The selection of Bolton striker Kevin Davies by Fabio Capello for the upcoming European Championship qualifier against Montenegro tells me just one thing – England lack any real quality in depth.
I’m not saying Davies doesn’t deserve his call up before any Bolton Wanderers fans get on my case, but no-one can tell me he is really international class, let alone world class.
What it does show is that in the absence of only really above average strikers like Defoe, Agbonlahor and Zamora we can only turn to a 33 year old who has spent most of his career being used as a battering ram. England’s real problem is that for all the hype and media driven reputations of certain players you can count on one hand the number of truly world class players and still have fingers to spare.
Right now only Stephen Gerrard and Wayne Rooney deserve to be considered for that category and even they aren’t managing to live up to the name. Around them are good players – not great, just good – and players with potential. Most people’s first choice England XI contains two ‘world class’ players, six good players and three kids with huge potential. That is not, and never will be, a tournament winning team.
That said and with acceptance of the above, Davies is a good short term choice by Capello given the lack of other options. Only really Newcastle’s Andy Carroll has made a case to come in with the three others mentioned injured but, as @philmcnulty so brilliantly wrote in his latest blog, “Capello has made it clear he will not indulge flavours of the month in favour of the more pragmatic selection“.
Rooney, Darren Bent and Peter Crouch are not in the same mould as Davies, they can’t play the battering ram role he has performed so admirably for years now. Capello’s former favourite for the position, Emile Heskey, has refused to come out of retirement (thank God), so Davies is the only choice.
As McNulty also pointed out in his blog, to consider Davies only a target man is to do him a disservice. He would not have lasted so long in the top flight – and played no small part in keeping Bolton there at the same time – without more than a modicum of skill. That it has often been overlooked due to his more obvious talent of harassing and occasionally battering defenders into submission is hardly surprising, but it is nevertheless there.
His strike rate in front of goal is also better than Heskey’s…in fact, when you think about it, it’s a wonder Davies is only getting is first proper call up at 33, though he has been in provisional squads in the past.
Should Montenegro prove a tough nut to crack, Davies is the ideal player to turn to. No, he won’t start the game, the honour of partnering Rooney will go to the in-form Darren Bent, and rightly so, but you can bet he’ll be ready should he be needed.
In the meantime, Capello and us supporters must accept that England and the players available for selection are just above average – and no better. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, these things are cyclical, but it will be a lot harder to become contenders if we keep deceiving ourselves that we already are.
The likes of Kevin Davies are perfectly good enough to do a job at the level we’re at and I hope Capello and the supporters give him the chance to do so.
