It's not fair on Crouch to play a part on Saturday, play most of the game away in Italy on Wednesday and then play a full game on a Saturday lunchtime.....
Or the fans :wink:
It's not fair on Crouch to play a part on Saturday, play most of the game away in Italy on Wednesday and then play a full game on a Saturday lunchtime.....
I thought it was funny when he clapped the fans, when we were singing pavs name :lol:.
Ok, my point of view on this.
Crouch is a good target man if you put the ball right on his head or chest, if he has to move for the ball he almost becomes useless. That said, when he pulls the ball down he does well with it usually, plays the simple balls, turns and heads for the box, perfect.
Now, for the bad points.
He has very little strength, he cannot hold off a defender to win balls. Look at Doyle at White Hart Lane, every ball hoofed up to him and he won it, he's a fair few inches shorter than Crouch too. Crouch needs to bulk up a little.
His heading of the ball needs working on. If he runs onto the ball he's ok, but from a standing position he doesn't seem to have the power behind him to trouble the keeper.
His shooting. I've never seen a striker who is so poor at shooting! He just doesn't seem to be able to shoot when the ball is on the floor! Put it on the volley and he's fine, tell him to run with the ball into space and shoot and he can't connect with the ball!
And finally, he doesn't fucking jump! Jump for the ball, yes you're tall but that doesn't mean you don't have to jump when it's over your head!
Yeah, the fact that we don't always play long balls when he is playing; the fact that we are still with him in the team an excellent and entertaining football team; and the fact that we win a lot of our games when he plays, often playing the antithesis of long ball games.
But then again I watch games and don't let prejudice get in the way of that.
Have you seen the state of Yakubu? lol. Shove him into option 2.
Yeah, the fact that we don't always play long balls when he is playing; the fact that we are still with him in the team an excellent and entertaining football team; and the fact that we win a lot of our games when he plays, often playing the antithesis of long ball games.
But then again I watch games and don't let prejudice get in the way of that.
You're right we don't always play long-balls. In the first half we mix it up, play loads of stuff on the ground, nice intricate moves, counter-attacking football or just pressure football. And we have Crouch there to keep the defence guessing, so that every now and again we do hit it long and he wins the knock-down and VdV or whoever scores. I'm pretty happy with playing Crouch for a half or even up to 50 mins against some teams.
I'm also aware that Pav can be fucking weak and often lazy.
However the last couple of games Pav's started or been subbed to play the lone man in he's been pretty good. And Crouch played 90 mins against Inter. And to be fair he's been shit this season at everything except the knock-downs (the exception proving the rule being the goal against YBs)
So that's the context, the problems start when Harry plays Crouch against inappropriate sides, or at inappropriate times and then, despite the obvious short-comings (or should that be long-comings in the case of crouch. Boom boom. Sorry.), persists with him.
His tactical substitutions on Saturday were absolutely fucking pointless. He in effect said "go on Pav you go and take over from Rafa, I want you to play the exact same role as he was (a role VdV plays far better tha Pav ever will). He then says "Rafa, go and play on the left, where you can have less influence going forward than Bale and offer less defensive rigour and be far less influential than you are playing in the hole. Then he says, "Bale, go and play on the right, where you are not going to be as effective as Aaron Lennon and certainly not as good as you are on the left." But to cap it all he might as well have said "but it doesn't matter any of this anyway, because I'm going to leave Crouchie up there and get the midfield and full-backs to pump long-balls up totally by-passing VdV and Bale, for him to try and get a lucky knock-down in and you never know we might nick one"
Pathetic.
Don't believe Harry would play that way? As I wrote on another thread,
Redknapp on Crouch:
"PETER CROUCH is 6ft 7in tall so his best asset is an obvious one.
It's no good putting him up front and then trying to play the ball to his feet all the time.
Peter is a technically good player but England should use his height — because he towers above most defenders.
I'm the last one to advocate the long-ball game but, if you have a player like Steven Gerrard who can put the ball on his head from 35 yards out, do it.
While he does that, the team can surge forward as a group and pick up the second ball, the knockdown they know is coming.
If you're not going to make the most of Crouchie, don't play him, simple as that. Use a little striker instead."
Well I'm sorry, but fuck that. Have him as an impact player by all means, or try him for 50 minutes even, but he's not a 90 minute man and yesterday is not the first time playing Crouch has made us play shit football .
I could not understand how Crouch stayed on on Saturday. I was expecting the sub to be Pav for Crouch not Lennon
I couldn't understand why he started, I thought the reason Harry brought Keane on at Inter was because he knew the game was gone and wanted to keep Pav fresh for Everton.
I am still struggling to comprehend how an experienced manager and chairman agreed to part with £9m for a striker who can't score, run, pass, shoot and has the balance of Bambi on ice complimented with the strength of an IKEA wardrobe.