McClaren should start Crouch & Heskey up front against Russia
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by Foolsgold
If I had to pick two players on the England squad that it wouldn't bother me if they retired to a life of gardening and never wore the Three Lions shirt again, I'd be hard up to get past Peter Crouch and Emile Heskey.
Crouchy, despite his knack for scoring goals, is a turnover machine and because of his height tends to have fouls called against him more often then not especially when playing balls in the air. Not to mention the awkwardness of his play, particularly when he's attempting to dribble, annoys the living crap out of me.
Heskey to me, is just a waste of space, but that's exactly what he does so well. I don't think the Russians nor any defense in the world save maybe the Faroe Islands fear the Wigan striker, but you have to pay attention to him because he's so stealthy in his movements. Furthermore, putting just one player on him most of the time is a prodigality, costing the opposing team a player who probably will not be able to contain the stalwart of a forward anyhow.
Crouch creates space as well, certainly on set plays, where defenses have to respect his height even if he isn't that great with his head. So why should McClaren start two forwards who are basically good at doing the same thing? Well, before I answer that question, let me also say that I think the current Liverpool striker is more of a threat to score form anywhere near or around the box. Not that Heskey lacks such ability, but Crouch isn't the only England player to score ten goals in a calendar year for nothing.
The reason I think McClaren should start those two up front is because it opens up space for the Three Lions real strength, the midfield and particularly Gerrard. The more space you give the Liverpool midfielder, the more chaos he's going to cause and the better chance you have of catching the Russian defense off-guard. Once the Russians have to start paying more attention to Gerrard, than the wings open up and the crosses headed straight towards Crouch's and Heskey's heads start flying in from Joe Cole and SWP.
Of course, if McClaren wanted to take a real risk, he'd add Owen and start three up front, but knowing how conservative the FA is, he'd probably be more likely to lose his job if they won playing so liberally than he would doing the same old boring 4-4-2 and losing.
Originally posted here
