Forward failure
Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 1:32PM Previous season review articles:
Onwards now with penetrating the penalty box of pessimism where our goal shy forwards sleep.
Defoe
Patches of form is JD’s signature. He scores goals in spurts but then goes missing for a while. He lashes the ball into the back of the net, a regular trait much like his inability to beat the offside trap. He’s a player you always expect to see improved but doesn’t quite get there, although this season there was a suggestion he would surprise us. Alas, he was struck down by injury and that was that. It’s easy to forget about the big chunk of the season he was sidelined and just criticise him for his form post- return. He’s struggled to reclaim that blistering zip and had it all compounded by falling behind in the queue to start up top in Lilywhite.
I’m going to be brutally honest. I think on form and fit, JD will score goals. Even in spurts, he will hit 20 if he avoids injury. However, if Levy and Harry plug the hole we have up front in terms of balls deep world class quality to compliment the likes of vdV and Modric...then a sacrifice will have to be made. JD will be benched. He won’t be first choice and he’ll want to be and will therefore have to look elsewhere. I don’t think he’s going to change his ways. He’s not a bad player. We just need something that little bit extra special.
Seems we have players at Tottenham that are neither first choice or strong enough to lead the frontline. And that’s a weakness.
He’s scored plenty for us (you might have missed the t-shirt) so I hope he shows the desire to stay and fight, but his words recently suggest otherwise. In a confident side, with a confident Defoe...fireworks.
Crouch
Much maligned. Scored some vital goals for us at key moments. Assisted Rafa on the odd occasion too. But it’s like bringing a sex doll to bed to help you get in the mood when your partner is lying naked next to you. There’s no need for it. It’s a distraction. It’s not a necessity even though you could get some use out of it. If there was no Crouch they’d be no hoof and knock-down. It’s those key moments that allowed many to tolerate his lack of impact domestically (lack of goal return). It’s not his fault, he’s built the way he’s built and he’s had success at former clubs. But much like a team has to be setup in the right way for Darren Bent to run onto the ball off the last defender, you have to use Crouch as an outlet meaning it’s fine if he’s a backup/impact sub but not so good if he’s the one leading from the front. Dynamic he’s not.
Those vital goals, in the CL. Appreciated by all. But we need something far more robust. Someone who kicks the ball with venom and isn’t just an obvious Plan B to launch balls at.
Pavlyuchenko
Remind me, did we sign him in the aftermath of Zenit dicking us about with the Arshavin saga? We paid around £14M for a player that joined us off the back of the Russian season. He seemed to be permanently injured and forever with his translator. He wasn’t convincing and was far too apologetic in body language on the ball and off it. For the money spent he hasn’t displayed the qualities we expected from him when he arrived. There’s an argument that perhaps had he started more games he’d have found a rhythm and settled far quicker. Perhaps, but he’s far too erratic for me.
He’s obviously a classy player. Some of the goals he’s scored have been majestic, technically superb and instinctive. And yet he ghosts in and out of a game at times like a lost Sunday league player who has turned up in a professional league by accident. He’s a luxury. I think Harry knows that and I don’t believe him when he starts claiming he’s the best finisher at the club. I think the crux is that even though he might be, he’ll never be consistent enough and he’s obviously not doing enough to claim that first team start (unless Harry is still controlled by favouritism).
Pav does have the class, like I said. But it’s always too little too late. Scored some vital goals last season. Scored some great goals this season. That’s about it.
I guess, ideally, we’d replace all three players with two top drawer forwards and a young third choice striker for the future. Personally think Defoe will stay and Crouch and Pav will go. Which means we’ll sign our ‘world class’ forward and will simply need to invest in some youth to make sure we have ample cover.
At the end of this epically long day we didn’t score enough goals. Not to completely blame the front men as we lacked cohesiveness with the tinkering, but there were several games when you were left holding your head in your hands. Either we’ve had one of those days all season long or we just admit we need to up our game and make the required changes for the good of this team and its progress.
