotts and Viv, you could argue that we have enough wingers.

So I am writing this today, to prove to people that despite Gray’s departure and the slightly injury prone Cotterill, we can still make it work next season with no more signings. I am focusing on the young man, Viv today.

Viv Solomon-Otabor has been overlooked by many mainly due to Gray. Gray was a wonder kid whom we had nurtured in our academy and who looked very comfortable playing in the Championship. He had a confidence about him. I saw him play in the 4-2 defeat to Blackburn Rovers where he scored his first goal for the club and he slotted the ball away as though he had played for the first team his whole life. But by even mentioning Gray in this article I am falling into the trap of comparing Viv with Gray.

They both came from the academy, they both have very nice hair cuts and they are both very attractive men but that’s just my personal opinion. Yes, all these are true. But does it mean they should be compared? No. Viv is a different player. He is much more powerful but uses his brain more. I like to watch Viv play because you can tell he thinks about everything. When he passes the ball inside, he is immediately sprinting down the wing for a return ball. This is hard to mark.

Therefore the main difference between the two is that Viv is much better off the ball, where as Gray was better on the ball. Some cynics will say that it is only what you do with the ball that matters but this simply isn’t true. Viv is also technically gifted and we can all see that by his assist last week. It’s just Viv is more of a team player, less about the goals and more about the assists and in a way this suits our style of play more.

What I am trying to say is that we need to just give Viv a chance without hoping he is the next Gray. We shouldn’t expect the fancy tricks and frequent shots. Because he doesn’t play like that and he never has. But what he does do is very effective.