AVB and Defoe

[Blake Griffin]

i think even someone like aguero would struggle just as much.

 

[EZSpur]

No-one questions the fact that he scores goals, but can he hold the ball up, and make intelligent movement to bring others into the game? Almost 8 years of watching him tells me that he can't.

I hear what you're saying and i agree he's got his faults BUT who else do we have?
Ade when fit, will play, but he can't play EVERY game.
Dempsey/Dembele/Sig will all fill the VDV role at some point and no doubt they'll get goals - but they're NOT recognised strikers.

Regarding the last 3 games, i think AvB's hands were pretty much tied and Defoe was probably the best option he had.

But with a good couple of weeks training i'm sure the next game will see a different lineup.

 

[Huddlestone22]

He's our Falcao

 

[bobbydb]

Hope and pray we don't see Defoe as the lone striker any longer now that we have Ade and Dempsey on-board.

For me Defoe just doesn't have the physical presence, or the ability to hold up and consistently bring others into the play. Impact sub is the role for him.

From what I remember of the Newcastle and WBA games, we would have benefited enormously from the above and possibly improved our points tally to date.

Other teams have been playing important players who don't have match fitness yet, even if he's not fully fit, hope Ade starts for Reading.

Onwards and upwards, and excited by what Dembele and Dempsey will add.

 

[sloth]

that's the first time i've said it!

Is it the first time you've made this point about our approach to transfers?

 

[Blake Griffin]

Is it the first time you've made this point about our approach to transfers?

probably.

 

[Syn_13]

I like having Defoe in the team because I don't think there are many other backup goalscorers in the league that are as good as him, probably none outside of City and United. He's not going to work at the head of a 4-3-3 but in if partnered with Ade or Dempsey in certain games when 4-3-3 isn't working he can produce goals like he did in his capacity as a "super-sub" last year.

 

[yanno]

Ade wasn't fit. Next?

I'm pretty hacked off with Ade.

He always knew he would be getting a King's Ransom in salary from us and Manshitty, and he pissed around trying to extract the last farthing. It's probably the last big contract of his career, unless he goes to China or the middle east in his 30s, so I understand his negotiating hard.

But....

Ade is a professional athlete and the least he could do was keep himself as fit as possible during the summer. Modric managed to play an hour for Real Madrid last night, and has talked to the Spanish press about how he was working with a fitness coach throughout August.

Back to Defoe. It'll be interesting to see if AVB tries to convert him into a wide striker who cuts inside in the 4-3-3 formation. I can't see it myself, and the first thing Defoe would need to learn is to how to press the opposition FBs and deep lying midfielders, and stop them having time, space and easy possession.

He'd also have to learn how to pass to a teammate...

 

[3Dnata]

Soon as EA get's fit and Dempsey can play I think JD will be on the bench, he may start against Carlisle.
I thought it was one of his best performances away at Newcastle but against Norwich he could hardly be bothered to even get himself offside.

 

[Lo Amo Speroni]

I think, and absolutely hope this is the case, that Ade must be criminally unfit. Like, as unfit as half the fans who turn up with their beer belly's hanging out the bottom of their 04/05 Kappa Kits, manboobs on show and saturated in stella coated sweat from the walk from WHL station, munching on a double decker burger with extra burger sauce. That unfit.

Hey leave me out of this.

 

[JerryGarcia]

I know he's just sign a new contract but I think he'll be allowed to leave in January if we bring someone else in. We don't want to rush Ade back into playing full games, the last thing we need is for him to pull a hammy.

On the other hand, if AVB thinks he can do what no other manager has been able to do and actually coach him into becoming a team player then we could keep him. I think that ship has sailed though which is a shame because despite all the goals Defoe has scored over the years, he could have been a better player than he is.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Kind of amazing to think Defoe will be making c70k a week from us for the next 3 years. It's crazy that neither he or coaches have managed to improve his movement in his entire career. Even with Vdv and Modric in the team when was the last time he was one on one with a gk?

 

[jurgen]

Ok people. Four little words that will rock your world:

England's.best.natural.finisher.

 

[ShelfSide18]

Ok people. Four little words that will rock your world:

England's.best.natural.finisher.

Is certainly not Defoe, not in the context of football anyway.

Essex nightclubs? He may well be.

 

[danielneeds]

Ok people. Four little words that will rock your world:

England's.best.natural.finisher.

That's not exactly saying much these days is it. England is a long way from having a Greaves, Lineker, Shearer...

To be honest I don't think it is true anyway, he may be England's best "shift it, and blast it" but he's missed too many good chances, especially in important gams, to be a "natural finisher."

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Back to Defoe. It'll be interesting to see if AVB tries to convert him into a wide striker who cuts inside in the 4-3-3 formation. I can't see it myself, and the first thing Defoe would need to learn is to how to press the opposition FBs and deep lying midfielders, and stop them having time, space and easy possession.

He'd also have to learn how to pass to a teammate...

I've thought about this quite a lot. There have been times when I thought surely he should be used as a wide forward, I just came to the conclusion that he just doesn't have the intelligence and workrate to play there.

 

[eddiebailey]

I do not so much object to playing Defoe as a lone striker so much as playing him as a lone striker with two out and out wingers and no support or creativity from midfield.

I think Defoe actually can work in AVB's system, perhaps better than Ade; it is just that the rest of the squad can't really. To make best use of him we would need to play something like:

Defoe​

Dembele Sigurdsson Dempsey​

Sandro Huddlestone​

​

which I can't see happening.​

 

[thinktank]

Anyone got any theories as to why AVB thinks that Defoe can lead the line by himself?

Obviously at Newcastle he had no choice, but since Adebayor joined, however fit he is, there have been options.

I just don't get it. Anyone who understands football at any level can see that Jermain is not suited to leading the line, physcially or in terms of footballing intelligence.

I don't know if AVB has just been forced to back him because Levy couldn't sell him, or he doesn't want to alienate him in terms of the dressing room, or perhaps he thinks with coaching he can turn him into some sort of Mini-Mini Falcao?

I just don't get it, but whatever it is, unless this clusterfuck of a situation changes, it could cost him his job.

There are just some things AVB's got to see for himself and discover. We all know this shit but he has to test it out and see for himself. He'll be learning, that's for sure. JD really just needs to move on and I'm guessing the plan is to flog him in jan after getting him to sign a new connie.

 

[steve]

I think, and absolutely hope this is the case, that Ade must be criminally unfit. Like, as unfit as half the fans who turn up with their beer belly's hanging out the bottom of their 04/05 Kappa Kits, manboobs on show and saturated in stella coated sweat from the walk from WHL station, munching on a double decker burger with extra burger sauce. That unfit.

Also known as ' The Huddlestone ' regime.

 

[night-watchman]

Maybe he was working with the theory that by playing Defoe up front the team would be forced into playing on the deck football. If that was the case then it blatantly didnt work.

Whatever the reason, I am certain we will see Ade up front for the Reading game.

What I am more worried about is the fact that he seems to rate Livermore.