Gabby Told To Leave Off The Weights

Gerard Houllier has said he wants Gabby Agbonlahor to lay of the weights a little and protect his blistering pace from here on in.

Speaking to a variety of press, (but these quotes taken from the Daily Mail) Gerard warned Gabby that hitting the gym will not help him recover his form following a spate of injuries and illness but if he works too hard pumping the iron, he's worried his pace will suffer.

'He's shown in terms of speed and goalscoring he has qualities of a high level. Unfortunately his injuries have set him back. When you build up too much it affects your joints and muscle. The fact is, I think he should stop, he's too stocky.'

Houllier adds to this that Gabby is almost a completely different physique and type of player to the one he expected from watching on French TV.

'The Gabby I saw when watching TV was different from what I see here. He was thinner, more wiry and wow, quick.'

I think Gabby bulking up has certainly aided his game, to be honest he's never been one to really attack the channels, or drift wide and come in on an angle looking for a deep ball over the top so the layer of pace he has obviously lost due to bulking up isn't really a concern...in fact I think he's gained far more from becoming slightly more physical than he's lost.

But it's easy to take Gerard's point that maybe he has the balance now between strength and pace and he should keep it to this to maximise both attributes.

Or to put it another way, who gives a FIFA voting delegate if he scores a hattrick tonight!

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