http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13708988.stm I am starting to get a little concerned that Harry still cannot see how much of a dead weight Crouch is. Personally Crouch is not a footballer, he is more suited to ballet or snooker. He has completely under performed this season getting only 4 goals in the league. As a striker you is playing for a club pushing for the 4th spot or higher that is terrible. We need to get rid of him, make way for a player that can hit a ball with some decent power from outside the box. Also for a guy that is so tall, he can't head the ball. As you can tell I'm not Crouch's biggest fan, in fact I was very pissed off when he joined us. I maybe changed my mind a little when he scored against the scum of city, but based on his performances this season, I really hope he does go to another club and we get £8-£10m for him. Thoughts? COYS
3mP will be at Spurs as long as 'Arry is. He apparently works his socks off in training and that makes 'Arry moist. When 'Arry becomes England manager Crouch will start EVERY game - much to the detriment of the England team. Surely Villa can take him back?
Really we need to get rid of Crouch, he makes us so easy to play against. We play Route 1 with Crouch. He can't hold the ball up, so why is he a lone striker. For a giant, he's rubbish with his head. Always fouls people, sometimes not his fault due to his size, but he leans alot. And he's not got great shooting boots either
He looks too uncomfortable on the ball. For the ammount of crosses coming in I would guess that he wins about 1/4 of them with a knock down. He should be wining at least 1/2, especially for someone of his size. he should've trained as a goalkeeper from a young age.
Lol, yeah, problem with having him, is Harry's in love with the guy, so he sticks with him. He had a horrible season last season, and he was the most playde of all our strikers. Surely that tells you everything you need to know about the guy. Not good enough for the level we're at
Other than his occasional ability to control the ball with his feet, I do struggle to see exactly what qualities he brings to his position. As r92 says he encourages the long-ball mentality (not entirely his fault) which makes us look like a classy version of Bolton under Big Sam, but the detriment it has on the team outweighs his positives. He usually has an appalling first touch, shoots like a two year old in the garden, gives away far too many fouls and is lousy on set-peices. If he was 5'10" (or if we had a different manager) he wouldn't even be in the squad!
I think most spurs fans would like to see the back of Crouchie however he won't be leave until Harry goes. Im in the same boat as most Spurs fans and wouldn't mind him leaving!
All correct. Harry will just say, look at his international record, but thats very different, he's usually a sub, and they're never all against top opposition. Hopefully, Pavlyuchenko will get more game time next season, and Harry will bring in a top class striker, which will force him to not play Crouch, you'd think
Surely someone can take him back....... At best he is an impact sub, when the defenders are knackered in the 80th min when we need to change it up a bit after we have played the other team off the park. He is really not a top 4 player, the best thing he has done was at the 'pool several years ago when he scored that perfect hat-trick. But since then he has achieved very little. What is about the 'pool and ****ing players up? Why does 'Arry love him so much, he is a liability. When we're on the break, more often than not he'll choose the wrong pass and give the ball away. I'd really like to see him shipped out, to make way for a serious striker who can hit at least 10 goals a season along with the other new striker that will hit over 20 goals a season. We'll be flying. It really says a lot that we finished 5th with very average strikers. Defoe and Pav to stay, I think these two given the chance could form a good partnership. Pav would be sitting on the last man while Defoe picked up all the deeper balls. Pav is a better finisher then Defoe by a long way. He knows how to place the ball, where as Defoe will just hit it as hard as possible. Crouch and Keane out.....Please 'Arry......ship them out soon and make way for the new talented strikers!
I'd hope I do hope Pav is given more (some) time and a good run to try and stamp some authority. He cannot play the lone role so if we are to get a top-class CF in they need to be of the calibre that can compliment Pav's qualities in a 4-4-2. This will also hopefully rule out 'Arry's requirement to play VDV whenever he's fit. He goes missing far too often when playing on the right leaving a massive area to be exposed, so IMO should be used sparingly and in the right games when something needs unlocking. If the stories about his knee are true he'll hardly be playing much more than 5 years, if that.
Its hard to drop a player like VDV. He's technically superior to most MF's in the premiership, let alone just at spurs. I'm not sure if he'll be happy to be an impact sub. He left Real for that, so why wouldn't he leave spurs for the same reason? Its a headache for 'Arry, but its a good headache. Possibly, he could play a 4-5-1 with a new CF as the lone striker and use Pav as an impact sub/to play in cup games.
