- Jun 8, 2003
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Actually I think Crouch's assists are the most important reason and why I want a player like him in the team - he links up the midfield and the strikeforce so much better than our current set of forwards - although Pav threatened to do it when alongside defoe. when Crouch plays, the players around him score more than say a Bent. We have a team of good players and our midfield play last year was often good, but with no end product due to piss-poor runs from our strikers (Bent) or strikers dropping deep to get the ball (Keane, Pav and to a certain extent defoe). I see Crouch as being the foil Kanoute used to be - besides whom keane and defoe both scored lots of goals. Bent, Defoe, Keane and Pav are all primarily goalscorers (although Pav has shown hints otherwise especially around xmas time), so they all want to make the same runs, to get in on goal. As a result our forward play is predictable and easy to cut out. Crouch doesn't make those kind of runs so much and like Kanoute, Berbatov, etc is content to collect the ball outside the box and feed through to fellow strikers. That's exactly what we need and I think Crouch will thrive on passes from Modric and crosses from Bentley or Lennon.
We've seen just how good Defoe can be alongside him. I suspect Keane and Pav will seem to be better players too alongside Crouch - why do you think Keane looked so Anemic for Liverpool and us on his return - he didn't become a bad player overnight, he just needs a player like Crouch, Viduka, Berbatov or Kanoute next to him. I think if you looked at Defoe and Keane's stats with or without those kind of players (as Defoe played with Kanoute at West ham as well as tottenham then Berbatov and then Crouch, and keane has spent the majority of his career playing alongside viduka at leeds, kanoute then berbatov at spurs.) - you'll see the difference.
Our team needs balance. Harry Redknapp is a smart manager and knows he needs to buy players that balance our needs, not the best player available. I have a lot of confidence that Crouch (or Negredo who was my favourite choice for this position) will make far more of a difference to our performances than stats alone would suggest.
We've seen just how good Defoe can be alongside him. I suspect Keane and Pav will seem to be better players too alongside Crouch - why do you think Keane looked so Anemic for Liverpool and us on his return - he didn't become a bad player overnight, he just needs a player like Crouch, Viduka, Berbatov or Kanoute next to him. I think if you looked at Defoe and Keane's stats with or without those kind of players (as Defoe played with Kanoute at West ham as well as tottenham then Berbatov and then Crouch, and keane has spent the majority of his career playing alongside viduka at leeds, kanoute then berbatov at spurs.) - you'll see the difference.
Our team needs balance. Harry Redknapp is a smart manager and knows he needs to buy players that balance our needs, not the best player available. I have a lot of confidence that Crouch (or Negredo who was my favourite choice for this position) will make far more of a difference to our performances than stats alone would suggest.