Have Tottenham simply outgrown him?
Spurs rampant victory over Liverpool was certainly a wake-up call for the Merseyside outfit as much as it was a kick start to the North London club’s season. The pace, power and panache of Spurs’s performance was a joy to behold. They played at a high-tempo that their fellow rivals for that highly-coveted fourth place simply could not cope with. They accomplished all of this without mercurial talent Rafael Van Der Vaart in the starting line-up – with the Dutchman returning from a spell on the sidelines, in his absence, have Spurs moved on without him?
Last season Spurs were dynamic in spurts but lacked a striker of sufficient class to put away the consistent stream of chances that they created. A shift in formation from the 4-4-2 of 2009/10 that saw them finish 4th was changed to a 4-5-1 to accommodate Van Der Vaart – Spurs missed out on Champions League football for a second consecutive season finishing 5th.
I’ve long subscribed to the view that 4-5-1 and Spurs simply don’t fit. They’re a side steeped in the tradition of open and attacking football. While last term they were entertaining, particularly on their European escapades, they lacked consistency in the league, dropping points to team’s that they should be beating on an all too regular basis.
While Van Der Vaart’s own personal form was good, with the midfielder contributing 13 league goals, a handsome return on a £8m investment, those around him suffered for form when compared to the previous campaign. There has rarely been a better example of a player being exceptionally talented, but at the same time simply not a good for the rest of the side as Van Der Vaart so obviously is with Spurs.
His presence and the side’s subsequent dipping league form are little more than a consequence of a lack of long-term planning on manager Harry Redknapp’s part, with Van Der Vaart arriving on transfer deadline day with minutes to spare. A bargain, most certainly yes, but to what cost on a wider scale has his arrival changed the club ‘s previously successful style of play?
Luka Modric is one the finest players in the league and the man that makes Spurs tick. To put it simply, if you don’t rate him higher than Van Der Vaart and more key to Spurs’ future ambitions, then you should revoke your status as a football fan through sheer lack of knowledge.
Modric looked far more comfortable alongside Scott Parker against Liverpool than he ever has done when playing beside Van Der Vaart. There’s a school of thought that Modric’s creativity is stifled by Van Der Vaart’s presence and that it stops Modric getting the best out of his magnificent ability – I‘d certainly subscribe to that view. Spurs also have Sandro and Tom Huddlestone among their ranks – an enviable strength in depth in a crucial area and Van Der Vaart’s prospects of an automatic return grow smaller by the match.
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
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VDV played half the game against liverpool and contributed a lot to the fluid way we passed the ball. A plyer of his class and talent will always have a place at spurs.
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I agree with the article to an extent, and I applaud its thoughtfulness. I do think, though, that players can change and develop into a team, at least at the club level, in ways that transform them. For example, people were saying just two years ago that Modric would only be able to play wide in England, and that he wasn’t a true central midfielder. But he has developed. VdV’s reputation says that not only can he not play a true central midfield position, but that he can’t even play as a winger. Which is asking so much less.
I don’t buy it. I think his talent is so vast, and his rise has been so meteoric, that he found himself competing for places in the best sides in the world before he ever really learned to play a position. He grew up playing football in the streets; he’s from a massive-scale council estate known for producing footballers.
I think he are the right kind of team for him to turn it around – he has only played in the PL for one season. Where was Modric after one season? Modric may be a few years younger, and he hadn’t signed for Real Madrid, but he still is a very young footballer in some may ways. He’s never been in a leadership role on a team. And if you think we’re too good for this guy just because we crushed Liverpool, you’re crazy. We are one injury to a certain striker from Togo away from being not that great. And this theory also depends mightily on Jermaine Defoe…sorry, I’ve been burned there before, whether it was with 24 goals or 9.
Our passing was spectacular against Liverpool. VdV was only absent for half the game…but Aaron Lennon was missing for all of it. He creates chances but he gives the ball away. With Parker and Modric, we can keep the ball. I think if you replace Lennon in the 4-4-2 lineup with Van der Vaart, you get the best of all worlds. You don’t get the touchline runs, but we keep the rest of that team on the pitch and add VdV, who is a a great passer and another dangerous goalscorer. Bale gives us loads of width anyway – and Lennon could be effective as a game-changing super sub anyway.
Good article.
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I agree that trying to accommodate VDV had a negative effect on Spurs last season. Personally, I would like us to give him a run out on the right, with Lennon failing to produce a quality end-product on a regular basis. Let’s see if he is able to fit into a system, for the good of the team, rather than being a brilliant maverick.
