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Has a substitute's substitute ever had to be substituted for England before? In England's 4-0 defeat of Slovakia yesterday, Emile Heskey tripped the ball into the net then pulled his hamstring. Can't Control entered, didn't control it for a bit and then departed. Peter Crouch lanked around for half an hour or so and then pulled his calf. So Darren Bent has been called up to run away from the ball and down blind alleys.
Are these the best strikers England has to offer? Wayne Rooney is the only striker I would definitely book a seat on the plane for if England was assured of qualification to the World Cup now. And he isn't a classic out-and-out striker.
England doesn't have a poacher. And it doesn't have an (excuse the expression) old fashioned English forward. Well, it does: Michael Owen and Dean Ashton. But should Fabio Capello take them? Owen has lost his pace and since he actively changed his game a couple of years ago hasn't had a long enough injury-free run to be judged fairly on. Ashton is similarly susceptible to injuries. And he is unproven at international level.
So which four strikers would you take to the World Cup if it was tomorrow? It is a tough one. But maybe England doesn't even need four.
When Capello first got the job, KFF fully expected a switch to 4-5-1 with Steven Gerrard in the middle / second striker role. Behind him would be Gareth Barry or Michael Carrick and Frank Lampard. Naturally, Rooney would be up front.
On the wings, KFF expected Capello to be braver. With Aaron Lennon, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Ashley Young and Theo Walcott, England is blessed with pace. To a certain extent, Capello has experimented with these players. But he has never gone for a such a pacey 4-3-3 going forward and 4-5-1 when defending structure.
Perhaps Rooney isn't quite the player to lead the line in this system. Perhaps Capello has concerns about the defensive capabilities of the pacey quartet. But surely it is worth an experiment?
Because England is not going to win anything if Can't Control is the first option on the bench. He is essentially Heskey version 2.0. There is no variation. Or maybe England was spoilt in the 1990s. Shearer, Sheringham, Owen, Wright, Fowler, Le Tissier, Ferdinand...
KFF is going to ponder the demise of strikers and report back later this week.
Can I just start by thanking you for including Le Tissier in the list of great forwards of the 90's, what a legend he was, ahh (I'm now reminiscing about Le Tissier's greatest moments).
ReplyDeleteEnglands biggest problem over the last few years is that we haven't had a front line to scare anybody for sometime now.
When we had Shearer leading the line, alongside Sheringham, or Michael Owen we had a partnership that sent fear into the hearts of the oppositions centre backs. If they weren't available then as mentioned above, other options would still be cause for concern for Maldini and the like.
Now we announce that Darren Bent has been called up to terrorise the Ukraine. Having genuine world class strikers has been a big problem for England for many years now.
Ok, in Rooney we have one of the worlds greatest already but he's not a striker. He's brilliant at playing just off somebody but that's just it. He needs somebody to play with, someone to take the defenders away with their running off the ball and the threat that we might just slide one into them here or there. In Heskey we seem to have found a partner, but Heskey, in my eyes isn't really a threat, he's a link man, a stepping stone in the chain. He proved with his header on Saturday at an open net that he's not up there as one the great centre forwards. he's there to help Rooney look good, not because he's going to do something special himself. Isn't that a waste?
Well not if you don't seem to have anybody else to scare the opponents with, which we clearly don't.
As for picking four fowards now for the world cup. I think I'd go for Rooney, Crouch, Heskey and believe it or not Owen. (I'm hoping here that Owen makes the sensible choice to leave Newcastle this summer and join somebody else - in which case he'll be fit, and start playing games again, in which case he'll score goals)
This four all give you different options, different ways of playing, and Owens goalscoring record is practically 1 in 2, don't you forget.
Also, with Theo Walcott, Joe Cole & Gerrard in midfield no doubt there are further options to come.
But alas, where is that english centre forward. Oh how we've missed Shearer...........(no comment from aadanchelo please)
Argentina started this weekend with Messi, Tevez and Aguero up front. I know they are tiny but that is pretty impressive. England could do a similar thing with Rooney, Abonglahor and Ashley Young if they wanted. There is no target man but it would mean that that the midfield and defence would have to look after the ball instead of falling back to the default option of humping long balls forward.
ReplyDeleteI also have a sneaking feeling that Owen will leave Newcastle in the summer, join a proper club (possibly abroad AC Milan?), score a hatful and then go to South Africa as an impactr player and score the winning goal in a quarter final before you lose on penalties in the semis against South Korea.