AVB and Defoe

[felmani26]

A shift and shoot striker he is par excellence but that is absolutely it.

No footballing brain, poor work rate, awful hold up play and bringing others into the game coupled with an abysmal spatial awareness - would you want that player leading the line for a supposed top 4 team?!

 

[lifeof...]

On the game V norwich, Paul Walsh made, what I thought was, an insightful comment. regarding this, Basically he said, "Defoe likes to play with a strike partner ala 2 up front. But alot teams now do not regularly play that way. So Defoe has to learn how to play as 1 up front, part of that learning is doing, But AVB Likes a more 4-3-3. Which alot of the players need to adapt to, not just Defoe."

And i think his point is valid,

The 1 thing, that even Defoe's harshs critic cannot disagree with, Defoe's strength is, is his ability to put the ball in the back of the net, And scoring goals wins games, as another poster/s said, (in another thread) last season, all of our creativity and flair players did nothing to help us score goals and beat (several low tabled teams).

If the Team expect that they can ping a high ball up for defoe for him to hold it up, then it is not Defoe at fault. (everyone knows he just is not physically big enough for that.) I did notice a few times Brad was aiming for Bale to do the flick header on roll at times.

I think there is a possibility that Defoe can be an important player in a 4-3-3 system, IF not only he can learn, but also the players playing with him.

 

[sbrustad]

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?

Surely we're not paying him anything close to 70K/week? That's completely bonkers.

I can't say I saw anything about his wage in the news articles about his new contract though, so you may be right. I just hope you're not.

 

[Strikeb4ck]

The annoying thing is at pretty much any other club Defoe is a 15+ goal a season player.

 

[karennina]

The annoying thing is at pretty much any other club Defoe is a 15+ goal a season player.

He was for us last season. I'm sure the reason he got a new contract is we think he's likely to be again.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

On the game V norwich, Paul Walsh made, what I thought was, an insightful comment. regarding this, Basically he said, "Defoe likes to play with a strike partner ala 2 up front. But alot teams now do not regularly play that way. So Defoe has to learn how to play as 1 up front, part of that learning is doing, But AVB Likes a more 4-3-3. Which alot of the players need to adapt to, not just Defoe."

And i think his point is valid,

The 1 thing, that even Defoe's harshs critic cannot disagree with, Defoe's strength is, is his ability to put the ball in the back of the net, And scoring goals wins games, as another poster/s said, (in another thread) last season, all of our creativity and flair players did nothing to help us score goals and beat (several low tabled teams).

If the Team expect that they can ping a high ball up for defoe for him to hold it up, then it is not Defoe at fault. (everyone knows he just is not physically big enough for that.) I did notice a few times Brad was aiming for Bale to do the flick header on roll at times.

I think there is a possibility that Defoe can be an important player in a 4-3-3 system, IF not only he can learn, but also the players playing with him.

Let's not kid ourselves here. We didn't just fire missiles at him. How many times did he have the ball at his feet at the weekend only to be swatted away like a fly? He can't shield the bloody thing and it's not because of his size-there are plenty of small players who are more than capable of shielding the ball. It's down to poor technique.

His movement is frequently bizarre. I am sick to the back teeth listening to commentators banging on about him using his pace to stretch defences. He doesn't do much damage running into the space behind defenders, does he? Often when we are on the front foot, Defoe actually comes short, hoping to receive the ball on the edge of the box. If he could attack low crosses in the six yard box, we would surely benefit more. We saw another example of this at the weekend when Bale put it on a plate for him. Defoe had one defender for company but did he try to get in front of him? Nope-he was actually behind him.

 

[ethanedwards]

Let's not kid ourselves here. We didn't just fire missiles at him. How many times did he have the ball at his feet at the weekend only to be swatted away like a fly? He can't shield the bloody thing and it's not because of his size-there are plenty of small players who are more than capable of shielding the ball. It's down to poor technique.

His movement is frequently bizarre. I am sick to the back teeth listening to commentators banging on about him using his pace to stretch defences. He doesn't do much damage running into the space behind defenders, does he? Often when we are on the front foot, Defoe actually comes short, hoping to receive the ball on the edge of the box. If he could attack low crosses in the six yard box, we would surely benefit more. We saw another example of this at the weekend when Bale put it on a plate for him. Defoe had one defender for company but did he try to get in front of him? Nope-he was actually behind him.

I just hope we don't retain his services a striker coach when he retires.

 

[steve]

Let's not kid ourselves here. We didn't just fire missiles at him. How many times did he have the ball at his feet at the weekend only to be swatted away like a fly? He can't shield the bloody thing and it's not because of his size-there are plenty of small players who are more than capable of shielding the ball. It's down to poor technique.

His movement is frequently bizarre. I am sick to the back teeth listening to commentators banging on about him using his pace to stretch defences. He doesn't do much damage running into the space behind defenders, does he? Often when we are on the front foot, Defoe actually comes short, hoping to receive the ball on the edge of the box. If he could attack low crosses in the six yard box, we would surely benefit more. We saw another example of this at the weekend when Bale put it on a plate for him. Defoe had one defender for company but did he try to get in front of him? Nope-he was actually behind him.

And then had the gall to look across at Bale like it was his fault.

He'll never learn. Everyone knows what Bale's gonna do, he's crossed the ball like that, into the same area between keeper and defender a hundred times and Defoe doesn't anticipate and bust a gut to get there. His movement is poor as well, he doesn't attempt to pull the defender around by changing direction quickly from near post to far or vice versa (summink Keane was pretty good at) and the runs he does make are predictible and one paced.

He doesn't fit the system. I understood completely AVB's talking up of Defoe before the season kicked off, he could hardly say he wanted to sell him and then expect a decent performance out of him at Newcastle or against West Brom, but I thought once they'd brought in a couple of strikers he'd be flogged on for good money. It's heartbreaking to see him still at Spurs when VDV has gone. The strange thing is we probably would've got similar money for him.

 

[mill]

Thing is we're completely unable to identify and sign strikers that suit us better so we simply can't replace him

 

[ultimateloner]

I hope it is a forced hand. It might not be.

 

[yanno]

Let's not kid ourselves here. We didn't just fire missiles at him. How many times did he have the ball at his feet at the weekend only to be swatted away like a fly? He can't shield the bloody thing and it's not because of his size-there are plenty of small players who are more than capable of shielding the ball. It's down to poor technique.

I agree. And, fwiw, the former player making the comments about adapting to a new system in the post you're responding to is one Paul Walsh, who was also short and not the strongest. But Paul Walsh did have the ability to hold the ball up and the tenacity to shield it from big clogger CBs who could foul more than they can nowadays.

 

[only1waddle]

A shift and shoot striker he is par excellence but that is absolutely it.

No footballing brain, poor work rate, awful hold up play and bringing others into the game coupled with an abysmal spatial awareness - would you want that player leading the line for a supposed top 4 team?!

I think his team mates would refer to this as " does not fucking pass"...

 

[sbrustad]

Like I've said before, excellent impact striker, but not a viable option to start games.