Most Spurs fans would agree that 90% of the transfer talk this pre-season has been about which striker should leave and who we should bring in up front. But could Redknapp defer this ‘crisis’ by getting the best out of what we already have?
I think it is important that we do strengthen up front regardless of what our current strike force can offer. It is difficult to argue that Crouch, Defoe and Pavlyuchenko scored enough goals to hold down a place in a team once again pushing for a Champions League spot. But last year we saw a Dutch playmaker, originally signed as an attacking midfielder, rise to the top of the Spurs goal scoring charts, after a more than impressive start in the Premier League. Rafael Van der Vaart offered the class that had seen him dominate the Bundesliga and sign for Real Madrid, as well as a scoring record that none of our other forwards could come close to.
The 2009/2010 campaign saw us reach the Champions League Play-off spot with arguably a worse squad than the Tottenham team that finished fifth place a year later. The latter could have been put down to Manchester City’s huge improvement through their spending power. In my view, our downfall was mainly due to the fact that Jermain Defoe scored five times less goals in 2010/2011 than he did in the previous campaign. A 20-goal-a-season striker playing alongside VDV would have most likely seen us snatch the fourth spot for the second season in succession.
For me, however, faith should be kept in Defoe. Regardless of the fact he only conjured up four league goals last season, each of those goals were of the highest quality and it was evident to see that Jermain had not lost his touch. Whether it was a lack of confidence or the early season injury that saw the England striker’s goals dry up, I believe that Defoe has not lost what he had and should be backed to have a good season in Spurs shirt this coming campaign.
Fans’ views on Peter Crouch appeared to become more and more aggravated after every game last season. The 6ft 7 forward did however score a number of important goals – the hat-trick against Young Boys, strikes against both Inter and AC Milan – but, like most of our players, didn’t seem to perform in the league games that should have been won. Being sent off against Real Madrid and ruining our chances of success at the Bernabeu also didn’t help Crouch’s worsening reputation.
However, Crouchy very much aided Van der Vaart’s settling in period at the Lane, providing a number of assists for the Dutchman through headed knock-downs. If Defoe doesn’t manage to improve his recent goal scoring record, Crouch could be vital in once again assisting Van der Vaart as our main attacking force.
Finally, Russian hit-man Roman Pavlyuchenko once again had a somewhat inconsistent campaign, finishing the season strongly with a double against Birmingham but failing to impress for the majority of his games. With bags of technique, Pavlyuchenko does have the potential to be a key Spurs player, but if inconsistency continues to have stranglehold on his game, the Russian may find himself very much out of the team in the future.
Both Defoe and Crouch both came off the bench in our final pre-season friendly against Bilbao and impressed, scoring the goals that ended up winning the game for Tottenham. But with the Everton game unfortunately postponed, will Crouch get to prove himself as a strike partner for Defoe or VDV before possibly talking to Stoke about a move up north? And after more signs of lacking decisiveness in the first half against Bilbao, could Pav be on his way out?
If a striker were to leave, Redknapp and Levy would surely be in the market for a new front man. Whether it be Ruiz of Twente, or Rossi of Villarreal, the funds from a departing striker would hopefully be enough to bring in a new era of forwards at White Hart Lane. Alternatively, could the likes of Harry Kane and Souleymane Coulibaly be the answer to our problems if Redknapp were to give the pair an early chance?
Its unfair to judge Pav on that first half as he was playing on his own without even a supporting VDV so was totally lost.
Id like to see us use Harry Hotspur & The Soul Mane : )
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They all are not good enough, they have never proven themselves in this league, Crouch has never been good enough and we shipped out Defoe first time coz he wasnt any good, Keanes finished and Pav doesnt do enough when he is on a pitch and must be the weakest 6ft+ guy I have ever seen.
We need to buy FFS
The youngsters can get a chance in the Europa league.Crouch hinders as much as he helps.Defoe and Pav are both good finisher who need on playing time to get a rhythm .The only thing is both get complacent sometimes.Verdict Harry needs to get rid of daddy long legs Crouch replace him with an alternative I doesnt have to be this 10ft target man people talk about .Just a player with awareness can hold up the ball and do something a bit different.
There is no striker out there who one could guarantee would be an immediate success. Torres for example was widely regarded as one of the best in the world but has been a damp squib since moving to Chelsea. So stay with what we have BUT give youth a chance. Personally I would keep Crouch as a tactical option not as a starter and keep Defoe who has real ability. If someone wants Keane or Pav then we should sell.
Look, we get rid of keane and buy hulk for a record fee and he fits in our wage structure.
Buy Ruiz as a WINGER because he is not a striker then sell Gio.
Then buy Diarra and sell Palacios.
