Is Peter Crouch Hiding Too Much for Portsmouth?

Portsmouth lost their third home league game of the season as they crashed to a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Newcastle United at Fratton Park.

Goals by Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins, and Danny Gutherie gave Newcastle their first away win of the season in a stunning second-half display.

For most of the match, however, Portsmouth looked short of ideas up front and with just one win from their last seven, it's hard to see where the next win is coming from.

With 16 attempts on goal, the stats show that Pompey had enough chances to take all three points, but in the game itself it was obvious to see that clear-cut opportunities were few and far between.

Earlier in the season, it was clear creativity was an issue, but now Nico Kranjcar is back and the resurgence of Sean Davis in midfield meant Pompey had some supply for their talented front line.

It wasn't long before both Peter Crouch and Jermaine Defoe were banging in the goals to push Portsmouth up towards the top half after a disappointing start to the season.

Now I'm not writing to debate the prowess of the two strikers, I wouldn't have a leg to stand on as both have seven league goals to add to their two European efforts.

However, this piece stays away from the stats and more on performance and value for money, and concentrates fully on the former Liverpool forward.

His performance this afternoon against Newcastle was reminiscent of a hungry dog, desperately looking for scrap to feed upon.

And in terms of chances for the 6-foot-7 striker, they hardly went begging, I'll say that much, but his movement on the ball left much to be desired.

We hear plenty of times the phase "good on the floor for a big man" in the same sentence as Crouch, but is this really true, or are we being nice to the lanky striker?

On one occasion this afternoon, he took around five minutes to take the ball down and when he did, his sprayed pass towards Arnold Mvuemba sailed past the Frenchman and out of play.

All afternoon, in fact, he looked awkward as Portsmouth's main threat up front, with the home side's occasional long-ball game not suiting Crouch.

Crouch moved to the south-coast for 9 million pounds, which could rise to 11 million based on his future efforts, and for me the already cash-strapped Pompey have payed well over the odds already.

While everyone is having a go (and rightly so) at Robbie Keane and his performances at new club Liverpool, Crouch has gone unoticed in his mediocre effort.

He's gone well down in the pecking order for Fabio Capello's England, with Capello having no regard for Crouch no-matter who is on the injury list for the national team.

And for me, his performances are having a negative effect on the team.

In last resorts, Crouch is an easy target, but his height is actually pulling the wool over your eyes, as his heading ability has failed to come on since his last tenure at Portsmouth.

I actually prefer Portsmouth with five men in their midfield.

They look more solid as a team, because they need to give their defense as much help as possible, and Defoe gives them a credible outlet and a potent finish when given the chance.

When they lined up in a 4-4-2 formation against Newcastle this afternoon, they were simply outdone by the Magpies simple but hard working midfield four.

The likes of Fulham and Hull City have kept Pompey's midfield quiet this season, and for what was once quiet a force in the league looks a bit lost now that Crouch has been introduced.

For injuries Crouch is a necessity, and don't get me wrong he knows where the net is, as long as it's no more than 12 yards away.

But are they losing the invincibility they had, especially on the road where they held the best away record outside the top four?

Now they are out of Europe, they can concentrate on the league, where to be fair, they have started well, but under Tony Adams they only have two leagues wins to their name as Redknapp's resilience starts to wear off.