There is a man amongst England's current strike force who, when he scores England win. Oh how I wish it was Wayne Rooney. Admittedly only once in a competitive match have England failed to win when Mr. Rooney has been on the score sheet, although this was a rather big match in Russia back in October 2007.There is a player amongst England's current back line who has played 57 times for England (at time of writing) and scored 6 goals. England have never lost when said player scores, although they do have a draw against Brazil on one occasion. Unfortunately John Terry doesn't score often enough.... oh wait the first player is Emile Heskey, oops!
Yes 'Big' Emile has never been on a losing side, or even a drawing one, when he has scored for England. But then his international record reads played 57 scored 7, JT is only one goal off!
The list of when Heskey has scored his goals is as follows; Malta, Spain, Germany, Denmark, South Africa, Slovakia, Kazakhstan! Some decent enough opposition, well Spain, Germany and Denmark at least.
But the simple stats and that list don't tell the full story. Heskey's first goal, against Malta in a friendly, was scored way back in June 2000, his first competitive goal came in that match in Munich, you know the 5-1 victory for England!!! Since then he has scored two, yes only two, more competitive goals for his country, at the 2002 World Cup against Denmark in the 2nd round and against Kazakhstan in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. That goal, which is his most recent goal for England, was scored one week short of the 7th anniversary of his previous competitive goal, now there's a striker!
Fast forward to the present day and the Aston Villa striker, that's Heskey not Terry by the way, has come out and said he may need to leave his current team to guarantee his place in the squad for next year's World Cup. This is no surprise. Fabio Capello has made it clear that the players in his squad will have to be playing club football in order to get into his squad and Heskey simply is not. Of course I've already pointed out Heskey's goalscoring problem, but even during his most successful club spells, at Leicester and at Wigan, the ex Liverpool striker wasn't a great goalscorer. What is probably more worrying is a statistic surrounding Wayne Rooney; if Heskey is in the side to set up Rooney why is it that the Manchester United striker has scored 6 goals without Heskey on the pitch and 5 with him on the pitch since Capello took over at the helm. Now of course there isn't a great deal between the two figures and it isn't complete proof of anything but it does beg the question of whether Rooney, who is supposed to be the main beneficiary of Heskey's presence, is really benefiting from him being there.
Meanwhile across the land there is players such as Jermain Defoe, Carlton Cole and Darren Bent playing regularly and scoring goals for their club sides. Furthermore Cole and Bent add goals to their game of height and strength, something Heskey has never been able to do. Added to the list of possible partners, for the almost undroppable Rooney, are Gabriel Agbonlahor, who may well get to play in place of Rooney against Belarus, Peter Crouch and even Michael Owen. All these players are capable of scoring more goals than Heskey and each have their own attributes which could be vital to any World Cup campaign something Heskey can boast less and less about.
On Wednesday England play Belarus at Wembley in the last game of the World Cup qualifying campaign, it doesn't matter all too much, in terms of result, but for some players, specifically Emile Heskey, it could well kick start their campain to get on the plane to South Africa next summer.
The only thing which would stop me from starting Defoe over Heskey is Defoe's prolific scoring record from the bench. He's always been a brilliant super-sub, for Spurs and England, and while his recent record would often merit a starting place over the Donkey, it's often not best to mess with a winning formula.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't, however, mean to suggest that Emile is the best option up front in his stead.
A valid point Mr. Skinner who would you play upfront along side Wayne, assuming of course you'd start with him? And would you take Heskey at all or perhaps Crouch/Bent/Cole would suffice as tall strikers in the squad?
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I honestly don't know. I really wish Owen was good again.
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