Klose and Muller have 24 goals between them from the last 4 world cups. England only has 17.
A stat that embarrasses what is known as the ‘Mother of football’. One minute we say we haven’t got a star player, the next we are blaming the defence, then the midfield. Everywhere there are problems for England. What’s worse is the final game against Costa Rica really put a large cherry on top of an ever growing cake, a 0-0 draw.
In the opening game against Italy, we all saw a glimmer of hope that maybe England have some quality and could be worthy this time around. But once again it was all false hope.
There has been a real lack of drive and passion within the side, a side that has a symbol of not just one, but THREE lions! Possible one thrown onto the field like something out of Gladiator or an American Super Bowl would’ve sparked some passion!
Before the World Cup started many pundits were saying how positive our attack appeared. In the three games, even with this ‘positive’ and young attack, we have only produced 2 goals, both after conceding.
Let me get to my title, where are our Muller and Klose? Players that can always be depended upon and trusted to do their best, even if it’s not working out for their clubs, with their national team they always produce.
The first name that comes to mind is Danny Welbeck, throughout the qualifiers he proved his worth whether it was for closing down players or scoring, he wasn’t perfect but he did a job and that’s what England could do with more of. He did lack some of that this time around, but we have some many players who would push the team forward with similar styles of play.
Another name that I’d like to mention is Jermaine Defoe. A player who has a knack of being in the right place at the right time, a real poacher, none of this number 10 rubbish that we seemed to have filled the team with and forced together like battery chickens. Roy Hodgson needs to start placing players where they are at their best and if there is no room for a player like Rooney, just leave him on the bench. It’s not a bad switch too, if the game needs some fresh legs he could have an impact but not on the LEFT wing, in his best position upfront. Back to Defoe, a player now in the MLS with Toronto FC. We are so narrow minded that as soon as a player leaves the Premier League they are forgotten about. How ridiculous is that. Just because a player may not be where we believe is the ‘top’ league, doesn’t mean the player hasn’t still learnt something in the other league and found ways that could become significant when it comes to international competition, which is very different to that of the Premier League.
Maybe instead of quality or prospect, we should look at the formulaic factors of a team and start placing players that fit a certain characteristic and then this could work with the quality that we have and the mix of passion and star quality would combine better, instead of fitting the ‘best’ individual eleven.
Source: DSG
