Crouchie Conundrum
Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 2:37PM England's super-sub, Tottenham's super-drab...
Crouch for England and Crouch for Tottenham appear to be two completely different entities. One is a goal scoring machine, confident, always in the right place at the right time and finding the target with simplicity thanks to his confident positioning. The other doesn't quite hit the same giddy heights (insert 'tall' joke here). But then that's no shocker.
Placed into a forward's forward position (that's really forward) and asked to run into the box looking for the ball will pretty much result with him (probably) finding the net. Much like he did last night, much like he does all the time for Engerland. Play him alongside a main striker (i.e. up front with Defoe) and it probably won't work out too good. In fact we know it doesn't quite work out good.
This might have a lot to do with the hoofing up to him some of our (Spurs) players are obsessed with doing, even though he is more than capable of playing with the ball at his feet, but a Robbie Keane link-up player (at his peak) he is not. Which is the reason why the tall giant figure of Crouch is lost in all the build-up play at Spurs.
So basically, what we have is a player far more comfortable knocking them in than setting them up. The Defoe/Crouch partnership does work at times (as seen at Pompey) but long term, Spurs need a far more mobile complete forward who can slot into playing alongside someone like JD or Pav or even Crouch. Spurts of it won't aid the free-flowing football we've seen when Pav starts alongside Defoe.
Until then, it's fragmented football up front for Spurs. But plenty of joy for England.
Discuss.
Reader Comments (31)
the slow pace at international level suits him.
I think that a Crouch/Pav combo would work great for Crouchie. The reason Crouch/Defoe isn't working is because Defoe rarely plays with his strike partner, so the only way crouch gets it is by hoofs. I honestly believe, and I'm sure most agree, Crouchie is best when the ball is played into feet
edmspurs is spot on.
Defoe is a goalscorer and as such he's selfish. He'd rather try and shoot instead of pass the ball and this makes him quite hard to partner him with anyone.
I like Crouch and I feel for him when players like Dawson (who I love to pieces) keep hoofing the ball up to him. If we actually played to his strengths (playing it to his feet) we'd probably see a vast improvement. He's a fantastic Plan B to have but until Pav or JD lose some form that's all Peter will be.
I wouldn't bet against him playing an important part this weekend though. The confidence he would have received after last night may well be a trump card worth playing on Saturday evening.
So...Crouch or Defoe but NOT Crouch and Defoe?
Not sure what to do about Crouchy. Watching him last night was very frustrating as he has never played that well for Spurs. Harry obviously rates him highly but i can't help thinking that Pav may have made a significant difference when we lost to Wolves, Stoke etc at WHL. Is attitude more important than skill? That's the real question here because i think we should be at least 6 points clear of Man City & Liverpool by now.
I don't like watching Spurs when Crouch is in the team. I don't think he is a bad player i just get frustrated when his headers go in all directions and he finds it so difficult to hold up the ball and bring others into the game.
For me it's Defoe & Pav with Guddy coming on the make things tick. Sorry Crouchy!
the real answer, Nayim, is none of the above. Both are in fact quite brilliant super subs. That was always Deofe's best role, and is probably Crouchie's too. You can start every week and be a god at Pompey, or you can be a super sub for a top team. You could see from the Everton game....basically showed everyone a lot of difficult truths about Pav, Crouch and Defoe.
The quicker speed of the prem means Crouch can't have time on the ball, and space. So he looks bad. International football, as quite clearly shown in the stats, is made for him.
I know you can only score against the team you are playing, but erm.......it was Egypt!!!
His International goalscoring record so far is
Uruguay 1, Hungary 1, Jamaica 3, Trinidad & Tobago 1, Greece 2, Andorra 2, Macedonia 1, Estonia 1, Austria 1, Croatia 1, Ukraine 1, Andorra 1 (again), Belarus 2, Egypt 2.
He's played against Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Germany, Russia, France and Brazil and not scored.
I kinda see a trend here, can anyone spot it?
Thanks a bunch for popping the bubble wrap I cello-taped around Crouchie.