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rob Reply:
September 23rd, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Whenever he has played on the right he just goes inside leaving the whole area empty. With Walker playing right back the last thing we need is him getting exposed because of this. VDV is too tactically ill disciplined to play wide as he just wants to go where he wants.
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cc Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Agree with rob. If right side goes AWOL then the team is spread too thin.
A 100% fit VDV able to play for 90 minutes and willing to stick to his task (rm for example) is still be a valuable player for Spurs. If he is happy to do that then that would be great. Our best midfield formation is the one that uses Modric best and we need a good shape to do that.
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As Chris said, VDV contributed a hell of a lot on Sunday. To say we have outgrown him is absolute nonsense, VDV is a class player so will always have a place in the squad, we may have to adapt our game but thats a given anyway as Crouch has gone. 4 games in and people a writting him off, what crap.
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Just as steady reliance on 4-5-1 last year was in error, we shouldn’t make the same mistake in now going 4-4-2 all the time. 4-5-1 didn’t work because of Crouch, not Rafa, and Rafa stll managed a decent goal return in that system. There will be times where 4-5-1 is the best approach and this will likely work much better with Ade as the targetman
There is more than one way to play and Rafa will help when a switch is called for. And “luxury player” describes a bad player, IMO.
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ilovespurs Reply:
September 23rd, 2011 at 9:14 pm
THANK YOU! At least someone understands football! The only reason why 4-4-1-1 didint work last season was because Crouch was not world class enough to play in it! 4-4-2 is working amazing but like seattlesspursguy said there will be times when we need to change formation! Modric makes us tick? He does but without van der Vaarts goal return last season we would not have Modric this season because we would have been so far away from the top 4 even we couldnt expect him to stay! van der Vaart is class and we need him to be in our team!COYS!
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So would you guys start VDV on your fantasy team? (thats really what we are all asking right?)
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John Reply:
September 24th, 2011 at 1:46 am
Of course. As long as the man in front of him is not CROUCH. 4-4-1-1 did not look good last season because of the useless striker we had as the last 1. Not because of VDV.
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cc Reply:
September 26th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
So you like the idea of VDV with Pav up front or VDV plus Gio as strikers.
That looks like a recipe for mid table to me.
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Have spurs outgrown vdv? This is total nuts. He has has some injuries, but seriously, he is an absolutely great player. We are lucky to have him. Give it 3 months then re-read your post. I think you’ll be embarrassed buddy
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I agree with Chris. It’s not that 4-5-1 doesn’t suit Spurs it was more of a fact that it didn’t suit Crouch. Despite the goals he scored for Spurs, especially in Europe, he still wasted a considerable amount of chances that were put on a plate for him. Crouchie had skills but shooting wasn’t one of them. Crouchie took a lot of stick at Spurs but to be fair to him he served us well but Spurs just moved ahead of him in class and we needed to get someone better. I think Rafa could play very well behind Adebayor or even on the right. I am now looking forward to the rest of the season. COYS.
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Re Paul F – Did you even read all of it mate? Was it too long for you? Give up half way through, did ya?
The article is not about trying to flog VDV. It isn’t about dropping him from the squad, note the word squad here, not starting eleven.
It’s merely concerning whether VDV can force his way back into the starting line-up which is a perfectly reasonable question given our performance on sunday.
Personally, while I really rate the guy, if the rest of the team plays better without him then so be it. Of course we’ll still have him in our squad, any club in the world would, but there’s a huge difference bwteeen being a squad player and a guarenteed starter which is what he was last season.
Adebayor is a game changer and I wanna see him and Defoe get a run together.
Cretin.
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Excellent footballer but havt to go with James on this one.He just doesn’t have the discipline to play wide areas, he was deeper than Modric at times last season when he was playing as a winger.He’s an exceptional talent, and great for seven a side football on small pitches.But this is the story of his whole career, his weakness eventually overtakes his strengths, and he’s shipped out.He could only replace Defoe in my opinion, we need pace out wide, and Lennon tracks back and helps out at least.Great player, but he would only play in tough away games where we can allow a luxury type up front, and Sandro and Parker in a 4 man midfield
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Richard Reply:
September 23rd, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Oh, and I wouldn’t swap him for Defoe, just saying that’s the only one he could replace.But I wouldn’t on current form
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