10 years ago Peter Crouch played in Sweden for div 2 side Hässleholm. He came on loan from Tottenham for 3 months to get some experience. 8 games and 3 goals later he returned to Spurs with the assessment “good feet but not as good as he should be in the air” on his resume. He has since then had no more than seven different clubs including Portsmouth twice. Eight clubs changes in 10 years usually implies that the player has a major fault in his make up. That he makes himself a problem for the manager or even his team mates and the club then decide its time to move him on. This is not however the case with Mr Crouch. He appears to get on well with nearly everyone and looking at his goals per game ratio he nearly always delivers. This said and done he seems to find himself on a reasonably regular basis placed on the subs bench. Why? I personally felt he was outstanding at Liverpool when he eventually started scoring and some of his goals during that period were both outstanding and very important. He was then left out for long periods and eventually sold to Tottenham. He is at the moment on the bench at the White Hart Lane club as Pavlyuchenko is scoring freely. So how does this effect his status in the England set up?
Crouch has scored 20 goals in 37 internationals. No one in the current squad has a better ratio. Defoe 12/39, Rooney 25/58, Heskey 7/57 and Carlton Cole 0/7. Yet i still get the feeling that until Wednesdays 2 goals against Eqypt he was not a cert for the World Cup squad. Nearly every other member of the England squad are assured of playing week in week out in their club sides and nearly all have cult status. Capello has said he wont pick anyone who is not playing regulary does this include Crouch?
As a player i feel he has improved year by year and he has all the qualities needed for a target man. He holds the ball up well, has a great first touch, good awareness for his team mates runs and is strong in the air. Even his work rate has improved throughout the years. Being 201 cm tall has always been the major talking point when you mention Crouch and the well known Swedish sports journalist Göran Zachrissons description of how Crouch moves on the pitch “ he looks like an octopus falling out of a tree” is as good as i have heard.
Whatever description is used for Peter Crouch i just hope he is in the England Squad and that he is given the opportunity to shine in South Africa. Geoff Hurst was not a regular for England before the 1966 world cup finals and we all know what he produced when given his chance.
Crouch’s goal to game ratio does appear impressive on first sight but all that glitters…
This is a list of the opposing teams he’s scored against:
Uruguay
Hungary
Jamaica (3 goals)
Trinidad & Tobago
Greece (2)
Andorra (3)
Macedonia
Estonia
Austria
Croatia
Ukraine
Belarus (2)
Egypt (2)
Now I know the old cliche of you can only play against whats in front of you but many of these teams regularly take hidings and concede many goals in Internationals. 10 of these games were also friendlies.
The England forward line is weak at the moment. Only Rooney can be considered world class. Even David Nugent got a run out a couple of years ago! There are of course worse players vying for the England WC squad and good luck to Crouch. He’s going to need all the luck in the world if England progress and have to face the likes of Spain ,Brazil, Germany, Italy..
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Fair enough Crouch’s impressive goal record is against the lesser lights of the game but he does provide a useful option up front for England. Capello will pick him as he gives them something different and can create something from the bench. That being said I doubt England will win the World Cup as they don’t have a winning mentality in major tournaments and lack a decent goalkeeper.
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This blog does not belong on the local.
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Great to see Billy again!!
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