Crouch and VDV worked well together though. Defoe and Crouch have also proved to have a decent partnership in the past. If AnyBuyer doesn't work, or he gets injured, the sale of Crouch could be a big loss. Whilst I think Pav is still a great striker, he was and still is the odd piece in our front line jigsaw.
Most Prem defences sussed out the Crouch - VDV thing a long while ago, and just stopped Crouch getting to the ball, one way or another.
Crouch and van der Vaart worked in some circumstances, but was often pretty poor. The Dutchman would leave the striker very isolated in a lot of games. Very good point from, NSIS. Crouch regularly has games when he couldn't buy a free-kick for an inflated Man City transfer fee. I wonder if that ref's association thing is still going against him?
It did work though, if only fits and gasps towards the end of the season and I think it was more down to VDV tiring too often than Crouch to be honest But I re-iterate, if AnyBuyer drops for whatever reason - there appears to be no plan B
I don't agree on the Crouch - VDV issue. Also, I'm quite happy to see the back of Crouch - especially for the reported fee. However, I agree, we may have left ourselves short in the striking Dept if we get a couple of longer term injuries. Yes, we have some youngsters. But, are they ready to pick up the reins, if necessary. I'm not so sure.
I'm not saying that we should have kept Crouch, don't get me wrong and the fee was DAMN good. I just feel, like you, that we have left ourselves a little light should Anybuyer come a cropper
What's the point in complaining about it time and time again, IF he doesn't get injured, and proves to be a resounding success, then any back up we might have brought in would have been a waste of money. I can understand your argument, but there's no point going over any potential ifs and buts until this 'cropper' situation actually arises, then you will have every right to complain and will be justified.
And at the same time, having Rooney, Wellbeck, Hernandez, Berbatov, Owen, Macheda and Diouf is a little excessive.
I'm always complaining WY, but often with good reason (in my own mind at least) Consider this, how often do our players suffer injuries that seem to take them out of the season for long periods? its a recurrent situation that seems to happen to our boys more often than any other teams. For some reason our medical staff don't seem to have the necessary skills to put them right (witness the sudden 3 games in a row resurrection of Woody and compare it to the Gallas situation) Pienaar is to me the biggest case in point, when he first signed the toffees were banging on about how resilient he was if I remember correctly, and how he hardly missed a game for them but since he's been with us - constantly ****ing injured. Bales back, Ledleys knees, VDV, Gallas, Sandro, the list goes on and on So either our medical staff are incompetent and the medicals we give don't pass muster or there is something very wrong with our training regime. Niggles for us mean long periods out, for others they mean missing an international break it seems.
We only play one up front most of the time, though. If you consider Kane to be part of the squad, then that leaves us with 4 strikers pushing for 1 place in the side, even if you don't consider Dos Santos a striker, which I wouldn't in our system. A couple of injuries in that position could hurt us, but that's true of most teams.
Having had some time to think about it, I'm still in the middle in the "Er . . . not sure, but I'm ok. I think. Perhaps . . ." category. Livermore for Jenas - Excellent timing, with Livermore looking ready to take over. Cheaper, younger, hungrier and more of a physical presence. Parker for Palacios - Also excellent timing with Parker being at his best and Palacios needing a change, probably. We'll miss Palacios for his physical power, but Parker looks like the leader we seem to have always needed, especially when King doesn't play. Hopefully his signing will see the end of that "We opened up too much" or "Our heads went down when they scored" talk from Harry at the end of matches. Adebayor for Crouch - Very happy with the switch to be honest. I can't think of any way that Adebayor isn't an improvement on Crouch. VDV for Keane - Good business I think this was the plan all along, even though we only just managed to shift Keane. I'm glad that Gio is still here and may finally get a chance to show what he can do, even though I'd have also been happy if he went and Ruiz came in. If Cahill, Damiao and Diarra came in during this window, I'd have been very happy. Although I do optimistically see Cahill and Damiao coming in January. I think we are about to witness a very real test of Harry's management. Especially with Modric sulking, VDV recently injured and us losing our first two games so badly. We have a great opportunity to really bed some wonderful young players with the Europa League and Cup matches. I hope that Harry has been watching Fergie in that regard. I do get the feeling with Harry that we lack the disciple and organisation of a coherent system in which everybody knows what to do and how to play, allowing players to be rotated without the wheel being reinvented every time there is an injury.
Keane was worse than useless during the end of his Spurs career. If Adebayor, Defoe and Pav all get injured then we will have to take a risk and play Kane.
I went for the 'ok' version. We're a little threadbare, given our 'excessive' injury record. Already we've lost VDV who was our main goal threat last season, it's never ending with us, it seems. I would love Kane to crack it for us, but we can't count on him, obviously. Defoe and Pav tend to make me cry (metaphorically speaking , though of course both could be good Prem strikers this season, or better.
The key, for me, is going to be Adebayor's attitude. If Harry can motivate him (and keep him motivated) to play for us, we should do very well, since it's our lack of bite up front that has been our major downfall in recent times, including for most of last season. Also, if Adebayor does well, it should motivate both Defoe and Pav.
Yes, I agree, that is key. Adebayor is already a class above anything we have at the moment. However, I would go further, and say that a motivated, fit, Adebayor, is one of the best strikers in the world.
If he can get into a Real team ahead of Benzema and Higuain etc, he's got to be up there with the best.
what I mean is what it says on the tin could be good prem strikers or better, that is they could be very good , for example. though i doubt that either have it in them for this season, anyway.
