Rafa latest

[900triumph]

I hate it when they sit back and make it hard for you to get in behind them....

 

[raf18]

Blessing in disguise. We will play 442, defoe and ade on form, good times. VDV will come back as RM.

 

[shaqTHFC]

Tottenham Hotspur playmaker Rafael van der Vaart is hoping he can make a quicker than expected return from a hamstring injury despite being ruled out for six weeks.

Van der Vaart suffered the injury during the latter stages of Spurs' 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Manchester City last weekend.

An MRI scan has shown the Netherlands international has torn his hamstring and Spurs have confirmed they expect him to be sidelined for around six weeks.

He missed his country's 11-0 thrashing of San Marino on Friday night and will also sit out next Tuesday's Euro 2012 qualifier away to Finland.

However, the former Ajax ace has handed his club side Spurs a boost by revealing he could return to action within the next fortnight.

"It feels okay now," said Van der Vaart in De Telegraaf. "I hope in one to two weeks to make my comeback.

"The past has proven that I can quickly recover from such an injury."

Spurs' next Premier League game is against Wolves on 10th September, with Harry Redknapp's men then facing PAOK Salonika in the Europa League before welcoming Liverpool to White Hart Lane on 18th September.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,,11675_7146992,00.html

So he could return for the Liverpool game

 

[Hot-Spur]

Blessing in disguise. We will play 442, defoe and ade on form, good times. VDV will come back as RM.

How can anyone say losing one of our best players is a "blessing in disguise"? the fact is we now have a striker in ade who has the ability to play upfront on his own with Rafa behind for support but now because of this we won't get to see it for well over a month or more. I don't know why everyone suddenly thinks defoe is going to go on a scoring spree.

 

[seneca]

bad news. i wouldn't put kranjcar in his position because although he's perhaps a similar player i don't think he's good enough to be given such a role. for me defoe with adebayor in a 442. they should be able to work well together.

 

[raf18]

How can anyone say losing one of our best players is a "blessing in disguise"? the fact is we now have a striker in ade who has the ability to play upfront on his own with Rafa behind for support but now because of this we won't get to see it for well over a month or more. I don't know why everyone suddenly thinks defoe is going to go on a scoring spree.

That's why its in disguise...

Defoe's lack of goals are due to the fact that he isn't a lone striker. Now we are forced to play 442, he will partner Adebayor and we will be a lot more threatening on the attack.

Its a better theory than thinking "Oh nooo season over, no VDV we are so screwed..."

 

[Hot-Spur]

That's why its in disguise...

Defoe's lack of goals are due to the fact that he isn't a lone striker. Now we are forced to play 442, he will partner Adebayor and we will be a lot more threatening on the attack.

Its a better theory than thinking "Oh nooo season over, no VDV we are so screwed..."

I think Ade and Rafa will score more than Ade and JD even in 442, but we'll have to hope you're right because we don't have any other option.

 

[C0YS]

I think we do look more balanced in a 4-4-2. But the whole point of buying Ade was to make a 4-4-1-1 viable..... It is unfortunate, but we have enough quality without him.

I think the reason we have kept GDS has become clear....

 

[SpurSince57]

Modric in the hole?

Know it didn't work when he first came here, but that was Bent and Modric is now twice the player

Parker and Sandro/Hudd in the middle - well worth a try in my opinion

Kranjcars a good shout too

In fact, it was nothing to do with Bent. He was frequently left isolated whilst Modric and Jenas each waited for the other to get up to support him. By the time they'd sorted it out the opposition had the ball. (Check out the Chelsea game for an example of this.)

Odds-on Defoe will partner Adebayor, with Kranjcar a second favourite.

 

[faze_coys]

if defoe and ade play upfront together we will break all kind of offside records.

 

[SpurSince57]

That's why its in disguise...

Defoe's lack of goals are due to the fact that he isn't a lone striker. Now we are forced to play 442, he will partner Adebayor and we will be a lot more threatening on the attack.

Its a better theory than thinking "Oh nooo season over, no VDV we are so screwed..."

It isn't, you know. Last season he played slightly more than half the number of minutes as in 09-10, had half the number of shots (42 v. 84), a slightly lower percentage on target (50% v. 56%), but converted only 9.5% instead of 21.4%. Without watching and analysing every single attempt it's impossible to say what was wrong with his finishing, but something very obviously was.

 

[Mouse!]

How many attempts did Defoe have inside the box last year? How many outside? Compare this to 09/10 season and it will become obvious that Defoe took a lot more shots from outside the box last season because he had to drop deep to get involved with the play, due to Rafa dropping deep as he always does.

 

[raf18]

Blessing in disguise. We will play 442, defoe and ade on form, good times. VDV will come back as RM.

How can anyone say losing one of our best players is a "blessing in disguise"? the fact is we now have a striker in ade who has the ability to play upfront on his own with Rafa behind for support but now because of this we won't get to see it for well over a month or more. I don't know why everyone suddenly thinks defoe is going to go on a scoring spree.

:razz:

 

[SpurSince57]

How many attempts did Defoe have inside the box last year? How many outside? Compare this to 09/10 season and it will become obvious that Defoe took a lot more shots from outside the box last season because he had to drop deep to get involved with the play, due to Rafa dropping deep as he always does.

Dunno. Are you going to let us in on the secret?

 

[Spurs_Q8]

today peformance 'away from home' confirmed my point of view which i wrote last month, We are better without VDV. End.

 

[Hot-Spur]

:razz:

Early days, keep that tongue in for now :lol:

 

[Spurs1960]

I'm glad he told us it was the end, I was wondering what the full-stop was for.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

today peformance 'away from home' confirmed my point of view which i wrote last month, We are better without VDV. End.

It might have confirmed it to you but I thought Defoe was a very lucky man that he wasn't hooked early in the second half. Thought he was awful.

 

[whitelightwhiteheat]

Yes, we're better without VDV. We don't want any pesky world class players in our line up. We're better off with mostly iffy performances from the likes of Kranjcar and Bale. We don't want anybody adding a bit of class to our performances. Oh no.

 

[gavspur]

Yeah, we did pretty well away to Liverpool last year too, proves nothing tho. With ade's movement, link, and hold up play, vdv will be very important to us.