The Fan

Should Heskey start against Algeria?

The Editor — Mon, June 14th 2010

The game against USA showed very clearly the good and bad of Emile Heskey.

In general build up and as a target man that will work the opposing defence, Emile Heskey was one of England’s best players on Saturday.

But when it comes to putting the ball in the net, he looks consistently lacking in confidence. The chance he had against USA was as clear cut as you can expect in the World Cup and bizarrely you’d probably fancy any other player in the team to score more than him.

Perhaps the most worrying aspect was that playing Heskey was supposed to benefit Rooney. This clearly did not happen against the USA with Rooney too quiet and often crowded out when in possession.

The alternatives

The obvious alternatives are Crouch, Defoe or playing Gerrard more attacking.

Crouch, for me, does not do the work Heskey does. Heskey is much more likely to go down the channels for the ball, and when it does reach Heskey the ball is more likely to ‘stick’. Crouch would provide a slightly better chance of scoring, but I’m not sure contributes enough for Capello.

Defoe would seem to be more likely to be used as an impact substitute, or replacement for Rooney if he was injured.

Playing Gerrard just behind Rooney is a popular option at the moment, but seeing how Rooney was hassled out of the game by the Americans it would worry me playing him as a lone striker.

 

Listed in: Competitions, World Cup, World Cup 2010, Countries, England

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