Defo-oooops
What do you do to a striker who has missed six of his last ten penalties? You relieve him of his duties, naturally, and that’s the fate awaiting Jermain Defoe at training this week. The miss against Leeds United on Saturday was the final straw for manager ‘Arry Redknapp, and thus, he’s making the switch.
Quoth the redhead gaffer: “I haven’t told Jermain yet but I will have a word with him. He would want to carry on because he loves scoring goals. You know what he’s like. But the one at Everton was in the 90th minute and it’s a different pressure. When you are 3-0 up, it’s easy. When you miss a couple, obviously it plays on your mind a bit. We’ll see.”
In short, he’s costing the team wins, and that’s unacceptable. The PK miss at Everton would have won them the game, and as Liverpool find some scrap of form in the push for 4th place, the added pressure is on Spurs to regain and maintain momentum for the final 15-16 EPL games.
Who will take over? Redknapp mentioned a couple of names: “The players practice them, they take a few after training but nothing can replicate what you do in a real game. Plenty of people can take them, like Tom (Huddlestone) or Niko (Kranjcar). We will have to look at it.”
Normally Robbie Keane has the honors as Spurs’ first-choice penalty taker, but considering he can barely get himself in the starting Xi these days, such honors are rather meaningless. Beyond that, Pavlyuchenko could probably crack a few, but he’s in the same fail boat as Keane. And let’s not even pretend like Peter Crouch could do any better.
Of course, the media are waiting to talk about the World Cup, given the English hate/hate relationship with the penalty shoot-out, and whether Defoe’s 40% conversion rate lately might correlate in any way to South Africa. Let’s worry about that in a few months, eh?
Listening to Spurs Show as I type this and they were talking about this. After his shot was stopped against Leeds Saturday I said to myself that he can’t take another PK.
I’d vote for Kranjcar, he’s dangerous on any free kicks around the area, not sure how he would have trouble with PKs.
Not sure what confidence I’d have in Huddlestone. I just imagine him trying to use power as he always does on his shots, and resulting in a head injury to someone in the upper tier.
Also, Doesn’t Modric take them for Croatia?
I’m not sure how any professional can miss a penalty. If they weren’t all morons I might say that the only way they could is if they’re overthinking.
@Goat Kudos for that. Spot on.
@Goat: AGreed. There’s no excuse for s**tshow Defoe has been putting on from the spot of late. It’s a f**king disgrace. Keane is an excellent penalty-taker, as is Modric. Niko also seems to have a decent touch from in close. Personally, I’d have Modric take them, but with Crouch being wholly terrible of late and Pavs injured from exerting himself for a period longer than 5 minutes, Keane may just find his way back on the pitch, and he’s easily the best PK-taker on the team.
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