For much of this season Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has argued that his options up front come down to a straight choice between Rafael van der Vaart and Jermain Defoe. Almost without exception, the manager comes down on the side of the Dutchman but is it time to give JD a run in the side, even if it’s at the expense of Adebayor up front?
Defoe secured last night’s hard fought 1-0 win over West Brom and remains the club’s leading scorer. While it’s true that some of his strikes have come in the Europa League, he has also made a scoring contribution in the Premiership, including a couple of goals when coming off the bench.
Any switch would be tough on Adebayor but some have argued that the player looks to be in need of some squad rotation. So far, Harry Redknapp has praised the on-loan striker’s attitude but that would also be severely tested if he were to be rested / dropped.
The other option is to play Defoe and Ade up front while trying to slot VDV in somewhere else and with injuries mounting up in the Spurs midfield, that could be a good option for the short term.
Ultimately, it’s a good selection headache for the manager but which way should Harry go?
no. ade can have his rest in a couple of weeks when he sits out the man city game. defoe on his own against wolves and everton CB’s at the lane would be a nightmare. need to buy a 6ft plus striker in this window that can run, similar to adebayor so we dont have to alter the way we play. cover for the wings is needed BIG TIME aswell
Agree, Ade will most likely be rested this weekend for the cup game and again against City at the end of Jan.
These are professional athletes and if not playing they’ll be training anyway and players always prefer to be playing rather than training
I agree. Kudos to JD for the goals, but he offers nothing apart from those. When he is not scoring, he can’t link up play, pass, do off the ball runs, keep onside. He does offer something different that allows him to be an impact substitute.
I would like to push for Ba. He looks like an Adebayor, with better finishing. Probably won’t have as big an impact on the team spirit (note Ade’s goal celebrations with Bale and Kyle), but very hardworking, good technique, good off-the-ball, strong… Definitely a good target to get.
HELL NO. Adebayor played poorly, gave the ball away multiple times, and was offside too often….BUT he has a better work ethic than Defoe. He fights for the ball, he chases lost causes, he pressurizes the defence, he is quick to pounce on opportunities, he moves around more intelligently, creating space and options for others. Defoe scored a great goal, but overall wasn’t much better than Ade. I am not averse to resting Ade vs Wolves at home as long as it is a single game rest. Nothing has changed for me – if Defoe scored a lot to mask deficiencies (like Bent) then he would be worth keeping, but he does not score enough. Defoe is not a top four striker, and is ageing, so next season he needs to be replaced.
JD is the new Andy Cole, needs 5 chances to score 1
JD is an impact sub for me, he doesn’t hold the ball up well enough and link play given the way we play.
Ade has 9 goals and 6 assists in 17 games. He only plays league games so he should need much rest.
Ade works so much harder and gives so many more options. Defoe just doesn’t seem to understand how the team functions or where he should be. How he scored after putting his first touch over his head is beyond me. We need a new powerful number 9 – to play second fiddle to Ade until he leaves for big bucks on China or Russia in the summer.
No, Ade should stay up front in all games (apart from City as he can’t play & Cheltenham as he should be rested).
VDV should always play, his passing and unlocking is excellent and his set play delivery is great.
I feel Parker will be back in time for Everton and with Livermore’s knock being a mouth wound, he will be back too. Lennon is on his way back and so is Dawson. King shouldn’t be too far away, so we have cover if required.
My team for Cheltenham would be:
Gomes
Corluka
Bassong
Dawson
Rose
Livermore
Carroll
Krancjar
Peinaar
Dos Santos
Pavlyuchenko
If we can’t beat Cheltenham with that team…
defoe is not up to scratch! simple
ade is the best option we have at the moment but we could definitely improve on him with a wise signing hopefully in jan because any decent striker this season would have twice the amount of goals as ade. don’t get me wrong, he’s good, he’s just not great – if he was city, arsenal or real wouldn’t have all got rid of him.
Sign a striker – There are loads around (doumbia, ba, huntelaar, podolski, damaio, etc) no excuses not to. we have the money and with pav’s inevitable departure it has to be done! COYS!
