My personal perspective on Crouch is that he is a great player when put in the right situation. By situation I mean he is deadly when he has a talented winger to cross for him or his left unmarked on a free or corner kick. Take the world cup for example. When Beckham had time to make a beautiful cross or free kick Crouch shined. When asked to create for himself with poor or limited service Crouch suffered. With that said I find myself looking forward to him playing more with Rooney in a 3 or 2 striker attack as I feel these two players each present their own very unique and complex problem for opposing defenses.
peter crouch is only world class if world class means an average player performing at the upper limit of his abilities against substandard opposition.
i think you're being kind when you call him average liverpool and (to a lesser degree) england play long ball you'll never see him in a side that plays good football
dude! enough wid the "cool" smiley. come up with another inventive take on Crouch. we all await your thoughts
long distance running favors people of below average to average height. Are the players properly trained and disciplined at those positions? I doubt it. The players on the English national team are not Continental.
Again with the substandard opposition argument. You can only score against the teams that are playing you. You can't score against Brazil, Italy, France or Germany unless you play them. Wayne Rooney had almost 3 hours in the last WC qualifying cycle to score against the mighty defense of Azerbaijan and couldn't do it, but he's England's messiah and must play even if his foot is crocked-up. Nevermind that the last competitive game he scored in was 2 years ago at Euro 2004. I mean, you just have to keep playing him till he starts scoring, right? It's not as if he could somehow never score again, right? Meanwhile, Crouch scores a winner against Macedonia, earning England a couple of points that may yet prove vital later on, and most people are just waiting for his first scoreless outing to call for his blood and demand he be dropped in favour of some flavour-of-the-month striker playing for a bottom-half-of-the-table Premiership side or even in the Championship.
Rooneys a playmaker who plays just infront of the midfield. He's a creator of goals and a scorer of spectacular goals from deep. Here's a video of some of his goals notice he's not playing upfront but coming from deep, the problem the last 18 months is he's been played out of position. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6joB2HvO4Ok See you
WHICH NO ONE IS DENYING. Just because you don't understand the difference between "done quite well in games" (many of which he has, by the way, started (5 games) and came on in the 4th minute of another game) and "world class" isn't my problem.
Podolski just scored 5 goals v San Marino, should we make him world player of the year? or just praise him for a good day against sub standard opposition?
if england have aspirations to win a tournament they need to axe crouch now crouch will always get a game at liverpool because they like lumping it long for the big man up front but surely us england fans don't have to suffer that and be subjected to even more international ridicule
So who would you have started alongside Defoe against Macedonia? In my mind Defoe shouldn't be starting, so you would need to find an alternate duo. If you are discussing world class then there's not really an argument, Crouch does really well considering his natural abilities, but he is not world class. His current form is definitely above average and he is currently the best choice England have to play alongside Rooney. If he loses his place to Kuyt at Liverpool and his form dips, then it will be time to bring in someone else. For the time being, considering the current talent pool, his place in the squad is merited.
Can you define "world class"? I am anxious to have it explained to me. By the way I challenge you to show me where I said Crouch was "world class". 11 games and 5 starts is consistent with "many of which he has not started", or does the math some how escape you? Over here must be more difficult than getting your ass kissed for your pedantic proclamations over on your Chelsea board.
I tend to agree about Rooney being played out of position. As I posted earlier the differences between Rooeny and Crouch are what will make them work well together. I think that with Rooney coming from deep and Crouch playing further up any defense will be hard pressed to cover them both adequately. Add another more traditional striker like Defoe or Johnson and play a 4 3 3 or 3 4 3 and the result should be fairly high scoring affairs in favor of England.
as has been eloquently stated, the question of whether Peter Crouch will attain a "world class" rating cannot be answered yet. certainly his performance in the past several months has been more than promising -- it has been exceptional. scoff all you want, but he has scored over the last 12 months for his national team more goals than any other striker you might mention.
Then why are you on this thread? The argument is whether or not Crouch is world class. You argue at me about him doing well. So what? Are you going to start arguing the relevance of macrobiotic diets to the health of 70 year olds in the Sudan next? Because that also has nothing to do with the point, so I though I'd give you a head start on a new topic. No, that's NOT what you said! You said he didn't start many of them - he did! He started 5 and was on the pitch for all of another. Your implication is incorrect. What's more difficult, stating that Crouch has played well recently for England against crap competition but isn't world class? Which is what I said from the beginning? What are you even arguing about? Why are you wasting my time?
