Defoe is looking sharper this season and that's good news for Spurs. With Wigan up next in the league I think he quite likes it there. The following interview with Harry (who else is ever being interviewed) gives an insight into Defoes character. With him back to his best we will finally have a formidable strike force as long as he and Adebayor keep firing. "Jermain Defoe has enlisted a 70-year-old French fitness expert who once worked with Arsenal - and was recommended by Ian Wright - in his efforts to revive his career with club and country. Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp has revealed the striker, who scored his first Barclays Premier League goal of this season at Wolves on Saturday, spent his summer in France with Tiberius Darau. He said: 'It shows you the boy's attitude. He did three sessions a day with this fitness coach, who had him out at 6.30am, then at mid-day, then in the evening - and he's come back strong. 'Jermain did it all off his own back. He just went over there - paid himself - and the guy's come over here now and is working with him for an hour before training every day.' Darau worked at Highbury during Arsene Wenger's first three years in charge. He has looked sharp so far this season so hopefully this hard works pays off for him. Cant question his attitude or work rate either, I wish more of our players would take a look at this and put it to their own use over the summer"
Infact most young holiday makers do the opposite try to get in shape for their holidays to make sure they can fit in their bikini without their arse hanging out the back. Anyway, Defoe has started well although he's had a hatfull of chances in the first few games. What's impressed me is how much harder he's working, whilst not running around like a headless chicken. He'd have been the first striker I'd have sent out of the door if I was 'Arry but I'm glad he's starting to prove me wrong and building a good partnership with Adebayor.
I know I have to do a little exercise to keep in shape. Even on holiday I'll do some stretching. So yeah, I agree, why can't profession football players do a 20 minute swim each day during their holidays?
I think defoe is a confidence player although going away in pre season and working on his fitness has helped him i still think if he is playing week in week out he will get goals. Last season Arry prefered Crouch up front to accommodate for VDV i think selling Crouch to Stoke has helped Defoe alot with his confidence knowing he is going to be one of main strikers hopefully will bring alot more goals out of him.
I have to admit I was very pleased to see Crouch go in the transfer window. Yes he did some good things for us and he was especially usefull in Europe but overall he was a square peg in a round hole at Spurs, his departure means we will play to the strengths of the majority of our team, not just a couple. Plus Redkhapp now has to be a little more inventive in his tactics when it come to substitution. Stoke and Crouch were made for each other, I wish him well.
Agreed Spurf Stoke and Crouch are made for eachother im glad he left couldn't stand him, didn't score enough goals with his head his shooting was terrible and although he did well for vdv he couldnt work with anyone else good piece of business from Arry and Levy!
Crouch was sussed out by Prem defences years ago, hence the reason his records are good in Europe and Internationals. Likeable guy but Adebayor is far superior in terms of being our target man to work with Defoe and link up with the rest of the team. Wish Crouch all the best (apart from against us). Onto Defoe, shows he's really determined to find his form, more importantly, find his form with us! Disappointing season for him last year so the fact he's come back fitter, sharper and stronger shows his commitment to the club, unlike some (**COUGH PAV**) who don't seem interested at all.
Defoe had a bad season last year and it wasn't helped by playing a system that didn't suit him one bit. The fact is that Defoe works best in a 4-4-2 and is not nearly as effective when he plays as a lone striker. It showed in the season where we qualified for the CL and it's showing now. I think Adebayor will be the one who plays up front if we revert to 4-4-1-1, which is a shame for Defoe as he looks to be finding some of his best form now, and he can be great for us when he does.
With the squad we have now, they are all going to have to get used to being rotated. If it is a shame for him, what about Hudd and either Sandro or Parker? 2 out of 3 great players are not going to be first choice.
There are tough choices to make regarding who plays - Modric and Parker look good now but Sandro was great at the end of last season and Thudd is also a good player. We have to accommodate VdV while still keeping our strike force firing as it is now etc. etc. Thankfully these are nice conundrums to have, rather than the ones we had last year which were similar to "Who should play CB with Bassong: Thudd or Charlie?". I was thinking more about the choices Redknapp has to make regarding the effectiveness of the team - ie: do we stay with a 4-4-2 which is working well right now or go back to 4-4-1-1 in order to best accommodate one of our best players in VdV. Keeping the whole squad happy will be tricky, but we are involved in 4 competitions so one would suspect everyone will get sufficient game time throughout the season, especially as Harry seems to be playing fringe and youth players in the Carling Cup and EL. The inevitable injuries will also mean that we should be able to keep people happy.
It is nice to see Defoe looking sharp again and good on him for the extra work put in.Does this mean we're taking the Arsenal players and now their fitness trainers.Hope we keep pretty much the same shape as Defoe and Adebayor do look as if they compliment eachother.As for Crouch i was glad to see him go for the same reasons as already stated.Seems Liverpool are having the same problem with Carroll who seems to slow their game down and doesn't really fit into the way they want to play.They have a thread on their board about it.What a shame.
I think a lot of us were all for getting shot of all our strikers at the end of last season, including Defoe, given their appalling stats. In retrospect, getting shot of Crouch and keeping Defoe was the right thing to do. I'm not sure about Pav. I still have very grave doubts that he's got what it takes to justify a regular start, but I suspect that Harry will play him for the cup games and the Europa League matches, so he's going to get a chance to prove himself - again. There's no doubt that Ade will bring the best out in Defoe, and vice versa.
It's a shame that Defoe didn't take Pavlyuchenko with him in the summer, as he's clearly not got the same drive to play for us at the moment. Might be best all round if he moves on in January, but it'd be nice for him to try and play his way into a move, rather than the disinterested performances that we've seen so far.
I still think Pav can do it for us if he gets a run of good games going - he strikes me very much as a confidence player who would look a lot more like he cared if he hit some form and played a bit more.
Oh. So for him to care he needs a) to hit some form and b) get played a bit more. So picking up £40-odd grand a week, doing his job well and helping his colleagues is not enough? I said at the time we signed him that we should give him a chance. We have. He's rubbish. He looked the best of a bad lot last year but that was only because he had the happy knack of occasionally scoring very good goals which would help gloss over his inability to win headers, keep possession, pass, make any effort tracking back etc. Regards Defoe: I'll be very amazed if he will "bring the best out of Ade" as someone said above. But hopefully the reverse will be true. Defoe's a very good EPL striker. But would Chelsea, Utd, City, Arsenal (oh, OK - they might) want him? I was happy to see us get £10m for him first time he was sold. Will be happy with the same again unless something amazing happens this season with him. Will be delighted to be proven wrong.
That was me. I say it, because the one good thing that Defoe does is maintain a high position up the field, constantly on the shoulder of the last defender. For a creative attacker like Ade, he's going to be boosted by always having someone ahead of him to help create options for him. Defoe, in return, has got a striker partner, who has all the attributes of Crouch (height, good with his feet), but who also has speed and superb technique. I can this pair being as effective for us as were Klinsmann and Sherringham.
Well the season has got off to a very good start with the Adebayor-Defoe partnership starting to blossom... please log in to view this image
While I am stuck in the back numbers this is an early thread from 2011 where most of the posters are still with us. You can see Spurs not606 taking on it's present form looking more like our current threads.
