If we could play Blackburn every week then maybe we wouldn’t have concerns over Peter Crouch! Crouchy spoke before yesterday’s game about his desire to continue his scoring record against them – he scored twice at Ewood Park last year and his only Premier League goal this season had come in our 4-2 win in December.
Harry reverted to a 4-4-2 last night, which was something that many fans had been hoping for. Crouch and Defoe took their places up front, with Van der Vaart dropping back. It was VDV’s pin-point cross that Crouch nodded in for the goal.
Redknapp was particularly pleased with Rafa’s contribution: “Van der Vaart has many qualities. I liked him on the right and their left defender left him to attack. Rafael was always after him and he probably tonight ran more miles than he has throughout his life. But he kept the space well filled and his passing was brilliant.”
So big Crouchy doubled his league tally last night but two goals is still a poor return. If though we keep going with 4-4-2 for the rest of the season, does this give him and the rest of the team the best chance to achieve their targets?
We effectively played 4-4-2 all last season and we would have this season had it not been for the VDV signing. Not knocking the VDV signing because he has been the best signing we have had in years but I feel it upset the balance a little.
yes yes yes
If you want to play with two strikers when everyone is fit, it means dropping one of Lennon, Modric, VdV or Bale (too lightweight with all 4).
As 4-4-2 is the only formation Redknapp seems comfortable to manage, I’d drop Lennon and play Defoe with Pav.
I would not drop Lennon I would move Bale to LB, problem solved!
I’d only play Bale at left back if we were to play with 2 DMs in a 4-2-3-1. Bale at LB in a 4-4-2 would leave the left flank over exposed.
Defoe was poor again ans showed all all exactly how poor his finishing is!
Also, we were very lucky yo win the game and only had 4 shots at goal all evening, a great win but a very poor performance
…I still think Pav is a better striker than Crouch, and don’t understand what Harry has against him. Defoe will come good again sooner or later. Crouch should only come off the bench if Pav is having an off day
We should definitley play 4-4-2 with VDV and Defoe competing for the 2nd striker/forward role.
– Gomes
– Corluka – Dawson – Gallas – BAE
– Lennon – Modric – Hudd – Bale
– VDV/Defoe – Crouch/New Big Striker Signing
I agree with Paul Yid, apart from Corluka should not be anywhere near the starting lineup, probably the slowest player in the prem, gets torn apart with any one with a tiny bit of pace and gives away fouls!
Sam I agree Corluka is slow but last year him & lennon were very strong on the right hand side. Hutton is a liability – he cannot defend and makes rash challenges in the box all the time (look at the Fulham game). I would actually put Kyle Walker in there and see what he can do COYS!
VdV isn’t a striker; he’ll always drop deep leaving the other front player isolated, that’s part of the problem now. VdV is far too creative in the middle to move him further forward.
Mate nearly all of VDVs goals have come from him getting forward from a deep lying forwards role to get on the end of Crouch’s flick ons. Away from home we should play VDV off Crouch and at home perhaps play him off Defoe until we need a Plan B and go long with Crouch.
At last we’re beginning to recognize what the problem is! You cannot play VDV,Modric and Lennon at the same time! We were warned at the beginning of the season. It isn’t Crouchie’s fault if the midfield roam too far forward and crowd the area making it too easy for teams to mark us, Lennon cannot cross a ball from the byline and runs like a rabbit in the headlights towards the goal, and no one is capable of putting a proper ball on 3MPs head – until last night. Read Harry’s comment in the Beckham article today- he knows what they should be doing. That’s why Crouchie scores goals for England – they know how to do it!
Well no. Don’t change winning formula. Yesterday’s change was enforced. We have a great record with 4-4-1-1, so no problem unless VdV is absent.
Tony Rich, you say no problem, but we are hardly scoring and a return of 7 goals from 3 strikers says problem to me. Stick with the very attacking 4411 in the champs league but i think it may be too predictable in the prem.
And to Paul Yid, yeah i agree Hutton isnt ideal either, but he is just my preference, we could do with a transfer window to sort some of these problems….oh wait!
Sam – but 25 points from the last 12 games where we mostly have played 4-4-1-1 says no problem. We have scored 20 goals in the last 12 games – is that hardly scoring? Last season we played 4-4-2 all season and had 14 more goals at this stage – and that includes a “9-1”, a “5-0” and a “5-1”, so technically we are scoring with more regularity, than last season. By this stage last season we had failed to score in 7 games – with 4-4-2. This season so far we have failed to score in only 4. Overall we are scoring better this season with 4-4-1-1 as our preferred formation. Why should we care if the man up top hardly scores if we are getting points per game average?
…2 points per game average over last 12 games…I meant…
lads your both correct and i do like the stats. However any top team needs a striker scoring 20 plus goals we don’t have that this year. Last night was a great opportunity for JD to kick start his season and he failed miserably. I reckon the proposed transfer activity has to have an affect on our forwards. Bolton on Sat is another must win and a great opportunity for some retribution.
We seem to do better with a 4-4-2 formation which I would therefore fancy.. How about trying Bale at the left back? He could be just as useful in that position?
A top team doesn’t neccessarily need a striker to be the main goal getter if thats not their style. The most effective way to put off a defense these days is by having players appear in the box from deep. So no surprise you have people like lampard getting a lot of goals. If anything it shows opposition teams focus on our strikers too much. And I am fine with our strikers being nullified by opposition if it means our midfield can get in easy.
As long as we are scoring sufficiently and winning games it doesn’t matter.
It’s all fair and well comparing to last season, but the reality is the league is more competitive than last year, we need to be much better than last season to achieve the same let alone improving. All I’m saying is With an extra few goals this season we would be in a much stronger position. COYS
It’s got nothing to do with formation. We win one game with 442 every 1 wants us to play 442. At the start of the year when we were winning with 4411 every 1 wants us to play 4411…….Can’t win with you guys. The fact of the matter is we do not have a top class striker to finish off our good work. How many chances has Crouchy, Defoe and Pav fluffed this year?? You put a striker like Drogba/Torres/Rooney/Llorente eg. into our team with Lennon, Bale and VDV crossing into them they would have had 20 goals already this year!! Not only have we lost points from not being able to score, our other big problem is down back where we continue to be very, very leaky. BAE and Hutton/Corluka are the worst full backs out of the top 5 teams by a mile (Liverpool LB aside). We also have the problem of aging centre half’s who struggle to keep on the pitch!! King, Woody and Gallas (even though he has been our best CB) will need replacing very soon due to their age and injuries. We blew our chance to strengthen a few areas in the transfer window….not necessarily talking about a striker either.
Good to see Wilson starting to find some form…
That is all
Oh one more thing. Why did we keep Jenas and let Boateng leave??