The knock-on effect Van Der Vaart’s presence in the starting line-up had on Jermaine Defoe is also worth noting. While I am far from being Defoe’s biggest fan, he went from scoring 24 goals one season, to 9 the next. He may have suffered from being in and out of the team due to a mixture of injury and suspension, but that is quite a drop in one season.
One thing has become clear – Defoe performs best with a partner beside him rather than behind him. In Emmanuel Adebayor he now has that, and Spurs now have the quality striker that they so desperately required last season.
Indeed, even for Holland, Van Der Vaart has led a troubled life, seemingly proving difficult to fit in unless a formation is accommodated to suit his needs. In the end, during last summer’s World Cup, Holland coach Bert Van Marwijk finally decided he’d had enough of trying to shoehorn both Wesley Sneijder and Van Der Vaart into his starting eleven and dropped the latter after the group stages. The result – an unexpected run to the final and Sneijder wins the Golden Boot.
Van Der Vaart is obviously a quality player. He combines goals, vision and technique to constitute a real threat to whoever the opposition are, but he can quite rightfully be considered a luxury player and at times he flits in and out of the game.
He was surprisingly left out of Spurs initial Europa League squad, despite his injury, which led the player publicly questioning the decision. His stock has never been lower at the club than it is right now.
A lot depends on how much faith Redknapp retains in Defoe. Adebayor should rightfully be seen as the club’s first-choice striker. Redknapp could just as easily switch to Adebayor up top by himself with Van Der Vaart in behind him. This could be a useful tactic in Europe, but in the league, it may lead to a regression just when Spurs look to have found their attacking straps once more.
With Defoe scoring and Niko Krancjar performing ably in his stead; Modric and Parker beginning to form a decent understanding in the middle, the current Spurs side looks a lot more balanced than last season’s. Van Der Vaart would do well to return to full fitness soon, for this current Spurs side are in danger of moving on without him.
You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1
Written by James McManus for FootballFanCast.com
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..crock of shite article. Spurs need goal scorers, and to date VDV has been our most consistent. Also goals win games so you can’t have too many quality marksman. Look at Man City. The only noteworthy point you make is that 4-4-2 is probably our preferred formation but that is due to a lack of coaching & tactics.
What a poorly written article.
For staters, Van der vaart has NEVER played alongside Modric – he plays off the main striker, i.e. in FRONT of Modric or occasionally, on the right wing.
Others around him did not “suffer” because of his presence, either.
The reason why we dropped so many points towards the second half of last season, was because of the poor form of our strikers – not because of the system that we played.
If we had signed Adebayor (or a similar type of striker) last January, I am sure we would have been travelling to the likes of AC and Inter again, rather than PAOK and Shamrock Rovers, if you get my drift.
The beauty of having Adebayor in our team is that it appears he has already built up a good understanding with both Defoe in a 442 formation and also Van der vaart in a 451 formation – illustrated by his goal and both players’ performance in the first half of the Wigan game today.
This can only be a good thing for Tottenham, and I just hope Adebayor can stay fit and in-form until (hopefully) we can sign a third much-needed striker to compete with Adebayor in January.
This article completely encompasses how fickle the average ‘futbol’ fan is. One excellent display against fellow champions league hopefuls and suddenly ‘Spurs don’t need Van Der Vaart any more.’ What may have been more pertinent would may be to have suggested how embarrassingly average Spurs made Liverpool look, despite all of the money spent on Henderson and co. Van Der Vaart had a good game today against Wigan and scored, so there are no doubts in my mind that ‘this is futbol’ may change their line on the Dutchman.
Think there should always be room for VDV in the team, he will do something out of nothing in the blink of an eye, lacks pace but makes up for it in other ways, you can never have too much class in the team and VDV is class.
plonker…
to accommodate Van Der Vaart – Spurs missed out on Champions League football for a second consecutive season finishing 5th.
well, we we finished 4th the season before, so… it was 1 season. And 2 years ago VDV was not at the club. Then Defoe/Pav/Crouch who are supposed to be our main strikers did a Torres for 1 season and that is why we missed out.
the modric chelski-scum thing affected our start to the season and with a few injuries and madness of playing kranjcar as a CM, with a few injuries made us vulnerable to 2 manq clubs.
We look in good shape, have a brilliant squad and looking forward to the scum coming to the lane. the shamrock game is a joke but whoever we play, we must win.
VDV is class and he gives us the flexibility to change formations. Simple. He scored today… so what is your point
It is a team game and everyone must do their part. BAE had a bit of a mare, but we did the job in the 1st half and he is forgiven as usally very consistent and then others had chances to clean up the mess. Besides, it was an excellent finnish and we won. Shame we did not score some more, but we have a 100% record after the transfer window closed… in the prem where it counts.
get behind your team. COYS
PS
Pav i like you, but you are not a 1st team player for us, so go to russia
We must sign another striker or 2 in jan as who knows what will happen to Adebayor. But we were so desperate for a striker that he is loved by all