Defoe gives Capello a selection headache

Written by Matt Pitt Thursday, 04 February 2010 20:32

England World Cup Blog

England coach Fabio Capello may have his hands full at the moment with the John Terry saga refusing to go away, but he now has a welcomed problem in who to pick as England's strike partnership thanks to the exceptional form of Tottenham Hotspur's Jermaine Defoe.

Over the years England have traditionally partnered their strikers so that one plays as a target man and the other feeds of them. Emile Heskey used to partner Michael Owen and more recently we have seen the 6'7” Peter Crouch act as a foil for Manchester United front man,Wayne Rooney. But with neither Heskey or Crouch in any sort of form maybe it is time to ditch the “little and large” striker-force and go for something completely different.

Jermaine Defoe is in the form of his life at the moment having scored 20 goals in 27 appearances this season, including a scintillating hat-trick on Wednesday night in the FA Cup replay against League One high-fliers Leeds United at Elland Road.

Whilst the 27-year old has 38 caps to his name, 26 of those have been awarded after a coming on as substitute, a role all England managers have preferred him in, bringing him on late in a match in order to use his blistering pace against tiring defenders. Despite his lack of starting opportunities, Defoe has still notched 11 goals, including a brace against fellow World Cup hopefuls Holland and I think he deserves a chance to parter Wayne Rooney in the opening match of South Africa 2010 against the USA.

Some will say the partnership will simply not work, as Rooney usually plays with a target man to take some pressure off him when wearing an England shirt but my argument is Rooney does not play in that role for Manchester United and he is playing the best football of his career at present, having hit the target 20 times in 23 Premiership appearances this term.

England play Egypt at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday 3 March in a Friendly match and I for one will have my fingers crossed that we see a Rooney and Defoe's name's in the starting eleven.

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FIFA 2010 WORLDCUP said:

http://profifaworldcup2010.blogspot.com Over the years England have traditionally partnered their strikers so that one plays as a target man and the other feeds of them. Emile Heskey used to partner Michael Owen http://profifaworldcup2010.blogspot.com and more recently we have seen the 6'7” Peter Crouch act as a foil for Manchester United front man,Wayne Rooney. But with neither Heskey or Crouch in any sort of form maybe it is time to ditch the “little and large” striker-force and go for something completely different. http://profifaworldcup2010.blogspot.com

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