Not saying drop him - just make it known that he (like all players) need to be right for the tactics against the specified opposition. Yes, VDV is a fantastic player but on more than one occasion showed big lapses in concentration for sustained periods. No player should ever be in the 'undroppable' bracket, esp if their style doesn't suit the team we're playing. It's tactics on occasion that 'Arry struggled with, this needs work so that we're not in the same position of struggling to break down an 'inferior' team and resorting to 'lump-ball'.
Van der Vaart didn't need to be dropped, he needed to be rested. The annoying thing is, we have/had the perfect replacement for him in Niko Kranjcar. We wouldn't have even needed to adjust our tactics. I wouldn't take anything that Redknapp says about any of our players as gospel. He's talking up Crouch today, but he was also talking about Keane coming back into the squad and fighting for his place this week, so I'd take it all with a pinch of salt. None of our forwards shone last season, but most of the problem wasn't down to ability or application. The start of Defoe's season was wrecked by injury and none of our options up front is suited to the lone striker role. We never seemed to stick with anyone up top for long, played players who were pretty burned out on too many occasions and had no way of keeping those that were out of the first XI fit. Frustrating stuff.
I agree PnP, it was so frustrating to watch a team we all love just dismantle at the end of a great start to the season. We were right up there competing for that 3rd spot even. How can you have 20 odd shots against against 2 separate teams and come out with a draw? Something has got to be wrong. We can all look back and question what happened. Maybe we need some new coaches for the strikers (sorry Les). http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/9475303.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/9425455.stm
The strikers just don't work in the current system, as none of them are suited to playing the lone striker role, Snowy. Their confidence took a battering too, as we messed about trying to work out if we could get any of them to do a good job in that system, before moving van der Vaart about a bit instead. We had the same forward line when we finished fourth and it didn't just turn to crap overnight.
No they didn't just turn crap over night, but something happened and it can't just be the introduction of a world class player. (VDV) Yes our strikers are not good at playing the lone striker roll, but Crouch is on the pitch to hold up the ball, lay it off so the rest of the team can join the attack. But when the opposition see the team sheet with his name on it, they must laugh. They know how we're going to play and they know that if they have a 50/50 with him, more often then not they will come away with the ball. The ball into Crouch worked for a bit at the beginning of the season, but then opposition just put a bit of weight on Crouch and he couldn't get the ball. His movement is not good enough, his striking of the ball is not good enough. Finally, for a guy that his a head taller than most, his heading is ****. He needs to go.
Crouch stopped working because he was isolated and the only option that we had available when breaking. He's worked so well in the past because he was paired with Defoe, who offers a completely different threat. Teams frequently doubled up on him because it either stopped him winning the initial ball or there was always a man spare to deal with any knockdown, if he won it. With Defoe playing up near him, they had to deal with the possibility of the ball being played over the top for the quicker man, the ball for either to drop deep or the ball for Crouch to flick on, knock down or hold up. It was a far more complicated procedure and that's even if you ignore the options out wide.
I feel the same about Defoe, Snowy. People have said that he wasn't fit but he wouldn't be complaining about lack of gametime if that was the case. We need Defoe to be the player that finds space in the box, whether it's gambling on a ball across the 6 yard box or dropping deeper for a cut back. The trouble is he was never in the right place. Against Birmingham he didn't touch the ball in the box and was rarely anywhere to be seen when a cross was coming in. It's not the new system either. VDV started 28 games and not all of them where as a second striker, so why weren't our strikers banging them in for the 10+ games we started two up top? I wouldn't care if they both leave and at least one needs to go. My preference is for Defoe to go as I didn't see a game all season where he was effective as a striker and I imagine he'd not take long to kick up a stink about being 3rd choice if we only start one striker.
I'm not sure I agree with that Freund....... Defoe for me I felt had a lot to prove after his injury considering he banged in 18 (league) goals last season. When he came on I actually thought he would be the difference for us. He was the one I used to watch and when he got a sight of goal he would just shoot, which is what I thought we needed in the team. Crouch, Pav (not so much this season) used to take too many touches then find them selves in a position where they were closed down or at and angle where they couldn't shoot. I feel Defoe should be given a chance to prove himself this season, he just needs to be given the chances. I think he would actually work well with Pav, given more of a chance to play together. Maybe in Europa, if we get 2 decent 20+ goal a season strikers then they (defoe & Pav) should be given the game time in Europe.
