An outburst too far for Tottenham star?

Written by  Joe Austin for FootballFancast.com: During a frustrating game against West Ham on Saturday in which the sides drew 0-0, Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp subbed Rafael van der Vaart off after 71 minutes. Van der Vaart then disappeared down the tunnel at White Hart Lane and did not return for the rest of the match.

Redknapp criticised him; “if you are part of a team you should stay to watch the rest of the game”. Van der Vaart explained his actions, saying “I played well, and did not find the substitution necessary. Often I like to play 90 minutes, but at Spurs that hardly ever happens”. So how far out of line was van der Vaart?

With the way that Tottenham set up this year, Redknapp had to make a decision of who to bring off, Defoe or van der Vaart. Tottenham can’t play to their strengths (with two wide men) and have three strikers. Defoe and van der Vaart don’t play well together so one of them had to come off.

I think Harry chose to take off van der Vaart for a few reasons. Firstly, van der Vaart has had niggling injuries, and Harry will want to look after him. But secondly to try and keep Defoe happy.

Redknapp would have been aware of Defoe’s frustration at not featuring at all in the Champions League game against AC Milan. He likes Defoe and will probably do his best to appease him. With this in mind, Redknapp had probably decided before the match that he would give Defoe 90 minutes.

However, it was the wrong decision to take the Dutchman off and leave Defoe on. Defoe was playing awfully and squandered chances throughout the match. Admittedly, Defoe can score something from nothing, so it doesn’t always matter if he is having a good game or not as he can grab a goal, but van der Vaart is the same. I would have preferred to see van der Vaart stay on the pitch because he offers more to the side. Van der Vaart’s storming off was wrong, but I can understand why he did it.

It seems Defoe’s moaning in the last few weeks kept him on the pitch. Defoe even said earlier in the month that he has considered leaving Tottenham if he does not feature in more games. But Redknapp should be picking the team, not Jermain Defoe. The way I see it, both players are in the wrong, but van der Vaart to a lesser extent because his frustrations are more justified.

Furthermore, Defoe’s head seems to be all over the place at the moment. Last season he was the first choice striker, now he cannot get in the team. On Saturday, he chose to wear a ‘100 goals’ shirt under his Tottenham kit, clearly with the intention of scoring and then ‘proving a point’. For me, even if he had scored, he would not have proved his point. He would only have reaffirmed that he can score against the weaker teams.

It seems, in Defoe and van der Vaart, there are two players that want to play every game but cannot fit in the same team effectively at White Hart Lane. The problem for Harry is that they both think they should be playing, and both have a bit of an attitude. I doubt he will ever keep both of them happy.

In the short term, like van der Vaart said, “[he] won’t be back for 10 days, by then a lot of it will have blown over.” I hope it does, as Tottenham don’t need these distractions.

But, looking towards the summer, Harry might have to axe one of his favourite players for the benefit of Tottenham. I would offload Defoe, because he doesn’t score against the better sides and is a one-dimensional striker. To be the best team, you have to keep your best players happy; Jermain Defoe is no longer one of them.

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