So, Capello has finally decided who his strikers will be for England’s crucial world game qualifying match tomorrow versus Ukraine. Emile Heskey, Carlton Cole and Peter Crouch were all injured in England’s friendly over the weekend, however Crouch has recovered in time to be the target man for the Ukraine match, supported by Rooney and Gerrard.
England’s fifth choice striker was also injured in training this week, and the question on the lips of many who have an interest in English football is ‘what has happened to the world-renowned English striking force of old?’; for a country who have had the likes of Alan Shearer, Sir Geoff Hurst and Gary Linekar leading the line in past years it is a disturbing thought to think that Peter Crouch is starting.
Where has Michael Owen gone? In the late 1990s Owen was meant to be the saviour of English football, but now he is not even making the England squad; his story is the indicative of English international football in general: there is the potential to go forward and be great, but without hard work, and a bit of luck you are not going to fulfill that potential.
One of the main problems for England is that strikers are not being picked on their merits – last weekend Emile Heskey scored his first international goal for six years! And he one of the first choice pairing. If you look at the statistics, since Fabio Capello was made England manager Michael Owen has scored, on average, more goals per game than any other English striker (source: The Daily Telegraph), and yet has not been picked.
Where is the new talent coming through? Wayne Rooney could be fantastic, but he won’t because he does not have the right temperament for international football; Dean Ashton could have been like the Michael Owen of old, but after so much time out injured there is no chance of that happening now.
If you look around English football there is maybe one world-class striker, in Wayne Rooney, and perhaps Gabriel Agbonlahor could one day reach the heights of a fully fledged international footballer, but apart from those two England are in a dire situation on the striking front.
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