Crouchie, JD and Pav

[garyhopkins]

Crouchie has just hit the winner at the San Siro! Unbelievable!

From my reading of late our strikeforce appear to have suddenly gone from the hottest quartet in the League to the most wasteful, waste of space threesome that should have been swapped in the transfer window. Now, we all know they haven't been at their best but some of the criticism has been over the top. As 'arry says, it's hard to get better players. And we still have a foursome - people tend to conveniently forget that VDV is essentially our second striker when saying our strikers are rubbish.

Anyway, we are stuck with the threesome now and I am very hopeful that we will see a resurgence in their form. 4th in the table and with 12 league games and at least 1 CL fixture (potentially 6!) to go, we need them firing on all cylinders. So, hopefully, people will get behind them. They have been instrumental in getting us where we are and deserve our support, as well as the chance to bring glory to the Lane.

JD has definitely not had a good season but he's going to score soon - I'm sure of it! Actually it doesn't seem that long ago that he hit those five goals against Wigan. What a night that was, less we forget what he is capable of!

Crouchie at Man City last season and now the San Siro? I thought he couldn't score? We owe the big fella for two very memorable nights!

As for the very much maligned Pav, he scored my favorite goal of this season when he ran from our half to prod home Bale's cross against Inter. Yes, he can run! He also scored the extremely crucial second goal in Switzerland that led to YB's capitulation.

What I am trying to say is that these guys have scored very important goals for us, creating memorable (recent) moments for me, and so, I really believe they can produce some more in the coming weeks. I hope so, as then we will be doing well and, maybe, just maybe, a few people will refrain from all the flak they give out to these guys!

 

[Spurger King]

Good post.

 

[Jimmypearce7]

Yes they have all been a bit of a waste of space goal wise but while they are not absolutely top level neither are they as poor as they have seemed this season. Not that i could ever say anything negative about Crouchie, who gives it everything, as you Garyhopkins says and has scored two of the most vital goals in our recent history.
A little run from JD, scoring five in ten or something could be crucial and i can see him delivering. Not that i would put him in as first choice- i would always go for Crouch and VDV if both fit.
Despite Crouch and Defoe playing together much longer, VDV anticipated Crouch's knock downs much better.

 

[dynamoSpurs]

crouch scored that goal, sure, but Sando, Niko and Lennon made it oh so easy for him.. I could have buried that peach of a pass from Az..

 

[EastLondonYid]

Winning matches is not all about our strikers scoring a hatfull of goals, and that is a fact because our record proves it.
They must be doing something right for us to be where we are both in europe and at home.
If anything it makes us harder to beat, the opposition know that we have matchwinners from all areas of the pitch,they really can't work out who to stop as our goal threat is so unpredictable, maybe thats one of the reasons we are doing so well.

 

[mil1lion]

As long as we're winning games I couldn't care less who scores the goals.

 

[ThorntonSpur]

Pav scored my favourite goal i have seen in the flesh so far away at Bolton a real quality finish as it dropped down from the heavens his eye never left the ball all the way to his foot when he unleashed a thunderbolt of a shot.

 

[guate]

Winning matches is not all about our strikers scoring a hatfull of goals, and that is a fact because our record proves it.
They must be doing something right for us to be where we are both in europe and at home.
If anything it makes us harder to beat, the opposition know that we have matchwinners from all areas of the pitch,they really can't work out who to stop as our goal threat is so unpredictable, maybe thats one of the reasons we are doing so well.

I think you're on to something there, it definitely does make us very unpredictable and could be the very reason, albeit unintentionally, why we are doing so well in both the league and Champions. Good point

 

[kaz Hirai]

Crouchie has just hit the winner at the San Siro! Unbelievable!

From my reading of late our strikeforce appear to have suddenly gone from the hottest quartet in the League to the most wasteful, waste of space threesome that should have been swapped in the transfer window. Now, we all know they haven't been at their best but some of the criticism has been over the top. As 'arry says, it's hard to get better players. And we still have a foursome - people tend to conveniently forget that VDV is essentially our second striker when saying our strikers are rubbish.

Anyway, we are stuck with the threesome now and I am very hopeful that we will see a resurgence in their form. 4th in the table and with 12 league games and at least 1 CL fixture (potentially 6!) to go, we need them firing on all cylinders. So, hopefully, people will get behind them. They have been instrumental in getting us where we are and deserve our support, as well as the chance to bring glory to the Lane.

JD has definitely not had a good season but he's going to score soon - I'm sure of it! Actually it doesn't seem that long ago that he hit those five goals against Wigan. What a night that was, less we forget what he is capable of!

Crouchie at Man City last season and now the San Siro? I thought he couldn't score? We owe the big fella for two very memorable nights!

As for the very much maligned Pav, he scored my favorite goal of this season when he ran from our half to prod home Bale's cross against Inter. Yes, he can run! He also scored the extremely crucial second goal in Switzerland that led to YB's capitulation.

What I am trying to say is that these guys have scored very important goals for us, creating memorable (recent) moments for me, and so, I really believe they can produce some more in the coming weeks. I hope so, as then we will be doing well and, maybe, just maybe, a few people will refrain from all the flak they give out to these guys!

