Some thoughts on Jermain Defoe

[spursLA]

Crouch and VDV (and Bale) have been a roaring success in the CL so the problem is goals in the league. There's no reason for us not to play 4-4-2 in the league - especially against WHam - so I'd suggest Pav (who looked lively and is our leading striker in the league) and Defoe for league games. But no one could have honestly expected Defoe to have 2 goals by March. I would like to see an upgrade in the summer to someone who can play 1-up, an old fashioned English no 9 with some skills (not that there are many of those - Carroll, Mario Gomez maybe)

 

[JimmyG2]

Unless JD is banging them in instinctively he has little to offer the team.

Pavlyuchenko is the only one of our team of 'strikers that looks like a Tottenham style player but he clearly does not have the confidence of Harry.
Why Defoe has I'm not sure.
Misplaced loyalty because he has seen him develop from a young age I assume.

Good discussion thread boys in response to a thoughtful column.

 

[DiscoD1882]

Modric is only starting to get back to his best form after being out injured for a while. Bale clearly looked off the pace and who knows how long he will take to get back to form. Defoe has recently returned from injury. And whilst I can see his limitations I also feel mighty let down by some people on here who write players off so frequently. It is a shame as he WAS one of the strikers who got us top four. So saying he isnt a top four striker is wrong. We know what he an do. problem is he just isnt doing it at the moment, harry is right to keep playing him, But i can see he may cost us 4th place this year. on the other hand he may get us 4th place in whch case a big slice of humble pie will have to be eaten by posters on here. We all know we need a new striker, we havent got one so lets get through this season. Support what we have and then look to the future. With or without Defoe.

 

[spud]

Defoe has recently returned from injury. And whilst I can see his limitations I also feel mighty let down by some people on here who write players off so frequently. It is a shame as he WAS one of the strikers who got us top four. So saying he isnt a top four striker is wrong. We know what he an do. problem is he just isnt doing it at the moment..................he may get us 4th place in whch case a big slice of humble pie will have to be eaten by posters on here.

I haven't looked up the statistics, so this is from memory, but I think that he scored 18 goals last season. Of these, five were against Wigan and there were two hat tricks. That means seven goals for the rest of the season (for part of which he was injured). That isn't stated just to criticise, but to point out that he hasn't been a prolific scorer for a while. He was a striker playing in a top four team last season (and hopefully this) but his performances - and goals - over quite a while have indicated that he isn't a 'top four striker'.

I would love to be wrong. As I said, I like Defoe. I just don't believe that - at 28 years old - he will ever develop his limited game to become the striker that he could have been. That is unfortunate for him and for us.