England World Cup Ratings – Part Three

Premier League Blog conclude its naming and shaming of England’s worst culprits in South Africa with the ‘strikers’…

Heskey's time has also come

If Milner was England’s best player against Slovenia, the maligned figure of Emile Heskey was surely one of the best against the United States. Suddenly all the criticism leading into the tournament seemed ill-informed as Heskey worked hard, drew defenders out of position, won headers and even set up Steven Gerrard with an immaculate first time pass for England’s goal. If that game was Heskey’s finest response to his critics to date, then his old failing undermined his efforts. A miss when one-on-one with Tim Howard helped the United States preserve their point, and Heskey’s record of 7 goals in 62 caps remains the biggest stick to beat him with. He undid all his good work from the first game in the second against Algeria, performing as poorly as anyone and ensuring immortality in .gif form with a catastrophic attempt at a stepover. He was dropped against Slovenia and only featured against Germany when his side was 4-1 down – a big ask, especially for Heskey. He is 32 years old and no-one could say he hasn’t tried his best for England, but it is surely now time to get out of the firing line.

Peter Crouch – n/a

Peter Crouch’s total participation in this World Cup lasted seventeen minutes spread across two games, and he did not have time to make a meaningful contribution to England’s cause. Perhaps the manager is at fault here – with Wayne Rooney not firing and Emile Heskey never firing, the principle criticism of Peter Crouch’s international goalscoring record could have been his best claim for a place in the line-up. Crouch’s England credentials are frequently dismissed because of the quality of the teams he tends to score against, but with England facing Algeria and Slovenia in the group stages, one could be forgiven for thinking Crouch was England’s best hope for a goal after Rooney. On the other hand, however, the lanky forward doesn’t tend to create his own chances, instead finishing off those others have made for him – if, as at the World Cup, England are incapable of keeping possession then you might as well play Stefan Maierhofer up front for all the good they can do.

Jermain Defoe – 6/10

It was probably between Defoe and last season’s second highest English goalscorer, Darren Bent, for this place in the team, and the Tottenham man justified his selection by scoring one of the only chances to come his way. The crucial goal against Slovenia may only have delayed England’s humiliating exit, but he did what he could and returns from the World Cup with his reputation intact. There was one tantalising moment against Germany with England 2-1 down when he couldn’t quite get onto the end of a Wayne Rooney pass, but he was generally starved of service as England were comprehensively outclassed. He should still be around for the finals if England make Euro 2012.

Wayne Rooney – 2/10

When the player your whole team is built around turns out to be your worst, the writing is probably on the wall. In fact Wayne Rooney has been proven statistically to be not just England’s worst player, but the worst at the finals altogether. The Manchester United frontman had been tackled or lost possession more than any other player at the World Cup at the time of writing, and he had England’s worst pass completion ratio too. We all know he was dreadful, but the question remains ‘why?’ He has done it in a major international tournament before, scoring three goals as an 18-year-old at Euro 2004, so his ability to cope with the pressure can’t be questioned. The theories are variously that Rooney failed to recover properly from the ankle injury he picked up towards the end of last season, that he suffered the dreaded ‘burn out’ after his Herculean club season, and that he just doesn’t care enough about playing for England. While one can’t imagine Rooney putting in less than 100% even in a park kickabout, Rooney was a passenger for Manchester United after his return from injury last season, and in the World Cup he looked barely half-fit. Ultimately it may be as simple as this – Rooney lost his form at exactly the wrong time for England, and they should have had a better back-up plan.

Rooney was England's biggest disappointment