Now Roy Hodgson's main focus is the England job, it's difficult to work why he's seeing out the remainder of the season at West Bromwich Albion. His current squad will surely notice their manager's mind is elsewhere, and staying on for the final two games of the season prevents Hodgson travelling to other fixtures to watch candidates for his 23-man squad.
Hodgson has stepped down from his media responsibilities until the end of the season, precisely because he would be asked endless questions about the England team, taking the focus away from West Bromwich. As a consequence, there have been no hints about strategy this summer.
Based upon his history as a coach, Hodgson will want a big, traditional No9 to play up front – unquestionably in the squad, and possibly as England's starting centre-forward, especially before Wayne Rooney returns from suspension.
Looking around this weekend's Premier League fixtures, Hodgson will be pleased with how many English centre-forwards played a key role for their clubs. Andy Carroll, Peter Crouch, Kevin Davies, Grant Holt and Bobby Zamora were all involved. All are available for selection; all fit the mould of a classic Hodgson striker.
While none of these players are anything like top-class forwards, Hodgson at least has options. Compared to the situation in goal, where only Joe Hart and John Ruddy started this weekend, Hodgson is spoilt for choice up front.
Unless he can convince Paul Robinson or Ben Foster to come out of international retirement (the latter seems more likely to do so, having played under Hodgson this season), England will have to look to the Championship and Rob Green or Frank Fielding, or to Scott Carson in Turkey.
At club level the traditional No9 has fallen out of favour slightly, with many top clubs preferring forwards who link play neatly, but recent international history has shown that a prolific centre-forward isn't crucial for a successful side. Angelos Charisteas was the Greek hero in Euro 2004, yet at the age of 32 has never scored 10 league goals in a season, even in the Greek top division. Stéphane Guivarc'h famously started up front for France in 1998, failing to score in the tournament; Luca Toni had just won the European Golden Shoe when spearheading Italy's triumph in 2006, but only scored in one World Cup game and instead focused upon holding up the ball. At international level, where cohesion is lacking and movement isn't integrated, football is more basic.
Kevin Davies was at a significant advantage when it came to impressing Hodgson, as the only English striker to play against West Bromwich between Hodgson's confirmation as the England manager and his squad announcement. Davies's display for Bolton yesterday was typical – winning aerial balls, conceding free-kicks, getting through a lot of running and missing decent chances. He is unlikely to have convinced Hodgson.
Holt turned in another fine display at Arsenal on Saturday. Though his physique and lower-league experience means he's categorised as a simple target man, no other striker available to Hodgson makes such intelligent runs.
Always looking for space, happy to make reverse movement to distract defenders and create a chance for a team-mate, Holt is a genuinely intelligent forward. His record of 14 goals in his debut Premier League campaign is even more impressive when considering he's only started 23 times, with 12 substitute appearances, but his age and lack of international experience will probably count against him.
Hodgson is probably left with three genuine options: Zamora, Crouch and Carroll. Zamora must be considered a strong possibility – he played the best football of his career at Fulham under Hodgson, whose description of him fits precisely with what he'll want in the England side. "He's performing like a true target-playing centre-forward who brings his team-mates into the game and holds the ball up very well.
But because he's skilful he also scores goals," Hodgson said two years ago. "Last year when people were criticising Bobby for not scoring goals, I had to balance that out. I couldn't argue, because he wasn't scoring enough goals, but he was doing a lot of other very good things that we needed him to do for the team." This was said while endorsing Zamora's England credentials ahead of World Cup 2010, although Zamora made himself unavailable for selection for fitness reasons after Fulham's long journey to the Europa League final.
The previous summer, Hodgson had tried to replace Zamora with Peter Crouch, only for Crouch to choose Tottenham instead. That would indicate Hodgson believes Crouch is superior; and while Zamora suffered under Martin Jol at Fulham and hasn't played particularly well for QPR since his move in January, Crouch has hit 10 league goals and boasts an excellent record at international level.
Crouch has won 141 aerial duels this season, the most in the Premier League – helped by Stoke's insistence on hitting long balls towards him. Yet just behind is Carroll on 140, and his impact in the FA Cup final against Chelsea demonstrated how dangerous he can be against international defenders.
Even if you take the view that he shouldn't have given Petr Cech the chance to make his wonderful late save, Carroll unquestionably transformed the game, giving Liverpool a reference point up front while Chelsea packed players behind the ball – which is the defensive strategy of almost every international side.
Carroll is also the long-term option, and since Hodgson has a contract until 2016, that may be a consideration.
This isn't a glamorous choice. If England had the quality of Spain or Germany, they could afford to bench a player like Fernando Llorente or Mario Gomez.
But the likes of Nicklas Bendtner, Hugo Almeida, Kevin Doyle and a 35-year-old Andriy Shevchenko will be providing the main goal threat for the majority of countries this summer.
For one reason or another, utterly basic centre-forwards thrive at international level – it might be the most backhanded compliment imaginable, but England are quite well stocked in that department.
Source: FOOTYMAD