It does come down to style of play and Spurs build up play is much more dynamic than Englands. England tend to build up in the same sections of the pitch until an opening is created where as Spurs aim to build on say the left before quickly shifting play to the right to find an opening, this quick shifting of play is where I think Crouch struggles. On the Dawson long ball issue I thinks it underplayed just how much this tactic comes from Harry and so Daws is merely following instruction, admittedly it is very frustrating.
one of my main gripes with crouch is his robotic wave to Abby after every goal regardless of whether he's scored, assisted or had nothing to do with it. I guess that he like most of the other lads seek reassurance when glancing to the boxes that John Terry isn't sniffing around!
yeah agreed, pretty clear that it's an instruction from Harry for Dorse to lump it long.
Even in hundreds of years time, when science and technology has advanced far beyond comprehension, the greatest minds in the universe will still not be able to get their head round Peter Crouch. Those who think he's shit secretly suspect that he might actually be really good, and those who think he's good secretly suspect he might be really shit. Those who merely think he's ok aren't much better off as they are faced with a triple uncertainty - is he good, shit, or ok. Who the fuck knows? How they fuck can such a gangling unco also somehow be the PL master of the bicycle kick? Stop fucking with me, please. It's really not even worth debating it. Cos he defies all the laws of football, physics, everything.
I'd DEFINITELY do his missus though
THE CHANCES HE GOT LAST NIGHT HE NEVER GETS FOR SPURS BECAUSE DEFOE IS USUALLY ON THE END OF THOSE MOVES.
MOST OF THE "PASSES" HE GETS FROM OUR PLAYERS ARRIVE AT 50 MPH AND ARE 2 METRES ABOVE PITCH LEVEL.
THE FIRST GOAL LAST NIGHT WAS A REALLY SMART FINISH.
PHYSIOROOM SAYS BALE HAS A KNEE INJURY WITH NO RETURN DATE.
FFS. PLEASE SAY IT ISN'T SO.
I like Crouch, and have said before that the problem with him being on the field is te way the rest of the team seem to play around him. Luka and Niko tend to dift hrough the games while Dawson just boshes it.
I made a comment a few weeks ago to the effect that players in our team fail to evolve, inso far as that they don't/can't recognise that this long ball tactic doesn't work because it's easier to mark Defoe out of the game (99 times out of 100 he'll be offside anyway), or simply out-muscle Crouchie.
Having had time to think about it, it may have just been that the players wer acting under Harry's instructions. I hope not, but it seems that the way we play when Pav is on the pitch seems to be the players just revrting back to the tactics when Defoe and Keane used to start at the begining of the season (incidentaly, when we were also playing some of our best football).
What worries me is that Harry simply threw Pav on in the Wigan game to appease the fans, thinking he put in another no-show performance (hence his impression of a goldfish when pav's second went in). I'm not part of the Redknapp out briade, I think he has done wonders with the team in a very short space of time, but I worry that his stubbornness with regards to certain players has cost us points this year.
Think back to the two Woves games, Stoke at home and Hull at home. 1 point when we can reasonably have expected 12. What difference do you think someone like Pav, Gio or Taraabt may have made in the 20 mins of those games running at thier defences, rather that just the long balls being punted up to Couch and headed back by their defenders.
Just 5 more of those possible 12 would have us looking towards Arsenal rather than back at L'pool, City and Villa
Rant over
Davspur, changing your name to David, throwing in some punctuation and not talking about horse tranqs does not fool us. The CAPS are a dead give away!
Crouch said it himself - playing with a good midfield last night made all the difference. Coupled withe the fact that the first goal simply would not have happened if Defoe had been playing - he'd have tried to shoot himself and failed whereas Gareth Barry knew exactly where to put the ball for Crouchy to run onto it. Spurs problem is Defoe - the Wigan score was probably the worst thing that could have happened. Defoe is a selfish player who does not play as a team. and does not have ther vision to pass the ball
Also Crouch played one the right of goal with Rooney working to the left - just where he was most successful at Liverpool. So why oh why do Spurs insist on playing him on ther left which is significantly more difficult for him to score from as a big right footed forward.. Also both his goals came from effective crosses from the right from the by line - when does that ever happen in the Spurs side??