I have said for months not only this season but last season Van never scored till we played Liverpool away and we finished fourth. This season he has scored one goal since October and if he over stretches you fear for his hamstrings. This is why he wont get fully fit he is worried Defoe and Ady will strike up a partnership. When Defoe and Ady have played together we win a lot easier because Vans work rate slows in the second half. I like Van and on his day he is superb but not at the expense of a striker the stats say this front line attack Lennon Defoe Ady Bale would trouble any team and when he comes back if he is full fit and healed Huddlestone will be devastating with that attack to slide his passes too will put my house on it.
Last night Ade and Defoe played together and we struggled to create chances.
The key to VDV playing well and contributing is A) if he is behind Adebayor and B) Lennon & Bale are playing.
Sorry we finished 5th last season
I say keep both JD and Ade and play Rafa on the right
Ade just needs some rest which he will get in the FA cup game
Ade is good. Yes his finishing could improve but he is mobile with great footwork, work ethic and compliments VDV and Modric. He has what Crouch lacked and we should try to hold on to him.
Adebayor has been a revelation this season and should be used in all league games. He has either set up a goal or scored a goal on average in nearly every game. He may miss good chances but the chances he creates for himself and others means he has to play, especially as he is the only player that can hold the ball up. If he gets injured our results will suffer.
We are just lacking Pav from performing to giv e us options during the game. I like Pav but he does look like his mind is elsewhere.
JD and Ade cant play together against top teams and we look better balance with Bale and Lennon with Ade and Van man floating. Modric also appears to play well with these guys but the real important player is Parker because he allows everyone to play and gives us balance. We look solid with Parker and Sandro but less effective going forward. It will be a disaster if we lost both Parker and Sandro for any lengthe of time
I do hope however we sign a couple in January just to give us the push needed
We have not rotated much this season but sure this has to change. Difficult for Harry though as we have been picking up results if not playing fantastic as we were
Keeping the faith though as it just might be our season if we get some luck
We rotate in cup games
If I wanted to spend £20m this January window to allow us to push forward with (first and foremost) Champions League qualification and (then) a possible title push then I would look at:
Samba (as cover for King and Kaboul)
Hoilett (as cover or competition for Lennon)
Klasnic (as a replacement for Pav and future 3rd choice striker)
I really like the look of him and I feel he could do much better job than Pav. His work rate is excellent, he’s used to the english game and also has immense quality.
The problem we have is we can’t rely on Pav, Bassong or any of the sub flair players to dig us out of a problem.
These guys can.
teach him about offside and he will improve 100%… how many times in last few games has he been caught by not looking across the line…not good enough
This is not about the best Spurs 11. If we are going to finish near the top of the league, we need to be able to field many different teams and still win.
Ade, Defoe, VDV – any combination – all that matters is that they win. It is impossible to play the same 11 week in week out because of injuries, loss of form, etc. – we need to be able to switch systems, switch personnel and still play well as a team – something that I think Norwich and Swansea have done pretty well.
COYS!
i disagree with most of that i think defoes game has come on brilliantly in the last 2 seasons i think he holds the ball up well now and i think he is just as capable as adebyor at linking up with the midfield just look at that move in the first 5 mins of the west brom game. also his aggression when getting in behind defences which adebyor often lacks there was multiple chances against swansea when bale or sandro could have played him through if hed made the diagonal run… i personally like tevez.. sums it up really xP
But he still does not score enough. A solitary decent goal scoring season is not good enough for a 29 year old with next to no assists and little physical presence.
Both ade and defoe need to up there game. Neither seem to know the offside rule and I’ve not really seen ade score a convincing goal yet. We need someone like soldado upfront. We need a winger with pace as back up for lennon. Then I’d offer Krancjer or pienaar plus 8-10million for Jagielka at everton. Then get rid of pav, bassong, dos santos, jenas, bentley. Prob get 25million for them. That’s soldado brought. Plus the 20 odd million we got from crouch, wilson, ohara etc and that will cover the jagielka and right winger deals. Simple.