:lol: when were those 3 ever considered the hottest quartet in the league? anyway crouch has always been good in European competition, he will go back to his mostly useless ways until we play Milan at home were he will again look like a top quality striker

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

Having a top class striker, who is deadly in front of goal but also has skill, presence and the ability to be involved in our build up play would take us to another level and actually make us title contenders.

Arsenal have Van Persie, Man Utd have Berbatov and Rooney, Man City have Tevez and Chelsea have Drogba and Torres.

All these strikers do more than just stand up top. They are all skillful, have a great touch and good vision, can link play or beat people, can finish and can score goals out of nothing.

We don't have that. All of our strikers are barely mentioned during games, they don't get involved with our slick passing game, they all rely on service and even then their finishing is poor.

A top class striker and all of a sudden we would be on another level to where we are now, imagine that!

 

[kaz Hirai]

Having a top class striker, who is deadly in front of goal but also has skill, presence and the ability to be involved in our build up play would take us to another level and actually make us title contenders.

Arsenal have Van Persie, Man Utd have Berbatov and Rooney, Man City have Tevez and Chelsea have Drogba and Torres.

All these strikers do more than just stand up top. They are all skillful, have a great touch and good vision, can link play or beat people, can finish and can score goals out of nothing.

We don't have that. All of our strikers are barely mentioned during games, they don't get involved with our slick passing game, they all rely on service and even then their finishing is poor.

A top class striker and all of a sudden we would be on another level to where we are now, imagine that!

probably wouldnt work, but i wouldnt mind seeing niko ahead of VDV. sounds drool worthy but yeah probably wouldnt work

 

[Aaron140]

probably wouldnt work, but i wouldnt mind seeing niko ahead of VDV. sounds drool worthy but yeah probably wouldnt work

Harry would have to be pretty ballsy to do that! It would be an insult to our strikers too, might upset the harmony at the club.

Asuming you meant play him as striker?

 

[kaz Hirai]

Harry would have to be pretty ballsy to do that! It would be an insult to our strikers too, might upset the harmony at the club.

Asuming you meant play him as striker?

yep as a striker, has just as much technical ability as a berbatov imo, and a great shot. but obviously he has never played as a striker and so probably has zero movement or the ability to make the right runs.
still even so his league output couldnt be any worse than the other 3

 

[michaelden]

:rofl: Crouch scores a tap in to an empty goal and suddenly he's a scoring god on par with Ronaldo (the Brazilian) :roll:


That goal was Lennon's, Crouch just scored it. Don't get me wrong, Crouch played very well and worked hard. Well played to him, but even Palacios or Freund would've scored that goal. Lennon put it on a plate for him.

 

[There's always next year]

Who knows how many we may have won by, if we had a top class striker against Milan.
Other than score. I can't recall Crouch doing that much, other than lumbering around winning the odd header that invariable went to them.

 

[Chimbo!]

i agree with you up to a point. defoe is a goal scorer and if he does not score over a prolonged period of time then you have to question his place in the team.

Crouch on the other hand gives us so much more than goals. he is integral to the way we play, assists vdv and is very good in europe. he has been quite poor in the league but he is definitely useful.

Pav is inconsistent. he drifts in and out of games, he at times appears lethargic and i just feel that he could do so much better.

All in all while none of them are bad (their records speak for themselves) they are not up to the very high standards that a team with our aspirations demand.

 

[Misfit]

I support all 3 of them fully. We need improvements in the summer though if we want to keep progressing. But right now and as long as they trot out wearing the shirt, I'll cheer them on and hope at least one starts banging them regularly.

 

[Coyboy]

Who knows how many we may have won by, if we had a top class striker against Milan.
Other than score. I can't recall Crouch doing that much, other than lumbering around winning the odd header that invariable went to them.

Yeah because Crouch missed so many sitters didn't he? So instead of being a man about it and perhaps God forbid being contrite, you blame Crouch for not scoring more and just cowardly delve into the magical world of the hypothetical.

He only covered more ground than virtually anyone else. He provided an outlet for the rest of the team. He worked his socks off and he scored the winner against AC Milan.

What a useless streak of piss eh?

 

[RobinLeonard]

Who knows how many we may have won by, if we had a top class striker against Milan.
Other than score. I can't recall Crouch doing that much, other than lumbering around winning the odd header that invariable went to them.

He covered the second biggest distance of any player on the pitch. He contributed with some really quite solid target man play. He made Gattuso mad.

Milan has a top striker, one of the very best. How many did they score?

 

[Dannyspur]

:rofl: Crouch scores a tap in to an empty goal and suddenly he's a scoring god on par with Ronaldo (the Brazilian) :roll:

That goal was Lennon's, Crouch just scored it. Don't get me wrong, Crouch played very well and worked hard. Well played to him, but even Palacios or Freund would've scored that goal. Lennon put it on a plate for him.

Who knows how many we may have won by, if we had a top class striker against Milan.
Other than score. I can't recall Crouch doing that much, other than lumbering around winning the odd header that invariable went to them.

I wasn't going to have a dig at crouch - he has scored another crucial and valuable goal. (did you see how close he got it to the post?) Crouch did cover a lot of ground to be fair, but I have to agree with you two, he hardly won a header all night.