Part 3 - EURO 2012 Qualification: Player by player rating for the English squad versus Montenegro
Fabio Capello entrusted Gerrard to be England’s main creative force in the centre of the park alongside Barry. Gerrard is famous for being a leader on the pitch and that is why his performances soared when he was selected as the
national team’s temporary captain in absence of Rio Ferdinand. However, in this game Gerrard was impressive at times, wasteful on others, too ambitious on some occasions as well. All in all, Liverpool’s captain was just inconsistent. It was as if something
was holding him back from giving a hundred percent for his national team.
Gerrard’s main fault on the night was the same thing that has been pulling him down for most of his professional career; the tendency to play that Hollywood ball. Rather than playing it simple and keeping it on the ground, Steven
looks for that final ball way too often. Even when other easier passes are available, Gerrard opts for the difficult ball and ends up giving away the ball to the opposing team. On countless times at Wembley, Gerrard was guilty of playing the Hollywood ball
as a result England never really got the chance to build up successfully and fluidly to some goalmouth action.
However, there were some bright moments for the experienced midfielder; Steven Gerrard was at his best in the second half when he was moved further up field to link up with Wayne Rooney, the Rooney-Gerrard relationship almost reaped
immediate results but Wayne’s wretched finishing resulted in a profligate effort on attempt in the end.
Aston Villa’s right winger, Ashley Young was another late addition to England’s starting line up due to Aaron Lennon’s injury at the weekend. Young was bright at the most in the first half of the match but the ex-Watford man faded
away as the match progressed further. Young’s main fault was that he was cutting into midfield traffic; a much better option would have been to go down the line and cross some balls in for Crouch and Rooney to get on the end of.
Nonetheless, his overall performance was better than other players in the squad which will be a huge plus point for his future as an English international. Quite shamefully, Young was booked for an apparent dive in the second half
of the match, something that Capello will not be the least pleased about.
Will the real Wayne Rooney please stand up? Rooney’s performance against Montenegro up front alongside Peter Crouch was just another display of indecent form by the Manchester United front man. It was been a long road to regression
for Wayne after the FIFA 2010 World Cup, some say he is suffering from fatigue while others point to an ankle injury, then there is the small matter of him cheating on his wife with a vice girl as well, all in all things have not been on the flow for the ex-Everton
player.
One can definitely argue the fact that if Jermaine Defoe was fit or even if Bent was injury free, Capello might actually have benched Rooney but such is the state of affairs in the English camp that both of the above mentioned
strikers were injured for England. In the first half of the match, Rooney gave away possession on multiple times and in the second half he withdrew backwards into the midfield to get more involved. As a result, Crouch was left alone up front and thus all of
a sudden England appeared to be short on attacking options in offence.
If you are 6ft 7in in height and a professional footballer just like Peter Crouch. One would expect you to win your fair share of headers in a game of football where everyone else is shorter than you. It was the same case with
Crouch but those expectations proved to be too much for the ex-Southampton striker.
Capello’s reluctance to use Crouch lay bare for everyone to reason with as Peter gave a characteristically below par performance for England against Montenegro. He cannot head a ball, cannot make a useful off the ball run and definitely
can’t beat anyone on pace. If Crouch is in the England squad yet again in the future, a lot of eye brows will be raised in the direction of Fabio Capello.
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