With the absence of Wayne Rooney for the first two England games at Euro 2012 and the likelihood that Jermaine Defoe will be used like he is for Spurs as an impact substitution, which one of Danny Welbeck or Andy Carroll should lead England’s line?
This is of course assuming England will play with one striker, but this is more than likely considering the number of midfielders in the squad. Also one of the most important things in International football these days is the control of the midfield, it is something Fabio Capello learnt in his last games as England manager and it’s very probable Roy Hodgson will continue this.
So with all that in mind England will have to choose whether to go with the giant target man Carroll or the pacey Welbeck to stretch teams. England’s first game of the Euro’s will be against France on the 11th of June. England last played France back in November 2010 and endured long periods of the game without possession, this is likely to happen again so we need someone to be able to hold the ball up and bring people into play. Coincidently Andy Carroll made his debut in the previous mentioned friendly in 2010 and was one of very few to impress, he could be the perfect man to start for England again.
The problem with Carroll is we do not know for sure whether the unplayable Carroll of the last month will turn up or the extremely poor one for most of the season. Luckily as I said the good side of Carroll has come in his last 6 or 7 games, so hopefully he’ll be very confident carrying this form on going into the tournament. England could encounter problems because Carroll could become very isolated and have no one to flick the ball onto. The only way you can play to Carroll is to his head or his feet, the passing has to be very accurate so he can then bring others into play effectively. Liverpool have often had troubles in finding the way to play for Carroll. So it would be the responsibility of the rest of the England team to give the Geordie adequate service.
However with Danny Welbeck you could afford to play balls down the channel so he can use his pace allowing time for the midfield runners to join him. The Manchester born striker has just had a season where he has been a regular for Manchester United more often than not, keeping last season’s phenomenon Javier Hernandez out the side. His goal record is not the best but his game is about much more than that. His work rate and impressive link up play with Wayne Rooney has caught people’s eye. If Welbeck does perform well in the first two matches then Hodgson will have the option to start Rooney with Welbeck in the final group game knowing that the two have a good partnership.
Whoever Hodgson picks it is clear they will lack experience with only 7 caps between the two of them. This may worry some England fans but you have to look at it as a positive. After the disaster which was the 2010 World Cup the nation called for a younger generation. These two strikers represent that and will be given valuable tournament experience this summer which can only benefit England in the long run. One thing for sure is that they both know what it feels like to have pressure on them as both play for two of the biggest clubs in England, with Carroll of course being the most expensive English player ever.
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Carol
Depends if Carroll the unplayable beast or Carroll the moaning cart horse shows up. Based on recent form, the former version looks like he might show up. In that case it’s a no-brainer.
This made me laugh though:
“it is something Fabio Capello learnt in his last games as England manager”
I think his CV would stand up to both you and Roy quite easily, and I suspect he learned that and most things about football a long time ago. Sometimes it’s just down to the players.