Up next:
Prem and the Cups
The Progression of Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham (including a 'arry review)
Summertime High Jinxs
Reader Comments (31)
I feel for Pav, scores great goals then finds himself on the bench. Its not his fault, I see it as the managements. Class player who if he went to someone like Sunderland would be banging them in for fun.
correct me if I'm wrong but jermain defoe has never scored 20 league goals in any season, his best return for us was 18 from 34 games, 5 of those goals game in one game, so that means 13 from 33 games. The sooner we get rid off him the better in my opinion, he can't score from the spot, he's always a red card risk and just isn't a top 4 striker and that is what we should be aiming for.
I live in hope.
I'd love to see all three go, but unfortunately I don't think 'Arry will part with his beloved Crouch and Defoe, so it'll probably only be Pav. Who I personally believe is the best of the lot. With any luck we'll get a world-class forward in, but I'm doubtful. Who knows, my whole life as a Spurs fan has made me a tad pessimistic.
To be honest sometime I don't understand some supporters when they are more identified with a player than with the team itself!!
The importance of a player depends on the impact he has on the team on a regular base.
I don't see the point of Spurs keeping in their squad players like JD, Crouch, Keane, Pav and others.
They can't score regularly, they don't have a high intelligent level and ball technique, they can't operate as a single striker and they don't have a winner's character.
If our team can get new players who have better skills and qualities it is obvious that this would have a better impact on the team.
Why then some of our supporters want our team to keep in its squad players of less quality?
Do they support the interests of Spurs or of individual players?
It's a valid argument. It's about Spurs, which is why if a player wants out we should get rid. In the case of our forwards, all can be upgraded so we should be looking to do just that. The issue we have is we hardly go about our transfer business meaning business and getting deals done quickly. To shift out three forwards and to sign 2/3 to replace them...blimey, can that truly happen?
Easily done but you missed out Robbie Keane. Although distinctly average on the pitch his sterling effort at West Ham went above and beyond the call of duty for me, my 125th Anniversary Keane shirt is back in regular rotation
haha, our most productive striker.
Harry Kane in, and Harrys Crouch out!!!!!
The key issue is none of our current strikers can play alone up front at decent level, rendering us tactically limited. Poor season from our strikers, Pav probably being the best of the bunch, could have done with a better run in the team to finally prove he's got it or not. Defoe needs to stop complaining, he is a good option to have but if we want to improve he can't be the main man. If he's unwilling to be a squad player then we could get money for him. Crouch, did very well in Europe as he has that surprise factor but in the PL he's been found out and the way we play when he's on is terrible. Another player who's good as an impact player but not good enough to lead the line on a regular basis. Unfortunately Harry seems to have undermined the confidence of these players, which is strange as his strength is normally boosting them all up...
Keane is a gonner, just hope we can get good money for him...
I'm quite happy with the strikers we are being linked with at the moment - Sandro's former Internacional team mate (forgot his name) and Klose. Be good to have a good young striker as well. I'd also like to see a physical striker like Kenwyne Jones to throw into the mix as well (or Drogba who we've also been linked with but htf are we gonna pay his wages?).
Our strikers are all too one-dimensional. All capable players, with moments of magic in their lockers but those moments are all too infrequent. They lack the naturally gifted awareness of others in the side so therefore they have to think about what they're doing before they do it, they're not playing on instinct as they're not on the same wavelength hence all being unable to do what's required.
Similiar to the Gomez problem, when you have to think about what you're doing and how you're going to do it you tend to over analyse and fall out of your comfort zone... whether it's catching a ball, controlling a ball or kicking a ball, when you're thinking about the technical aspects of each movement you make you're not playing on natural instinct and that's where you make mistakes.
Either way you look at it, none of the above are good enough. At times they're all painfully frustrating to watch and must be infuriating to play alongside. I would sell all 3 (4 including Keane), all have a lot to offer, just not enough at the level that we aspire to be.
Having said that, am i asking too much in selling all 4 strikers and getting 3 in, we haven't been able to secure 1 new striker in 2 windows so I wouldn't count on it... still, i live in hope!
Great stuff Spooky.
I agree that Pav is the best of the lot and the one i'd most like to see stay. Definitely need to move Crouch and Keane on.
sfreundwasaleg - whilst I agree that JD is not quite the standard we need - I'm not sure on what basis you feel you can remove a game from his statistics based on the fact that he scored 5 goals in it. Ridiculous.
