Good morning.
Of course some of you will have known this, but my guess is that some/many won’t. I only noticed this morning for what that yardstick is worth. The Midget Gem, the Master Swordsman himself has equaled the goalscoring achievements for Spurs of Robbie Keane. Both men have burst the onion sack 122 times from the same number of appearances for the mighty Tottinghams.
By complete chance I was comparing the two in conversation with ODM last night. By comparing I mean I was comparing the similar way I felt and the way fans felt about both.
You tell me what you think.
My view is that while both individually have their ardent supporters, there is a third section of fans who respect both but have never had complete and utter confidence or faith in either. Now this isn’t being churlish, because a 100+ goals are a 100+ goals anyway you slice it. More a case of never quite being able to ignore the weaknesses of both men.
Pointy Shouty Bloke for me invariably under hit his shots. Whenever he hit the ball there always seemed to be enough time to cross yourself and genuflect before you found out if the ball had gone in. Whilst he wasn’t the fastest striker on the planet he had a superb understanding of the game and contributed far more than just goals. It’s no coincidence that Berbatov never played as well or scored so many as when he was teamed up with Robbie.
Defoe for me has rarely offered more than a receive, turn, ping it, wince/cheer (delete as appropriate) merchant. He has never really had a foil a such and it isn’t unfair to say that he has spent the majority of his career in the Lilywhite elating and frustrating fans in equal measure. Forever offside, frequently accused of being selfish he’s also saved our bacon and you have to respect him for that.
The bottom line I guess is there isn’t such a thing as a bad goal – both men deserve their place in the Club’s all time top ten but it’s highly unlikely either will be revered much outside of N17. If I wanted to really maudlin I’d pause to rue the fact that we just can’t seem to land a striker who offers the lot.
Any striker in our team would covert a higher percentage of changes than Defoe. But in addition would contribute to the build up, remain onside and pass ocassionally to a team mate.
Like who
defoe haters dont know a good thing when we have it. He is a passionate spurs player who loves the club and is scoring goals lets get behind him and hopefully he can keep banging em in
With you on this one.His off sides and misses drive me nuts but his goals soothe the savage beast within.
I put Defoe in your 3rd category. While i appreciate his goals, my confidence in him is not as high as it could be. My over riding memory of Defoe is that goal he missed against City in the penultimate minutes – when they went back down the pitch to get the winner. That was our CL spot disappearing out of sight and I blame his midgetness entirely. If he had been one inch taller, then we would have Hazard in the team right now.
He cannot help his size, but he needs platform boots
Sid….If Bale had pulled the ball BACK six inches Defoe would have scored.
oh, thats just clever
Keane fcuked us over when he went to Liverpool. Come to think of it, fcuked himself over too.
Defoe looks good this season, but what`s the news on Ade? We need him at old trafford.
If not, maybe vert could play CF, Brad in goal, Lloris sweeper, Lennon LB, Defoe RM…………oh no, that was last season wasn`t it!
big Jan could play centre forward he is that good. I already have a man crush on him. Ill even throw this bold call he is the best defender in England. Did you see how he came out of no where to tackle holliet and keep our lead.
You’ve left Gomes and Cudicni out, now they could play as CH’s, well, why not?
Both very good, but neither quite good enough. We are doomed to always just stumble at the last hurdle until all of our strike force are as good or better than Adebayor. Keane didn’t quite cut the mustard, and neither does Defoe. More’s the pity.