Defoe's been scoring freely in the Cup games, which suggests he still knows where the back of the net is. But he's clearly seen as a squad player only in the PL at present. He's 31, got loads of experience and is still fit and speedy. What would it cost Spurs to find a comparable replacement? I dread to think. He's a very valuable player still for Spurs.
You can be sure if Defoe left he would bang the goals in regularly-I still think he is quality. Pre-season he was actually asking the club to buy another top striker.
It's not a cheap shot at him, you know me better than that. I'm not slating him for anything other than continually bringing up his lack of games. My annoyance at that stems from the fact we could pretty much play anyone upfront in the Europa League and still do fine. If Defoe turns around and says it's not enough and he wants to leave then in my mind those opportunities were wasted on him and could have been used to give Kane a chance to establish himself, or make Ade look presentable enough to flog to another club. The reasoning is poor too. It's really not like his international place is under any immediate threat and whilst I agree it's easier to perform if you get a run of games, the likes of Dzeko and Hernandez have been dropped regularly and, at times, inexplicably yet they still can perform very well. If he really does want to play regular football though and sees his England place as under threat if he doesn't then he should have asked to leave in the summer. What did he think the £26mill striker was for? I've no problem with his ability of performances so far, just the way he keeps talking about a lack of games. I've not heard him talk about the lack of game time for England because he won't, even though he's probably thinking it, yet he'll speak about lack of games for Spurs, where he's playing considerably more than most back up players.
Show me any post where I have rated Bent over Defoe. I'll save you an effort - you won't find one, because I have never written one. Like most here, I thought Bent was not good enough for our squad, but the difference is, I put him on the same level as Defoe (not higher), and I, therefore, refuse to have a pop at Bent without reserving the exact same criticisms for Defoe. People seem to look at Defoe through pink-tinted spectacles, and I have never understood it. Never will. Any half decent striker, given the chances that Defoe has been given with Spurs, will score goals. The questions that need to be answered, though, how many goals, how frequently, and how many games won? If our ambitions, over the time that Defoe has been with us, stop at "Top 5," then he has been partially successful, because we have finished in the Top 5 for part of his career with us (though not enough times for me to consider him a great striker). If our ambitions have been CL footy and/or the occasional tournament trophy (not merely the one Milk Cup), then he has been an abject failure (just as Bent was). And mine wasn't a "rant," it was an attempt at a reasoned argument. I can assure you that I was both sober and calm when I wrote my OP.
My post came out wrong, as I didn't think you was making a cheap shot, more the article (which I know is also a WUM article with some humour) so yes YV I do know you better then that and certainty wouldn't be claiming you personally make cheap shots! Fair enough you think my reasoning is poor, but I don't believe that to be the case as Defoe is just someone who loves playing football, which you may think should be common for footballers, yet Defoe is still a "big kid" he simply just wants to score goals and play games, so I don't view him as showing disrespect to his team mates, which is why I mentioned his general attitude as he doesn't cause problems.
If we're going to cast people as being a failiure then we can lay that claim to many players and managers, picking Defoe is an easy target as players of his quality haven't held us back, we haven't won the FA Cup since 1991, thats coming up to 23 years. We haven't won the title since 1961, thats too long to even mention without being embarrassed, The last time we won the Uefa cup is 1984. If we really want to single out "sub standard" players who have held us back then there is a very long list if we're going to discuss the club failing to reach its targets, but Defoe is top of the list for many, which is ridiculous as players like Crouch & Defoe, along with Redknapp (and Jol), three of the most attacked people on this board (not including Jol), helped turn us from a mid table no mark team into a top four team, which may not be classed as "glory" when compared to title wins but it certainty helped bring some respect back to the club.
Why do people cut Defoe more slack than Darren Bent? Easy - because Darren Bent is a whining crybaby who'll whinge to the press or hand in a transfer request any time his feelings are hurt (be it whining when Harry made a joke about him missing a simple header, or leaving Sunderland because some posters on a fan forum said unkind - but true -things about his workrate) In the case of the missed header, rather than have a word with Harry behind closed doors about it he kvetched about it on Twitter, he kvetched about it to the press when they asked him about it, and kvetched about it once he was on his way to Sunderland. So not only did he look as if he wasn't hugged enough as a child, but showed a great lack of professionalism and, frankly, shows how weak-skinned he is to any form of criticism. If he can't take criticism, maybe he shouldn't be a spectator for the 98% of the game the ball doesn't come his way.
Defoe can outrun other players, dribble, and turn and shoot. He can also hassle back well when he's in the mood, which is when he's scoring. Finally, he's streaky, and it's obvious when he's on a good run and when he's not, like now. Soldado is a very good football player who's shown he's a very good scorer in an open game, and so far has shown he can't score with a slow buildup and many men in the box. Though he has also shown he can help to create goals for others and generally provide good options. Defoe seems completely ineffective against a parked bus. So it seems to me we've two strikers who are more or less useless given our present style of play. The one player who can score in it, and can do the best imitation of Bale's long range bombs which made it fairly effective last year, hardly plays. So it seems to me we need to use a faster buildup, and hopefully we're beginning to. It would be nice to try to hit teams on the break occasionally as well. At that point it will be fair to judge Soldado and Defoe (though to be fair, Soldado was ineffective with a fast buildup the last half of the Newcastle game.) So far we've had a system that doesn't suit our strikers, or vice versa, depending on how you look at it. We obviously also haven't used two strikers, which, again, would suit Defoe. You can make a case that either Kane or Ade would suit the slow buildup, lone striker style better.
Apparently Dembele's been complaining about not playing enough too! Not sure I believe it's true as he's played loads but if it is then he's the worst whinger of them all as he's always starting games. Sell the lot of the whingy bastards and buy some players who are prepared to sit on the bench with stoic dignity please log in to view this image
It's world cup year, which we know, so it's silly season for players being unhappy! Just read them Dembele comments, bit sketchy and probably twisted but Capoue, Sandro, Paulinho and Dembele, four vying for two places and they all want to go to the world cup. Some are going to be disappointed.
