Rafael van der Vaart made a stunning entrance to the English Premier League. He came to White Hart Lane with a big reputation, fans everywhere were wondering how Tottenham had managed to secure his signature for just £8m. After scoring 8 goals in his first 13 games, the hype around the Dutch maestro continued to soar.
However, over the last few months van der Vaart’s fitness has come into the spotlight. He has had a series of niggling injuries and does not look like he can play a whole game at Premier League pace. The affect of this is that he has not played a full 90 minutes since February 2.
Tottenham might have had a wonderful run in the Champions League, but their Premiership form of late has been poor. In the last four games, against Wigan, West Ham, Wolves and Blackpool, Tottenham have gained just 3 points from a possible 12. Tottenham fans must be wondering just how good life could be. If they had won these four games, all against teams at the bottom end of the league, Tottenham could be 2nd. It is no wonder that in recent weeks, Tottenham fans have been asking the the question, is van Der Vaart’s fitness a cause for concern?
Personally I do not think that van der Vaart’s fitness and his form go completely hand in hand. He has never relied on pace and excessive movement to score his goals, rather he relies on awareness and fantastic technique. His reduced time on the pitch may have coincided with dip in form, but I really don’t think his fitness is entirely to blame.
[ad_pod id=’unruly’ align=’right’]
Furthermore, van der Vaart’s bad form came before his fitness worries. He might not have played a full 90 minutes since February 2. But for the whole of January, he was fit and played 6 games in a row under full fitness. But van der Vaart has not scored a goal in open play since January 5, in that time he has play for a staggering 728 minutes. So his dip in form came before his dip in fitness but his continued.
Instead I think his formed has dipped due to the injury of Gareth Bale. In the early part of the season, Tottenham were playing with Lennon and Bale on the wings. With such fast defenders, Tottenham often stretched the opposition defence. This created space for van der Vaart, who plays in the hole. to exploit. He did so extremely well. Since Bale’s injury Tottenham not only miss Bale’s individual quality but van der Vaart’s effectiveness is also restricted as a result.
The replacements for Bale have been mainly Pienaar and occasionally Kranjcar. I think Redknapp picks Pienaar because he is the faster of the two and he has van der Vaart‘s strengths in mind. But neither is quick enough to create the kind of space Bale does. Kranjcar still has not played regularly despite scoring vital goals against Bolton and Sunderland.
It is not just Bale’s injury but also the return to fitness of Jermain Defoe that has thrown a spanner into the works at Tottenham. Defoe and van der Vaart do not play well together. Defoe does not occupy the defence in the same way Crouch does, so van der Vaart struggles to find that space. Furthermore, he loves to feed off Crouch’s flick-ons , that is not Defoe‘s strength. However, Defoe does not play well with van der Vaart either. His only two goals came against Wolves when the Dutchman was injured. It seems Tottenham’s problems in attack are not just due to the fitness of van der Vaart but are more deep rooted than that, they miss Gareth Bale who allows Tottenham to play a shape that better suits Rafa.
Before a huge game tonight, this seems a bit negative so I will finish on a lighter note. Tottenham have kept three consecutive three sheets in their last three games. Lets hope they can continue that tonight at The Bernabeu.
[bet_365 type='odds' size='300' af_code='365_050711']
