Manchester - Emmanuel Adebayor ruled out playing for Tottenham Hotspur in a match at Manchester City headquarters. This becomes an opportunity for Jermain Defoe to partner with Rafael van der Vaart.
As in the first meeting of both teams, Adebayor will miss the game tonight because of the clause borrowing by the City mentions that he could not defend the club against Spurs for the landlord.
Manager Harry Redknapp is almost certain to be selecting Defoe as a starter companion Van der Vaart, rather than Roman Pavlyucheko or Giovani dos Santos. The problem is, they judged the combination did not work well since Spurs recruit Van der Vaart from Real Madrid two years ago.
Last season Redknapp even more often put VdV with Peter Crouch, who in fact is not too sharp, too. In this season of new one-time Defoe ditandemkan with Van der Vaart, namely in the first week, when the Spurs lost 0-3 to Manchester United.
The tendency is what makes Defoe feel "hot" for being the second choice after Adebayor. But for the big match tonight Redknapp encouraging players to try it.
"Last season I played Defoe and Rafa in away match against Aston Villa, and we won 2-0. Defoe was red-carded, but I really like the movement he had with Rafa," said Redknapp told the Mirror.
"Jermain kept trying to get a chance to get up and play. He's got it now. We have to play good football. We can not put the balls away on Defoe and hope he won the duel against the defender, central defender they (City)."
Of the 15 actions in the league this season, Defoe's newly installed seven times as a starter with a notch seven goals. Van der Vaart also recorded seven goals, but of 17 the chance to play from the first minute, plus two times as a substitute.
Adebayor is still the top scorer the Lilywhites, which stood at nine goals from 19 games, full as a starter.
@Premier League Tickets | Defoe to partner with Rafael van der Vaart
