Jermain Defoe is a Fashion Victim

Filed in archive Players on August 29, 2007

Jermain Defoe surely wants to play some football, as does Shaun Wright-Phillips. So the latest rumour has Spurs and Chelsea exchanging their respective good but not quite good enough players. I can see how this works for SWP: Spurs need width and he'll provide it. But for Defoe? If Chelsea play mostly 4-3-3 this season, as Mourinho has stated, then where does Defoe fit in? He can't really play wide, and he's not big enough to play as the lone striker a la Drogba.

This goes to a wider problem that's going to haunt Defoe, possibly for the rest of his career. He's a poacher, much like Michael Owen, and that type of player is out of fashion. Pacy little poachers like Owen and Defoe work best when playing in a font two, either with a big man, or with a deep lying creative type. In either situation their pace is an asset for stretching defences and their goalpoaching instincts are useful for obvious reasons. But the current vogue for either a straight one up front, or a Chelsea style 4-3-3 means forwards have to do more than run fast and finish. They have to hold balls up and bring others into play, and if that's not your game then you're out of luck.

I hope Defoe can find a club that suits him, because the guy's got bags of talent and is exciting to watch when in form. But surely a move to Chelsea will end with him sitting on the bench, possibly even more than he does at Spurs.