A timely return to striking prowess

Richard Jolly

• Last Updated: November 23. 2009 8:27PM UAE / November 23. 2009 4:27PM GMT

It was a result that had been seemingly plucked from history.

Ten-goal games are not supposed to happen. Not in an age of miserly managers and video analysis designed to eradicate any defensive errors. Tottenham’s 9-1 victory against Wigan provided a reminder of the days when Jimmy Greaves was England’s most feared finisher and Spurs were the last side to muster 100 goals in a top-flight season.

With the ever-present bling, the Z-list celebrity girlfriends and the pinkish silver boots, Jermain Defoe seems to symbolise footballers’ age of conspicuous consumption. Yet the 27-year-old, who has joined Alan Shearer and Andy Cole in an elite band to have struck five times in a Premier League game, is something of an anachronism.

His type of forward – short, sharp and selfish – appeared a dying breed. There is a modern trend for players with a wider range of skills to operate alone in attack. The athleticism of Emmanuel Adebayor, the drive of Didier Drogba and the speed of Fernando Torres equip them for such a role.

Self-sufficient strikers threatened to kill off the professional predator, who is dependent upon service but determined to be in the box whereas a lone forward can be charged with taking on an entire defence single-handed. In an age of multi-dimensional attackers, the specialist goalscorer seemed endangered.

Midfielders and wingers such as Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Cristiano Ronaldo have all infiltrated the scoring charts. Now, as in times of yore, it is dominated by forwards with several – Defoe, Drogba, Darren Bent and Louis Saha among them – shaping up to have their best season for years.

Yet the Tottenham man has been damned with faint praise. One of his former managers used to say: “All moves end with Defoe.”

It was an inference that he created little for others and it has appeared to have influenced selection policies. For much of his first spell at White Hart Lane, Defoe served as the reserve to the more inventive Robbie Keane.

At international level, he was deemed a poor man’s Michael Owen, and was jettisoned from the 2006 World Cup squad so Sven-Goran Eriksson could take the untried Theo Walcott.

He has a single-mindedness that can be at odds with the team ethic, but it is justified when he is his side’s likeliest source of a goal. Increasingly others are appreciating that approach. Fabio Capello prefers Defoe to Owen as the top predator in his England squad; Spurs coach Harry Redknapp has called him England’s best finisher.

It is a view that is gaining support. If a 9-1 win is an obvious anomaly, it nonetheless reflects upon Defoe’s ruthlessness. It is a reason why Tottenham did not settle for a two or three-goal lead when dominating against Wigan.

No strike is superfluous for players whose oxygen is supplied by goals, no finish unnecessary for those who do not measure their contribution by selfless running or retaining possession.

With 11 goals in as many league games, Defoe is striking at the kind of rate players did when 9-1 wins were more commonplace. He is now the top scorer in the Premier League. The throwback is throwing down a gauntlet to the rest of the strikers in the country.



Unsurprisingly, the havoc wreaked by Defoe at White Hart Lane has rather dented Wigan’s defensive record. Roberto Martinez’s side have now conceded the most goals in the Premier League – an unwanted distinction that has belonged to Hull, Blackburn and Burnley in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, Portsmouth, who have propped up the table since it acquired meaning, have a rather more respectable record, shipping only 19 goals. Nine defences have been breached more often, including Liverpool’s. It is the sort of statistic that should offer hope to Paul Hart and Pompey.

Achieving infamy without actually being seen is quite an achievement, but then Gael Kakuta has already had an unusual career. The French teenager, whose recruitment from Lens brought Chelsea their transfer ban, made his debut against Wolves as a substitute.

He has a four-month suspension hanging over his head while the Court of Arbitration decide whether to uphold the punishment FIFA gave Chelsea. Amid the feints and flicks, the shimmies and skills, it soon became evident why Chelsea coveted Kakuta.

There are self-serving comments from managers and there are untruths. Then there are Mick McCarthy’s press conferences. The Wolves manager is a refreshing antidote to the attempts at spin of his counterparts elsewhere.

His verdict on his side’s 4-0 defeat at Chelsea? “They absolutely mullered us.” Honesty may not always be the best policy, but it can be the most entertaining one. Sadly for McCarthy, he was absolutely right.

Darren Bent’s outings for England and his two years at Tottenham have suggested a player who was not entirely at ease on the biggest stage. But the Sunderland striker completed a grand slam of sorts on Saturday by scoring against Arsenal.

He had already pierced the defences of Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool; as each was the first goal of the game and two have proved the winner, their significance cannot be questioned. Perhaps it is time to anoint Bent a big-game player; perhaps it reflects upon Steve Bruce’s ability to imbue his players with confidence.

rjolly@thenational.ae