Sell Bentley, Hutton and Bassong as well and we could have an amazing squad and will challenge for the title.
COYS!!
It is all well and good to say sell this player and that player, but it is not as easy to sell players as it may be in Football Manager and FIFA.
Top level clubs are not going to want to buy players who have not been performing for the past few years, and are unlikely to want to gamble on the high price that I imagine Levy wants for them
I think that has been the stumbling block for HR and Levy this summer, as they wanted to sell first before they could buy
We have seen that strikers in our possession are capable but inconsistent.Whether HR can groom them to improve their standards is questionable. They have proven last season with their dismal performance that they are not serious match winners. Not only HR needs to be singled out, what about Les Ferdinand since he is the strike coach. Harry & Les need to be more assertive with them if they are to raise their standard of play.
I was thinking along similar lines. Pav and Defoe are decent enough strikers. Defoe definitely did not have a good season. The question now is whether that was a once off or is he in decline. The other big thing is that Harry needs to be clear on his system. vdv seems to play best with Crouch, but Crouch is probably our worst striker. I some how cannot see Defoe playing the lone striker role.
I find it odd that you praise Defoe and Crouch so, or more accurately try to downplay their faults yet criticise Pavlyucheko so readily.
I believe he scored 14 goals last season (10 in the league), and they may not have been in the biggest of games, but it was only 1 goal less that Van Der Vaart.
I know his workrate isn’t the best, and he does go missing fairly often, but at least he’s doing a better job at scoring goals – more than Defoe and Crouch combined
I personally think that keeping modric and a fit huddlestone , sandro is way more important than signing a striker…we have quality strikers at the club and although we did struggle for goals last season our defense was terrible. all of our strikers ar capable of scoring lots of goals (even keane can do a job for us) and with bale and lennon flying down the wing the chances will come.. as for samba?? you can keep him….. coys
Keane must leave – gutted that HR waisted so much money on his return – shocking!
Pav & Crouch can both play of Rafa as an option, but Crouch isnt good enough for any team looking for top 4. his finishing is woefull. Pav can finish but needs a run of games and arm round shoulder.
Defoe should be given until Jan to prove he can still cut it, and if not flog him and bring Harry Kane in (who will offer more, and be a lot more hungry than JD)
‘we have quality strikers at the club and although we did struggle for goals last season our defense was terrible. all of our strikers ar capable of scoring lots of goals (even keane can do a job for us’
Gaz come on mate! behave. Keane couldnt even score in relegation shoot outs for the spammers. only pav and defoe could get near 20 goals, but for a start they must be played in a 442 for this to happen
You write of solving our striker problems from within – then recycle the same old names. We’ll sell one or two of Crouch/Defoe/Pav, but we could fill their spots from players already on our boooks. Kane is a teenager, but all the usual top four clubs have started kids and brought them along – why couldn’t we? Further, why be locked into typecasting players despite their talent and versatility? Why not try Bentley at center forward – he can dribble, has speed and as we all know, likes to shoot. We might see him up front if Wenger or Ferguson were manager, but Harry doesn’t seem keen on new ideas.
The only target that appeals to me is Rossi, too much focus on buying a striker recently and it will be difficult to buy any of these targets in such a stagnant market. I think the priority should be creating a solid backline. Friedel should replace Gomes and we desperately need a new CB as Gallas always seems injured. As far as the striker situation is concerned Redders should look at what he has got (for once). Dos Santos needs to be given a chance before he disappears off to Spain and in Kane and Coulibaly Spurs have great strikers already.
I cant understand why we need another striker Berbatov is one of the best holders of the ball in the premiership yet he got the bench of Ferguson and never played in there most important game. He Finished joint top with Teves City’s other 27 million purchase scored one gaol that should have bean disallowed like Chelsea’s two. There other loaned striker knocked us out of the Cup yet struggled in the premiership. The question will still remain whoever we buy why cant we score against teams like Wigan and West Ham because other teams scored Chelsea scored six Blackpool scored four and had a good goal dissalowed. there next game was Spurs and we lost 1-0 explain this to me and i will agree we need strikers. January we bought Pienaar with a bad groin and Bongani aged 24 and a World Cup behind him still not good enough to play loaned finished 5th. Liverpool bought Carroll Suares both scored Carrol 2 in five games and Suares 4 in 13 finished 6th City bought Dzecko 27 million goals 1 finished 3rd Chelsea bought Torress and David Luis for 78 million Torres scored 0 Louis scored 2 finished 2nd ,So spending money on strikers wont guarantee success if they have to fit in to new team mates and the premierships frenetic Tempobecause Harry and managers wont wait for goals one blank and your on the bench 50 million or 20 i say better the devils we no and with Hudds less injuries the kids Walker Rose Kane Soulman Townsend Bostock i still have hopes about him. I belive we can compete on the cheap and have a great season. coys
Good points and the underwhelming performance of guys like Carroll, Torres and Dzeko have made me think twice about spending big money on a guy like Demaio. One thing you can’t fault Chelsea for though is the signing of David Luiz. He is a CB, not a striker and I think he was pretty good value.
