Can Defoe play upfront on his own?

[scotspurs]

 After watching the England game last night and seeing how well JD seemed to play in a more 'lone' role last night in front of Rooney I was wondering if anyone thinks that he could play that role in a 4-5-1 or a 4-4-1-1 for Spurs with say VDV and Modric providing support from attacking midfield positions.

[PaulInRome]

Agree 100% that JD can play this role. He's physically got stronger in the last year or so and his positional sense has improved enormously. If you look at Crouch trying to play the same role (e.g against Stoke) then, yes he can get the ball and pass off to a midfielder, but he's never a scoring threat.

I'd hope to see us playing the 4-5-1 formation away from home, and probably at home in the Champions League.   

[Gareth Keown]

absolutely no chance at all..

Defoe played well and scored 3 good goals..... against a Championship-grade team and with possibly the world's best 2nd striker taking defenders away from him...

he is way too small and lacks the lightning-pace of someone like the Nigerian chap that used to play for Newcastle and score regularly against Spurs (can't think of his name)..

whenever he even played with Keano in a cheeky-chappie mini-mouse duet, most of the time it wa san abject failure..

Defoe should get a run in the England team, as most of the games will be less than Prem standard and he can be accomodated.... but never as a lone-striker..

[ugs]

Jermaine Defoe is naturally a poacher who plays on the shoulder, so it wouldn't come naturally to him. I wouldn't say he couldn't do the job as his ball retention and holding up has improved immensley over the last couple of seasons under 'Arry, but only as a last choice.
 
That position is more suited to Pav or Crouchie if we are being honest, but I don't think any of our strikers are really that suited to the lone striker role at the moment. Something 'Arry and the coaching team need to work on over the coming months as away from home in the Champions League we won't be able to play our normal 4-4-2 without leaving ourselves badly undermaned in the midfield.
 
 

[Gareth Keown]

with the away-goals rule in European competion, playing a not too defensive system like 4-4-2 could be an actual advantage..

I think Arry will most liker use vdV then instead of Defoe, with possibly Crouch upfront....... vdV has the nous and extensive experience in Euro-competitions to be a great plus for us this season... he can also drop off when needed into midfield to assist if Arry feels we are being over-run.... Defoe wouldnt do this as well..

4-4-2 all the way.

[millers-tach]

Jermaine Defoe is naturally a poacher who plays on the shoulder, so it wouldn't come naturally to him. I wouldn't say he couldn't do the job as his ball retention and holding up has improved immensley over the last couple of seasons under 'Arry, but only as a last choice.
 
That position is more suited to Pav or Crouchie if we are being honest, but I don't think any of our strikers are really that suited to the lone striker role at the moment. Something 'Arry and the coaching team need to work on over the coming months as away from home in the Champions League we won't be able to play our normal 4-4-2 without leaving ourselves badly undermaned in the midfield.
 
 

With you all the way on that one UGS. So many systems are set up to be slightly interlinked anyway so sometimes a 4-4-2 isn't a 4-4-2 and a 4-1-3-1-1 isn't a ........a f*ck it, you get the idea!
 
Harry is really going to have to work hard on our system and how we play, i am sure it won't always be 442 but the good news is we have plenty of players who are reasonably comfortable being switched.