The modern lone centre-forward needs to offer the team as a whole much more than just goals. He needs to be able to consistently be available as an outlet higher up the pitch, hold up play and know when to unselfishly distribute the ball. He needs to have the nouse to know when it’s appropriate […]
Bigmouth Strikes Again
The modern lone centre-forward needs to offer the team as a whole much more than just goals. He needs to be able to consistently be available as an outlet higher up the pitch, hold up play and know when to unselfishly distribute the ball. He needs to have the nouse to know when it’s appropriate to shoot and when it isn’t. He needs to be able to dribble, win high balls and outsmart defenders. He has to be able to judge when it’s right to track back and defend, and help clear opposition set-plays. He needs to be able to put in a man of the match performance without even having scored a goal. Emmanuel Adebayor has proved time and time again that he is capable of being that forward, Jermain Defoe hasn’t.
Due to an injury to Adebayor, Defoe has enjoyed a run in the side that seen him slowly evolve his game. He’s tried to adopt his play to involve some intelligence, but in vital moments in games too close for comfort, his knack of choosing the neanderthal approach to football has taken over. When he finds himself on the edge of the box, a pass can open up that Ray Charles would be screaming for him to play, but he opts to shoot instead. Bafflingly though, his shoot on sight policy often see’s him praised, after all, every good striker has to have ‘a selfish side’ to his play.
However, for the first time in his career away at Old Trafford, Jermain Defoe played the lone forward role with some aplomb. His movement during Gareth Bale’s goal was textbook; a darting diagonal run that split the centre-backs created the space for Bale to charge in to. For our third, his close control and pace saw him skip past Ferdinand, and he showed he possessed sophisticated vision as he played an inch perfect reverse pass through to Bale, before Dempsey tapped in. A week later though against a distinctly average Aston Villa side, he was back up to his old deeply frustrating tricks, ruining clear cut chances rather than creating them. How can we rely on a centre-forward whose performances are about as consistent as the most violent bouts of diarrhea?
The way I see it, Defoe is the Scrappy-Doo to Adebayor’s Scooby. Every time I see Jermain turn and snatch a shot wide I can imagine the little cartoon mutt putting his dukes up, screaming “let me at ‘em, let me at ‘em” and so on. In the same way that Villas-Boas has brought in Lloris and benched Friedel for the good of the side, it’s time to do the same with Adebayor, especially with Chelsea game fast approaching. They have a quick, athletic and physically tall side, especially in defense.
The combination of Luiz and Cahill will make easy work of brushing Defoe to one-side, and unlike Manchester United away, this isn’t a game we can win down the centre of the field. We’ll need Adebayor to lead the front line, bringing Bale and Lennon in to play as often as possible, testing their full-backs, and trying to dominate possession.
What Adebayor offers to the side isn’t just prevalent when we play the better sides in the league either. When we play teams who tend to perk the proverbial bus against us, we won’t win by trying to get in to an arm-wrestle of a game against them, we need to be able to adopt a more pragmatic approach. For example, while playing with Defoe as the lone striker, the attacking midfielder behind him is losing effectiveness going forward. Both Sigurdsson and Dempsey have the ability to go beyond the last man, join in with intelligent interplay in and around the box and create chances for themselves if given the ball, something Van Der Vaart fed from playing with Adebayor to some effect. However, when Jermain’s much lauded selfishness takes over and he hits 20 yard after 20 yard drive, any potential for a multiple man attack get’s dashed.
Slowly but surely, I’m more than confident we’ll see Villas-Boas reintroduce Adebayor in to the side, he’s proven that he’s more than capable of choosing a winning side and making difficult decisions. From the start of the season, we’ve needed to improve upon Friedel, Livermore, Gallas and Defoe, and one-by-one he’s doing so. By the time Younes Kaboul regains full fitness, the obvious decision will be to relegate Gallas to the bench, Kaboul taking back his place in defense, and the armband too. We’ve already shown that we’re going to commit strong teams to every competition this season, and with the distinct possibility of having to compete on four separate fronts after Christmas, every players is still likely to get his chance.
To conclude; a new chant – an updated take on an old classic, if you will:
‘Adebayor, Adebayoooooor, Jermain scores the odd goal, but can’t do much more’
[author name=”Raj Bains” avatar=”https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/2505374037/image.jpg” twitter=”BainsXIII” website=”puerileambivalence.co.uk” tag=”rajbains[/linequote]
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8 Comments
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11/10/2012 @ 10:25 pm
Oct 20 – crucial to get it right and get 3 points.
