England turn to Crouch for goals
Injuries suffered in the friendly defeat of Slovakia on Saturday that forced Emile Heskey and Carlton Cole to withdraw over the weekend were compounded yesterday when their replacement, Darren Bent, did not even get through the warm-up in training.
Bent’s absence has now been confirmed, with damage to tendons in his knee cited as the problem.
Capello’s assistant Franco Baldini was quickly on the telephone to Aston Villa number two John Robertson to secure the release of Gabriel Agbonlahor, who has recovered from the hamstring problem that forced him to miss Friday’s Under-21 game in Norway.
There is no indication Capello has ever been a big fan of Crouch.
The Portsmouth striker has never started a game for the Italian and went through a period when he did not even make Capello’s squad.
However, as Capello acknowledged, there is no alternative. “Crouch is the best forward I can put on there,” said the England boss. “The most important thing will be the movement near him because he cannot play in exactly the same way as Heskey.”
No thought was given to bringing back Michael Owen or, it appears, Theo Walcott, who was training close to the England squad at Arsenal’s plush London Colney base.
Lack of recent match practice for both men was a fairly routine explanation why those calls were not made.
And although Heskey ended a six-year international drought with the opener last Saturday, it is the Aston Villa man’s ability to get the best out of Rooney and Gerrard that earns him his place.
While Crouch has a better scoring record, his link-up play is not of the same standard, which is presumably why Capello has resisted the temptation to pick him to start a game during his 15-month tenure.
At least he has Rooney, whose brace at the weekend took his tally to seven goals in four games.
His 50th cap will come tonight, an amazing achievement for someone of such tender years. Proof, if it were needed, that Alex Ferguson’s never previously disclosed reservations about the £27 million he spent to get Rooney from Everton in 2004 has turned out to be an astute investment.
“Rooney is one of the best players in the world,” said Capello.
“He never played for the under-21s. He jumped. Only the extra special players can do that.’’
Capello expects the Ukraine to play exclusively on the counter-attack, with Andriy Shevchenko the obvious threat despite his diminishing powers.
“I know Shevchenko very well,” he said. “He is a fantastic striker. He was with me at AC Milan and scored a lot of goals. He also scored against me when I was at Roma.
“He has not played a lot this season but he is very dangerous.”
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