Give Gio a chance, Pav a decent run of games and who knows how good it could be. Well, Harry doesn’t….
Looking from within? Most definitely. But lets look at Harry Kane. I’m massively fed up with the 3 mentioned in this article. We didn’t get 4th spot because they could not perform.
Defoe scored half his league tally in a game with the might Wolves. Crouch may lend a hand to VDV but we can’t assume that VDV will bang them in regularly. As for Pav, such a good forward in 1 of every 6 games we play. That is not good enough so if we are not going to spend the money on proven scorer i’d be well happy with Harry Kane getting a chance.
Rossi, really? Crouch could score goals in Spain. Ruiz? That dutch league is pretty pants. Where did our hunt for Lukaku get us? We lack ambition and these players see that. So does Luka.
Play Bentley and Dos Santos upfront. What a pair!!!!!!!
Only kidding, apart from Keane nobodys gonna leave, Kane should be streamlined into the squad. Kane upfront, and the rest em can go in a pig troff
well DJ it was only 2 seasons ago keane was our top striker but since then he hasnt had a sniff and is short of confidence…. he scores goals for fun at international level too..im not saying keane is the answer but hes a good sqaud player and worth a punt to mix it up if we are struggling in a game. we have 5 international strikers and between them i believe there’s goals in them
Gaz – i used to adore Robbie but he’s past it mate, we have to face the facts. goals against 2nd rate uero teams aint the same as prem defences. Crouch cant shoot, he even miss hit his winner against AC milan. Pav and Defoe i have a little more faith in
Give Dos Santos a chance. He could be the one. He’s Lefted and plays as a forward for his country. Also play Ivory Coast prodigy Souleymane Coulibaly (He’s already score twice for the young ones) he maybe young but you should play these young talents. Ask the Germans, their youngesters for the world cup were unknowns now look at them now and they did’nt even play marin. Sell Lenon and make some proper money. Sell king as it’s time to let go of the one time great. Palacious sell. Buy a decent stricker pay him well and buy two centre backs. Ultimately pay Mordric 100k a week they are taking the mick with 40k week. It’s not rocket science it’s just alot of short arms and deep pocket tactics ask DESPATCHES.
Lets say we buy Loriente and he fails to score like Berbatov for eight games well we all no Harry would based on last year bench him. So the we have a striker costing millions who is trying to fit into the dirtiest and most energetic league outside of Barcelona’s training ground in the World. Crouch scored 28 goals we finished with Defoe when he came back from a three month injury early he found the he was warming the bench and watching Crouch just knocking balls to Van. Plan A worked when Hudds would send missile passes to Crouch but when he fell to the curse Van went backwards and left the big man on his own facing elbows in his back and by then he had forgot how to score until Van got hurt and Lennon fed him . When Defoe came on with Crouch defenders panicked they had Defoes pace and Crouchies height one of only two in the World Birmingham have the talles imagine them two coming on for the last twenty mins and both would be great at defending corners sell keane sven or loan him and we would have Zidic 6ft8 Crouch 6ft7 Defoe 5f7 Pav 6ft2 Kane 6ft Soulman 5ft7 and growing an Van. finishing 5th Wembley Cup and Ufa Tottenham giraffes .We would have two of the biggest players in the World two of the fastest’s wingers in the world one of the best passers in the World at speed with backspin this will do for me.
Redknapp being the useless article that he is will go to Aston Villa and re-sign Darren Bent.
Face facts nobody is going to be signed. Levy will not allow money to be spent when the role of his manager is at risk. A court hearing is hanging over Mr. Redknapp and if proven guilty the consequences could be dire.
lennie – “Redknapp being the useless article that he is”??? what the fuck are you talking about?? no wonder other teams hate us. I went to AC Milan in the Champions League last season. What are your expectations for our club?? TWAT
if the fans want to see the spurs forward men score goals the they need to get on to harry to play 2 men up front and not 1 with rvdv playing behind him we need to play 2 up front with van da varrt having a free roll in the midfield
I think Defoe will be the PL topscorer this season. I think last season was very unlucky for him because of the situation of the club taking part in the CL. He had to perform against clubs fighting to survive in PL after 4 months of injury. Thats not easy at all. I think we will see an another Defoe this season. COYS!
4-4-2 = 2 strikers
4-5-1 = 1 striker