Spurs news: Defoe, as good as Greaves???

By Gary Beaumont
March 7 2004

This may sound absurd but could Defoe become as big (obviously not physically) and successful as the great Jimmy Greaves? Previous greats at the lane include such names as Lineker, Klinsmann, Gilzean, Archibald, Chivers and Bobby Smith.

However more often than not we seem (esp recently) to get such players at the latter stages of their careers, thus not benefiting from prolonged patches of goal scoring ease

Immediate pace, vision and close control are all aspects that are needed in order to become part of the very good strikers club. Defoe has all of the above, which is a great start, however he also has that extra trait that separates the very good strikers from the truly great strikers, and this trait is the ability to know (and find) where the net is at the first time of asking. This aforementioned talent is exactly what Jimmy Greaves had, and I can honestly say that very few top strikers actually have this, and yes this does include Owen (Hears gasps).
Maybe some will say Defoe’s biggest flaw is the fact he lacks height and as a result won’t get onto the end of many crosses, however very few strikers these days rely on heading ability and this is no concern to me. It is worth bearing in mind Greaves wasn’t the best in the air and how many goals does Henry score with his head?

Foreign players always have flair, which is why players such as Mutu, Adriano, Vieri, and Henry always appeal to the masses. But it is often the basics of the game that are over-looked and in my opinion the simplicity of Defoe’s game could become very beneficial to Spurs.
In my eyes the future certainly looks bright for us (and England) and with Keane hitting the best form of his life this could mean some exciting times ahead.

Some may be thinking we shouldn’t “talk up” a player, especially this early on in their Spurs career, however it is about time we fed such players more confidence, after all confidence does breed success.

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