VDV speaks out

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Thelonious

The Fighting Cock
Thelonious World Peace
Van der Vaart risks Harry wrath
Dutchman questions Redknapp's judgement

Rafael van der Vaart hopes he will not be asked to play on the wing regularly and does not believe Harry Redknapp should have spoken about his recent injury.

The Dutchman lined up on the right flank against Woolwich in Sunday's north London derby and admits he did not enjoy the defensive side of the job.

He believes he is more effective in a central role further forward, where he can more frequently take up positions like he did for Tottenham's opening goal on Sunday.

Van der Vaart insists he will continue to play anywhere for the side but has made his feelings quite clear about Redknapp's current strategy.

"I have definitely had a series of irritations. You want to play in the position where you do best," he said in The Sun.

"But if I have to chase after an attacking full-back every time, I can't play my own game to my best ability.

"Sunday was not the first time I have played out wide and I was given the freedom to move infield. But you could see from the goal I scored that my strength lies in the centre of midfield.

"It proves that I am more dangerous when I am close to the goal than when I play out on the wing. I do what the manager asks me to but I hope this won't be a regular occurrence."
Mistake

Van der Vaart was also unhappy that Redknapp decided to substitute him in the 63rd minute and bring on Sandro to reinforce the midfield.

Redknapp has stated that he regularly takes Van der Vaart off because there is a 'weakness in his hamstrings', a remark the 28-year-old wishes the manager had kept to himself.

"In my opinion he made a mistake in making his comments about my most recent injury," said Van der Vaart.

"He took me off because he did not want to take any risks with me. I can understand that but I am convinced I could have played for 90 minutes.

"I was amazed to be taken off. I felt I'd played a great game. I scored and also three times put team-mates in one-on-ones with Woolwich's keeper.

"But I could perhaps understand it from a tactical viewpoint. Woolwich's left-back was continually moving upfield and I'm not the type of player who consistently runs after opponents."
Bad losers

Van der Vaart has also criticised Woolwich for taking their defeat on Sunday with bad grace, following suggestions that his goal should not have stood and that he should have received a second yellow card for celebrating with the crowd.

"They are bad losers. No, it was not handball - I took the ball on my chest," he said.

"And have you seen how close the crowd is to our pitch? Where else should I run?
 
I don't think he was that bad in the first half, Wenger clearly figured out the weakness on that side and exploited it in the second half. When Lennon is fully fit, we'll either have to play VDV alongside Parker/Sandro (in the event of Luka being injured) or play him alongside Adebayor (which I feel would be unfair on JD who is playing well).

The risk of playing VDV on the right paid off in that he got his goal and as he said created a few chances for other players. It was a risk and fair play to Arry I feel, changed it when he saw we were under the cosh (albeit a delayed change).
 
I get annoyed with him from time to time, his workrate, his injuries, his constant shouting for the ball (Robbie Keane like) even though he's in a position that only Beckham can pick him out from. But then he has that little cheeky smile and I just melt from head to toe.

van-der-vaart-tottenham.jpg
 
I can see him causing problems this season.

Hopefully for opposition defences but probably us too.
 
I don't think him and Arry will fall out, he was probably asked a honest question and gave a honest answer. At least he's passionate and wants to win rather than toe the party line like most other players do. It's refreshing.
 
Its refreshing until he storms off down the tunnel or makes a massive issue of playing on the right.
He says he didnt track the player for the goal becuase he's 'not that type of player' great, thanks.

Of course, you can read it as you like but its seems to me like he is undermining the manager a bit. He isnt happy if he isnt centre of attention.
When Lennon is back to full fitness where do you play him?
 
Dru said:
Its refreshing until he storms off down the tunnel or makes a massive issue of playing on the right.
He says he didnt track the player for the goal becuase he's 'not that type of player' great, thanks.

Of course, you can read it as you like but its seems to me like he is undermining the manager a bit. He isnt happy if he isnt centre of attention.
When Lennon is back to full fitness where do you play him?
He's not stormed off down the tunnel before so why would he do it now? If he does that then he's only harming himself as we still have a fairly strong team without him in it.

Redknapp undermined VDV by referencing his injury so it's a vicious circle, he said he'll play on the right if needed but it's not ideal. In Holland, he's like Beckham so he'll get asked all kinds of questions. He can either play a straight bat and not answer anything or just be honest.

VDV on the right-wing is a short-term fix, Lennon will start there even though he's not setting on the world on fire of late.
 
Thelonious Filth said:
Dru said:
Its refreshing until he storms off down the tunnel or makes a massive issue of playing on the right.
He says he didnt track the player for the goal becuase he's 'not that type of player' great, thanks.

Of course, you can read it as you like but its seems to me like he is undermining the manager a bit. He isnt happy if he isnt centre of attention.
When Lennon is back to full fitness where do you play him?
He's not stormed off down the tunnel before so why would he do it now? If he does that then he's only harming himself as we still have a fairly strong team without him in it.

Redknapp undermined VDV by referencing his injury so it's a vicious circle, he said he'll play on the right if needed but it's not ideal. In Holland, he's like Beckham so he'll get asked all kinds of questions. He can either play a straight bat and not answer anything or just be honest.

VDV on the right-wing is a short-term fix, Lennon will start there even though he's not setting on the world on fire of late.

Erm, yes he has stormed off down the tunnel before, against West Ham if memory serves, Harry even said he spoke to him about it as ihe doesnt like to see it.

I dont know, I just think he didnt need to say this, he gets paid millions of pounds to do something he loves. Just fucking get on with it and if you need to moan about something - moan to Harry behind closed doors.
 
My bad, forgot about West Ham.

As for him speaking publicly, when your manager does it, then why shouldn't the players do the same? I know it's a pretty childish way of looking at it but Redknapp went public about his injury.