Spurs are making a fundamental mistake - its not the best eleven players that make a team but the eleven players that make the best team. Good coaches like Capello know this ( look at the Heskey situation)
I'd try Pav and Crouch - last time they played together didn't Crouch get a hat trick???? Surely Harry should be looking at the tapes of last night and plotting how he can get that level of performance out of Crouch himself
And Crouchie is an icon with England - Spurs fans have been vitriolic. Liverpool fans got behind Crouchie when he first went there and didn't score - Spurs fans have pilloried him.
The answers are in your own hands
Bugger! Been outed by King Yid.
My secret is out.
Wheres the caps lock gone ?
We all sigh when Dawson does his diagonal hoof, but lets face it he wouldn't do it if it wasn't part of the game plan.
I'm waiting for that moment where he'll get the ball, the entire opposition team will go stand next to Crouch.. and he'll pass up to Defoe who's been left in a huge amount of space on the right.
crouch and pav played well against wigan when pav came on for defoe. they linked quite well. I think crouch really got pinned as a long baller because bentley has been in and he is a crosser and dawson/hudd hoofing it up. where lennon keeps it real low.
its funny to see that we arent called a long ball team when crouch isnt in, but dawson and hudd are still hoofing up these passes through the middle third.
Players like crouch need classy midfielders( or a 2nd striker) to show his true form, but at spurs there are medicore players all around him and i am sure that when once again spurs would finish somewhere 7-8th as usual all spuds would turn back on him and he would b forced to leave the club ,offcourse manager would b thrown out too! by these disloyal and passionless spurs 'fans' and lastly if spurs r not able to finish top 4 this season they will not do that for next decade bcoz all other 4th spot contenders will b miles ahead of them.
Chrisman...brilliant comment!!!
"...Peter Crouch. Those who think he's shit, secretly suspect that he might actually be really good, and those who think he's good secretly suspect he might be really shit."
lmao!
disloyal and passionless spurs 'fans'
LOLZ
My mother is a whore and a disloyal and passionless at that
i'm a cunt
jones @ 622 PM
Great assessment, thoughts and suggestions. Hope HR and coaching brass also saw the obvious and will act accordingly to explore new possibilities to get more out of Been Pole.
ha ha ha !! cant wait when spurs would yet again finish mid-table and their players and manager will leave to bigger and better clubs.
everyone thinks spurs fans r clowns and nobody take spurs seriously reason being the extreme sense of delusion shown by spurs fans, its known that spuds think of themselves much higher than what they really r . get a reality check - spurs r no better or bigger club than likes of fulham or westham bcoz what was last time u achieved something worth , not good enuf to finish in top 4, never anywhere near to win title (last time when u won most of spuds dads were not born) , u got just medicore bunch of players no star names , avg stadium and avg fanbase so botton-line is spurs r not any special club no history, no class.........................
no history , no class ...
And you are a supporter of the classy lot from down the road ? The ones that always show class in defeat and never simulate or cheat ?
I think international squads are intimidated by his height, and what they remember of him during his Liverpool days.
Van Jay:
You sound like every other idiotic biased football fan that comes on here claiming Spurs are the equivalent of Fulham and others. Do you fellas copy-paste what you want to say from the "Idiots Guide to Biased Football"?
A "clown", in your own words, like you should know how to write and make your point in proper English. You lazy, sorry, excuse for a human being.
"Bcoz"? Who says that?
"Even in hundreds of years time, when science and technology has advanced far beyond comprehension, the greatest minds in the universe will still not be able to get their head round Peter Crouch. Those who think he's shit secretly suspect that he might actually be really good, and those who think he's good secretly suspect he might be really shit. Those who merely think he's ok aren't much better off as they are faced with a triple uncertainty - is he good, shit, or ok. Who the fuck knows?"
Spooky, I think Chrisman might be after your job.
He's got a job already. Stay tuned.