Lets remove all the games where Messi has scored more than one from his goalscoring statistics too because they don't count do they. So although he actually scored 49 goals in 46 games for Barca this year - we can discount most of them - he actually only got 16 goals in 37 games. Flat-track bully.
Defoe is a good premiership striker and if fit will score 15 goals a season, we should be looking for someone who can get us between 20 and 30 goals a season - not easy to find so lets not turf JD out until we have someone better.
Lets put peoples opionon of Defoe as a goalscorer aside (though it is plainly obvious he isn't very good at it!) and look at the other aspects of his game:
Movement: Awful
Intelligence: Awful - his failure to know the off-side rule after 10 years as a pro proves this
Creativity: Non Existent
Passing: Poor
Dribbling: Crap
Heading: Useless
Strength: Need I go on?????????????
Pav / Robbie / VDV all prefer to play off the striker and are good at linking play. VDV has scored goals throughout his career as a 2nd striker and really to get the best out of him you need a good player "leading the line". A Drogba type, or anyone remember Berba's performance at Man City when we went down to ten men?
Crouch and Defoe aren't really that type of player. Crouch must have the metabolism of a hummingbird. The guy has no real strength for someone of his size.
Defoe just gets bullied off the ball too much.
So when the ball goes up play usually breaks down.
I would say all of our strikers are for sale, who goes I expect will depend on who gets their expected fee matched. So most probably Crouch and Defoe.
Sell Crouch, Defoe, Keane and Pav. Buy Hulk, Lukaku, Falcao and Damiao, the right mix of youth and experience.
Defoe
Not good enough to link with our other players (with the exception of Crouch).
Crouch
Not the Tottenham way.
Pav
Good squad player and only one worth keeping.
Yeh well done Singh - this isn't football manager - realistically if we were to sell all 4, we would get maximum 8 Million for Crouch, 10 for Defoe, 4 for Keane and 10 for Pav. Maximum 32 Million. That wouldn't even buy us Hulk, let alone the other 3. For the 4 you would be looking at 100 Million...I think Lukaku will go to a champions league club if he leaves - Hulk has just signed a new deal and won't leave - Falcao has a release clause so could get a bid accepted but clubs with bigger wage budgets and champions league football will surely be in for him. Damiao is the most realistic, don't know much about the boy but our link with Internacional and his friendship with Sandro could snare him.
We should re-sign Berbatov and try for one of Chelsea's 4 strikers - and maybe gamble on someone from the championship - Nicky Maynard or Connor Wickham.
i can never understand professional footballers who spend there whole lives from children playing football,kicking, playing matches and practice constantly for alot of money missing penalties with poor efforts that sometimes even miss the target?
berbatov rarely missed!
guess you have to be a natural player
COYS.....buy a decent striker please
Dear Spurs fans,
Please show some ambition. Mr. Peter Crouchy is among the worst strikers in the Premier League and should not be our problem. Just imagine the joy we would all feel if we lined up against some relegation threatened team and all they had to offer was Peter Crouchy in attack. :-) Ohhh! What joy that would be. All our wingbacks would join the forwards as we go on to destroy the crappy team. But instead, he is -sadly- ours.
Just imagine Peter Crouchy attempting the shots that Pav scored from in our last game? Why are we the only team with a striker who can't shoot?
Knock-downs are rubbish and are only necessary in Div-1. And a player of VDV's undeniable quality doesn't need that embarrasing rubbish tactic to score. He has been scoring goals all his life and has never needed a knock-down partner.
The reason I deslike Harry's useless Crouchy so much is not even his inabilities but simply the fact that he is given gametime at the expense of real strikers. For all their shortcomings (and I believe we should look at replacing all four strikers in the longrun) Defoe and Pav are real strikers. I firmly believe that if Harry's Crouchy had been injured for the entire season, we would have made top4. (Birmingham game as the evidence - if he hadn't been smacked senseless, we would have lost 1-0)
Get RID immediately. 6 million to Sunderland. Take it Danny!
harry to chelsea rumours are gathering momentum
odds have been slashed
this has to be some kind of wind up
surely??
He'll probably make a mint down at the bookies.
OUT; Harry to Chelsea, Crouch to Sunderland, Jenas to Millwall, Keane - released, Pienaar to Everton (loan), Defoe to Chelsea, plus O'hara, Pletikosa, Hutton, the likes.