i think people are missing the fundamental point here crouch is severely limited in terms of ability liverpool lump it long but england shouldn't have to
Ok everyone is splitting hairs. Acknowledged...Crouch is scoring goals per game better than other strikers for a very long time, longer than some posters have lived, at the present form it's better than anyone else. Acknowledged...Crouch is having more shots per game than what we are familar with in a striker. Acknowledged...Crouch is having more shot per goal scored than everyone else in the current team except for Lampard. But also having more per game than any other reasonably known England striker. Acknowledged...Crouch is covering avergerly more ground than his each of his midfielders per game. Acknowledged...Crouch is better with ball at his feet rather than his head. Although he has scored a couple of headers now with his head in internationals with T&T and Andorra with some finishing. 2/11 goals, very normal % of goals. Acknowledged...Crouch only had only started againest one of the top 20 countries which is Paraguay (ranked 19) for 90 minutes plus Sweden (currently ranked 20, was 22 WC) for 84 minutes (due to Owen's injury and was totally unprepared for), played 10 minutes againest Portugal (ranked 8) and 25 minutes againest Uruguay (ranked 14) in which only againest Uruguay he scored one goal and 10 minutes againest Argentina (ranked 4). 1 goal in five games againest top 20 countries - similar goals per game of some successful English strikers past or present. However he had played only 219 out 444 minutes of the games ie approx 49% exposure playing againest a top 20 country. Not to much to go with. Acknowledged...Crouch has scored 2 goals againest Greece (European champions ranked 32 ), 2 goals againest Andorra (ranked 132) and 3 goals againest Jamaica (ranked 74) and goal againest Hungary (robot dance , ranked 80), goal againest T&T (ranked 64) and a goal againest Macdedonia (wreaking their 10 year independance day, ranked 67). Except for Andorra which is "poor quality", other countries ranked from 21 to 80 of which are "decent/average quality" Acknowledged...Crouch has not scored againest Colombia (29), Austria, (57), Poland (30), Paraguay (19), Sweden (20), Portgual (8) and Argentina (ranked 4). Four "high quality and three "decent" quality opposition. The three "decent quality" opposition was his first three international games. The four "high quality" opposition are his first experience of "high quality" opposition. The only "high quality" opposition that he scored againest is Uruguay....Always a slow starter and internationally it is early days but can he developed better? Acknowledged...Crouch took until his fourth international appearance againest Hungary before he scored his first goal. Acknowledged...Crouch took 19 games over four months, having played 24 hours for Liverpool before he scored his first goal for the Kop. Talk about having a drought. Started his goal count in December 05 for Liverpool. So currently since the drought, in the 34 appearances he played for Liverpool until now, he scored 16 goals. Similar to his time at Southampton of 16 goals out 33 appearances and 19 out of 39 appearances with Portsmouth. Very comparable goals per game to other England strikers of the past. He had been benched most of the tim with Aston Villa, Norwich City and even QPR. So in 230 league appearances he has managed 73 goals and almost half the time he has been benched and not started, especially in the early days and not totally recognised for premiership at first, even with England age group appearances. Acknowledged...Crouch scored twice againest Deportivo Saprissa in the semi-final at the Club World Championship; ---> 5 goals in the month of December. scored the only goal againest ManYoo in FA Cup-->first FA Cup win vs MU post WWII. Assist 2nd goal vs West Ham in 2006 FA Cup final to win; winning goal vs Chelsea in FA Community Shield--->memonable club moments. Acknowledged...Crouch is a cult figure. Acknowledged...Crouch has earned his team place the hardest way. Benched in the early days, taunted by Liverpool fans for four months, looked arkward but prove his worth by scoring the goals. Verdict...Crouch was always a late developer at any level of the game and then became accomplished player at that level before going up to another level (many managers have shown remarkable faith in him, why?)---> Shows that he is a thinker and clever hard worker that makes up for it in the long term. Such players eventually step up as time goes on. Very simliar development to Kevin Keegan (who got better and better as time progressed and eventually became World Class), except that Crouch has a very good start at internationals at the short time he has been exposured. Goalscoring...Long may it continue. Hang loose guys.
and you also cannot be called world class as a striker until you have played against the top teams and scored against them. so until he does everyone's time would be better spent painting walls and watching them dry.
Oops I stand correct, Came on after Rooney was send off for 60 minutes which includes extra-time and played with 9 others. Therefore 269 minutes out of 474 minutes (inc. 30 minutes extra-time) giving about 56.75% exposure to top 20 country. Still not really helpful, off the bench you mainly need about 10 minutes to adjust and in some games you just get on before the half time and then you have to start again for the second half so the first minutes were a waste to get in the swing again. Crouch didn't get a game rest when Owen got injuried, so on and off the field would be annoying and tried, to say the least, especially up againest top 20 country. Well he is young so maybe he could have adjusted quicker. Slow and late development for him againest a top 20 country, or maybe he needs a couple of starts againest a top 20 to check iron out some teething development, who knows? Hang loose guy.
i think the title of this thread should be: peter crouch...shit? that would be a far better assessment