I don't think his comments really undermine Harry at all, the wording with regards to dropping back and covering players was poor though.
 
Thelonious Filth said:
My bad, forgot about West Ham.

As for him speaking publicly, when your manager does it, then why shouldn't the players do the same? I know it's a pretty childish way of looking at it but Redknapp went public about his injury.

I don't think his comments really undermine Harry at all, the wording with regards to dropping back and covering players was poor though.

Exactly, he's said, he's not the king of player to chase after attacking fullbacks. Well fuck me, it isnt all about you Rafa, if an opposing player is about to put a dangerous cross into our penalty area and you are the closest player, no matter who you are you should try and stop that player. If Rooney can do it at 7-2 up against Woolwich, there is no reason you cant.

I just cant accept him moaning about being played out of position and being subbed. It was clear he was knackered and we, as a team were suffering because of it. Harry made the sub and suprise suprise we played so much better.

No player is bigger than the team and nobody should be guarenteed of their place. People moan about Harry having his favorites so I applaud him for taking him off.
 
Glad to see someone started this thread. When I read Rafa's comments I wanted to do the same. I was so confused by his peculiar statements on this occassion that I actually read the article to my wife to get her objective viewpoint. When I finished she said, "so basically your best player came right out and said he doesn't care to play defense, and he'll have to cause a fuss if he doesn't get to play where he wants?" Ummm, yeah - that's pretty much what I got out of it too.

The fact of the matter is, we're playing well in the 4-4-2 with Defoe and Adebayor partnering. As a manager you want to have your cake and eat it too - put all your best players on the field against your biggest rival. Clearly, Defoe can't play anywhere else, but Vdv can....presumably. Honestly, Rafa could have taken it as a compliment that he is both versatile and unexpendable enough to warrant the change. But the precious little Dutch guy just isn't wired that way, is he? I love Rafa to pieces, but you've got to put the club first Man!

When the media asks this question the correct response is: "I'll play wherever the manager needs me and try to help the club win however I can. These situations are an opportunity to grow as a player and work on my entire game. That's why I'm headed to training right now. Gotta go, thanks!" But Rafa doesn't think he needs to improve. He knows that he sucks at defense and he honestly believes that jogging in the 65th minute is Ok because, well -- he's tired...duh!
 
To be honest, I wasn't impressed with these comments when I read them earlier either.

I don't see why this sort of stuff should be told to the press, it's something for the manager & player to discuss.

We seem to love talking openly about everything though, Arry's influence I guess.
 
I don't think he would mind playing on the right as much as long as he doesn't have to track back as much. The fact that his defense (or lack thereof) was pointed out I would suspect caused him to speak out a little more strongly. That's why Sandro is part of our best xi. Song would have been on his arse with the ball going the opposite direction if Sandro had been in the game at that point. Sandro and Scotty in the engine room, give Luka and Rafa absolute freedom to switch between their two attacking positions.
 
I really consider Rafa to be more of a second striker than anything else. I don't want to see him playing on the wing, I don't think he's cut out to be a winger, I don't think he works well on the wing, he needs to be central.

I think the main problem is that Redknapp is trying to force through an iron-clad first team for all situations rather than sit back and recognize that the team has a lot of players that are very good, and maybe a rotation should be implemented. I think there's nothing wrong with sitting Defoe and VdV down and saying: "Alright boys, I'm really happy with your output at the moment, so here's what I'm proposing: I want to implement a squad rotation between the two of you, leap frogging starts in games, then swap out at half-time moving between the 4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1 and the 4-4-2, just to put defenses on their asses. I think this keeps both of you very fresh, it keeps the opposing defenses guessing, and I really think this is the answer to getting the most goals out of the two of you."

While Rafa might not like not starting every game, I think he would see the logic in it, and I think he'd prefer that to being played out of position. I think Redknapp latches onto particular players that he then decides are class, then he decides they must start every game, and he runs them into the ground featuring them in every tie if they wake up breathing that morning. I don't think this is going to get any better because we dropped so many points to lower-table teams last season; Harry thinks he needs to give the entire first team the run-out every single game. We already have a difficult time with injuries, I think this only compounds the problem.

Likewise, I think rotation needs to be implemented between Parker and Sandro. Both are incredibly impressive at the moment, sitting in the same role (roughly). While I thinks Spurs will be Parker's swan song, Sandro looks to be the future, if we can keep him. I hope Harry is handling it like this: "Sandro, you're our boy. Every game you feature in you look better than the last, you're the future. I've brought Scott in to mentor you, school you on the game to really round you out. You're a rock at the back. You're the linchpin between the defense and midfield, dictating the flow of the game, so people are naturally going to be looking towards you to set a tone and provide leadership. Scott's a veteran of the game, and I want you to learn from him. For the time being he's going to provide competition with you, but I want to rotate the both of you while you sit back and watch him. If a game is going badly and we're losing possession, I'll move the two of you into together."

I don't really like that Rafa went to the press about this, though. I mean, does anyone not think that Redknapp knows that Rafa's best position is central attacking? Of course, the main issue is that Lennon was out (is he ready to come back?) and Pienaar is out.
 
very sensible and reasonable from viginia spur. I agree and hink this could work. Forget all the toys being thrown outof the pram. The important bit is we can play several very strong formations to cope with different situations.

Although it is difficult to take anything reported word for word as we all know it can be twisted. the context is difficult to fully know the situation or the questions asked.

on paper , form aside i think i would play vdv supporing striker. I like defoe and he is playing well but vdv is more creative and maybe a better player?. But i do think i would tell him to stay a little further forward than he does and rather than come deeper but maybe push wider for the space or to lose the defender. as i think this would be our better formation allowing the most flexibility and fluidity going forward
 
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