Just for the sake of 25 squad rule.
If Harry goes, don't worry, Ancellotti and Hiddink want to work in London. Lets all laugh at Chelsea.
Crouch is obviously the least natural striker of the ball but quite possibily the most likely to stay, which would at least have the following advantages:
1. Impact sub/plan B
2. Less likely to complain about game time? And anyway
3. We can give him his game time terrorising the defences of Eastern European minnows in the Europa.
Every cloud...
Come on Boxbat mate! That's exactly the problem that I'm trying to point out.
If he (Harry's Crouchy) is "the least natural striker of the ball", then why should we keep him at Spurs? Why should any top4 team want "the least natural striker of the ball" in their team?
I don't know, but could he be the worst footballer currently playing in the premiership? Please point out a worse striker.
He's basically a spectator 99% of the time until a longball luckily bounces off his head. Having the likes of Crouchy and Jenas at Spurs really perplexes me. Where is Daniel Levy?
Damiao is an obvious link because of our link with Inter and he's a mate (is he really though) of Sandro.
I personally know little about him bit really can't see this happening. I reckon he'd be too much of a risk for Harry because he/we need someone that's got experience of the pl or something approaching it. Brazil is hardly that. And the difference with Sandro was that we had time to get Sandro introduced to the league. We dont have that luxury with a striker right now.
As an aside on the 'harry to the chavs' rumour. There are a few reasonable managers out there currently. May as well get the chavs to pay for our replacement now, rather than lose Harry to the FA on a free next summer!
I can confidently predict Harry's soundbite if he does move, 'people wouldn't have taken me seriously if I turned the ofer down to manage one of the great london clubs' (it's the one he used to justify moving to us after turning down the Barcodes, some of us have long enough memories).
Oddly enough, I think that it's more a rumour that has gathered pace, another downfall of 'social media'. Don't see Harry as 'Roman's kinda guy', not a big enough track record or career of winning trophies.
Talking of social media (and the world's worst kept secret) this yesterday doing the rounds:
'Ryan Giggs today admitted to suffering from homesickness, saying that even though he's happy in Manchester he does Miss Wales occasionally.'
Enjoy!!
Ronnie - not quite my point! I probably rate Crouch a bit more highly than you do but I agree that his strengths probably don't justify a place in the squad. Just saying that IF he stays, which I think he may well, then there are some pros/ways to use him best. Just looking on the bright side & all that!
Not so unrealistic if we got rid of Jenas, Hutton, O'Hara, Bassong, Bentley, Palacios, Giovanni and Kranjcar. Have some ambition Zagreb Bar!
WE WANT MARTINS!
He scores with his right, HAMMERS with his left!
He makes Jermaine look quite a bit spent,
He scores on the gooners, didn't even fidget
His jump makes Crouchie look like a midget!!!
I agree with Ronnie! Crouch needs to leave. Let's keep Defoe and Pav though.
I honestly believe that the plan was to have Defoe up front, benefitting from the vision of VDV and Modric and numerous crosses. Remember that Defoe is a great finisher and usually finishes off low crosses like a goal machine.
The injury at the beginning of the season ruined all and allowed Crouch to come in. He deceived us with an early productive partnership with VDV but he's been poor overall. Defoe missed out on the Champs League then his grandmother/father passed and he never regained form. Just bad luck.
I think we can rely on Defoe to get us goals next season.
I am part of the "Keep Pav" brigade. He can score with his left foot (Defoe and Crouch can't), He can score with his right foot (Crouch can't) he can score with his head (Defoe can't) and although he can go missing in some games he's still useful as an impact sub.
Get rid of Crouch, he may be useful to lump it up to when we're out of ideas but that's it and it's not enough. Like Ronnie said, having a striker who can't shoot is ridiculous. When he's on the pitch Dawson and BAE are too tempted to attempt that pass to his head for the knock down and we're better than that. Take away that option for them.
Defoe isn't a team player on the pitch and it sounds like he's not one off of it either. He's offside too often (but not as often as some others in the PL such as Darren Bent). He still has a poachers mentality but there's not a lot in his traps. He can go too.
We could always end up keeping all 3 of them and adding 2 more. There's no harm in having 5 strikers for different tasks but I can't see it happening because they'd moan about lack of playing time too much.