Perhaps start them both in 4 4 2 and see
11/10/2012 @ 10:43 pm
That “scrappy doo” line was pretty tough. Why not play both and leave out either Siggy or the Deuce?
11/10/2012 @ 11:32 pm
I’d play them together. Not a fan of Adebayor but he can be very effective. Makes me sick seeing Berba at Fulham (or Ba at Toon), he’s twice the player of Ade. The guy has such a heavy touch, it’s disgraceful for a Premiership player… But as I said, at times very effective, so I’d play him in Dempsey/Sigurdsson’s role.
12/10/2012 @ 6:08 am
Ah, what a shame. Another one who hasn’t grasped it yet. We need all of our players. The days of “play yer best eleven”..are long gone. Spurs failed miserably on the back end of last season for a few reasons. But the main one was all of our good players were over used. Our play the same every week. It’s different now. Our style has changed. We can defend at long last and we are beginning to punish teams who push too far up field. The best thing of all is players have to fight for a place. I’m all for replacing friedle asap. but Lloris is being forced to oust him by playing better. That’s how it should be. So now it’s time to give Defoe a go, then take him to one side and say why he’s lost his spot and how to win it back. That’s how I see things developing. The team will eventually pick itself. But expect to see players rested, rotated and used against certain teams and in different comps. It makes sense for the long term. I’ve yet to see a single player who’s form doesn’t dip for one reason or another. Instead of them being balled out in public ala Redcrap. They’ll come off and need to fight to regain the right to play. Players competing on the park instead of being picked because of their reputation and being given time to rest bodes well. Whether AVB brings us success will depend largely on Levy backing him and the fans understanding that change doesn’t happen overnight. Thus far AVB has been a breath of fresh air. Listen to the young players comments. Lots of competition at Spurs but they’re up for it. Caulker has outshone the rest, including our extremely classy and talented new signing Vertonghen. Vertonghen and Caulker would imo make a fantastic CB pairing, but only if they’re playing well and fit.
12/10/2012 @ 7:44 am
Thanks Spursguv..
Finally, I thought I was the only one. I was almost fighting folk at the start of last year trying to get them to see what our problems truly were. Now I am starting to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. I have noted in other blogs we are building a team that can score from almost any position. So the dependence on a center forward is less problematic. If you look at the spread of scorers this year you will see two left backs have scored a center back, center forward, wingers and midfield players.
I would agree with some recent comments that Defoe might enjoy working in the pocket with Ade holding up play and having the options of Bale, Defoe, Dempsey, Dembele, Sandro, Walker or Siggy. Wouldn’t you love to defend against that? However we fans do not see what is going on at the training field and I support AVB in whatever he is planning, so far it has been consistent improvement.
12/10/2012 @ 8:32 am
AVB needed time to get his plans working and now , slowly but surely, the team is playing to his plans.
12/10/2012 @ 9:31 am
I wrote an entire piece about how the days of not having a ‘best team’ were in the past before the season even started, so I do ‘get it’ thanks. The piece I wrote about Redknapp when he got sacked had a large paragraph almost exclusively dedicated to that very fact too.
However, rotation in the squad hasn’t exactly been that radical in the league thus far, and he seems to have a settled first eleven for certain games, and Defoe appears to be his go to striker at the moment, perhaps due to Adebayor’s injury. Rather than the squad as whole, the piece was about how Adebayor has more to offer the side than Defoe in the current system, and why I would like to see him start against Chelsea and more overall, not every game for time immemorial.
I accept that players such as Defoe, Gallas, Livermore and Friedel will all have a part to play, there’s even a sentence about “every player having his chance” if you read the piece carefully enough, but AVB has shown that he’s more than happy to halt squad rotation should the upcoming game and side deserve that respect, and a side such as Chelsea deserve what you could call our “best possible team” – he’s not exactly likely to throw the dice and start with Ryan Mason and Souleymane Coulibaly for this one, is he?
12/10/2012 @ 2:59 pm
I think we should give Defoe and Adebayor a go at home. Defoe’s game seems to have really come on and developed this season and I can’t see how he isn’t going to get loads of goals playing at home with Adebayor. Adebayor makes as many goals as he scores.
I don’t think AVB is going to change it at the moment whilst it’s working though, although I am sure Brad thought the same last week…