Last season was Jermain Defoe’s best of his career and the stats don’t lie as the striker finished Spurs’ top goal scorer with 18 goals in the Premier League in 34 games and 24 in 43 in all competitions. This season however, Defoe has had to deal with a squad rotation system that has seen him left on the bench more often, especially since the signing of Dutchman, Rafael van der Vaart. The striker wasn’t helped by picking up an ankle injury earlier on in the season and since then he’s struggled to make first team starts for the club.
Recently Defoe spoke about his frustration of not starting more games by saying : “It’s been hard, ‘You start to think: “What am I doing here?” I’m used to playing in big games. I’ve played in big games for my clubs and for my country. It’ll be a tough game. I hope I’m playing and if I can score and we win the game then it’ll be great. But I remember playing against Charlton and scoring two goals (in a 3-0 FA Cup win in January), then the next weekend I missed out.”
The striker was left on the bench in both Milan games recently and also watched the game from the dugout against the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool. However, Defoe’s brace against Wolves was his first league goals of the season in 11 starts which has been poor considering the player’s form last season.
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Manager Harry Redknapp was surprised to hear of Defoe’s unhappiness but commented: “It’s not easy when there are four strikers, or three and Rafa. You can’t play them all. Defoe and Roman Pavlyuchenko have started the last three away games in the Premier League and it’s a squad game. We have to rotate and pick the right players for certain games. In Europe, we’ve gone with Crouch and Rafa and it’s worked. Crouch gives them different problems.”
Whilst Defoe hasn’t hit the form of last season, neither his team-mate Peter Crouch who’s only scored 2 in 15 league starts this season but the tall striker has been crucial for European ties. It’s ironic that last season’s out-of-favour striker, Roman Pavlyuchenko is their most prolific during this campaign with 9 in 12 Premier League starts but Redknapp shows that he holds no grudges with players with the likes of Jermaine Jenas also making more appearances this season.
Defoe went on to mention that this season was like his previous stint at the Lane which resulted in a move to Portsmouth for regular first team football, ironically under manager Harry Redknapp. And the 28 year old who’s now in the peak of his career will want to play as much as possible if he is to finish his career on a high. He also compared himself to the likes of Wayne Rooney and Fernando Torres, who’ve still been given regular first team starts despite their lack of form which begs the question, should Harry show more faith in the goalscorer?
Despite any loyalties to his performances last season, Redknapp has a tough task in keeping Spurs in the top four as well as the added competition of the Champions League this season. Defoe needs to realise that it’s his lack of goals that have kept him out of team and needs to take the opportunity when it comes, it will be interesting to see who will feature up front for Spurs in their next game against Defoe’s old club West Ham United next weekend.
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