Two Premiership goals this season is hardly the stuff of striking legend, but what has really turned last season`s 24 goal machine into a stuttering wreck?
In truth we may look to several key issues to attribute to Jermain`s sudden fall from Tottenham and England`s most prolific striker to a player who seemingly can`t hit a cows backside with a banjo, or whatever phrase you would prefer to use.
Of course we can look to another injury ravaged start to his season, where he missed two and a half months, after damaging his ankle for England in Switzerland, but prior to that he hardly looked on fire for club, despite an international hat-trick against Bulgaria and after a half decent World Cup, he was suddenly being looked upon as England`s automatic No9 and partner to Wayne Rooney, but like so many strikers, injury and a possible struggle to regain your best form instantly can then lead to a dip in confidence and in Jermain`s case a struggle to regain his starting place and a good run of games to regain his full sharpness and that missing confidence.
Talking of World Cups. So many other players have struggled to regain any sort of form this season, perhaps due to tired legs and general fatigue and as with Defoe and others, was missing much of the early pre season preparation another reason for his lack of initial sharpness, despite having that time as rest, did England`s poor World Cup and maybe frustration at missing the return with Spurs mean there is too much time as opposed to little rest, when the player would have been better mixing with his team mates, especially when we consider that Jermain missed quite a bit of football in the second half of last season.
Perhaps the biggest problem is the change from his usual 4-4-2 to the different demands of having Rafael Van der Vaart playing in the hole behind him? Now their first taste of the system looked very promising. Well for thirty minutes at least, before Jermain`s harsh red card against Aston Villa, and it would seem that usually one of the pair has been missing ever since, barring the occasional less than convincing partnership, but that has also coincided with VdV`s own mini slump in form with two domestic goals in his last fourteen games. Hardly Jermain`s fault, but it certainly doesn`t help his own form.
Of course it could simply be that as a club we have developed beyond Jermain and a few other players, who are possibly upper-mid table or below quality and not quite top four material, but for me that is harsh on the player and with a run of games and a few goals could still bounce back and be a 20+ goal a season striker next season, after all, form is temporary and class is permanent, isn`t it???
Read more:
http://www.spurs.vitalfootball.co.uk/ar ... z1JIVcLlxf
Al' najjače ti je ovo
