Bobby McMahon, the football pundit on FSC, has an entry on his blog that discusses this question. have a peek if you're interested. http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/BobbyMcMahon It's not the first entry on the page, you have to scroll down a ways.
Yes, Just by reading Bobby blogs he is very good soccer analyst (8.5/10), but he is what I call a wide spectum analyst and has negected a few points that is already covered in this thread. But at least he is honest to say that he is not totally convinced by Crouch and it seems that he is waiting for more results (fair enough). However, he is dependant on some stats but does not provide the full picture like Crouch's goal drought and the number of times he has appeared as a substitute during his career. But currently, from Dec 3rd 2005, Crouch has a remarkable goals per game for Liverpool and England, that was virtually non-existed beforehand. What most people fail to comment is that outside Linkear and Dixie Dean, Crouch has scored goals per club game appearance as much as any other striker that has represented England. I scrolled down the page of that webpage and found this: http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1868557,00.html It's by David Lacey of the Guardian. It makes a number of well presented points. Still Crouch has to be the most talked about English player currently topping Beckham. You think that he will get the personality of the year award this year? Hang loose
11Best According to Wikipedia, Peter Crouch scored 8 league goals last season and no CL goals in a combined 40 matches (32 EPL, 8 UCL). Your point still stands though - that's a bad return for any striker, let alone one of a "world class" variety. In all seriousness, this topic didn't warrant such a lengthy debate. I think even most Liverpool fans would admit that he's not world class, but while he's scoring regularly at NT level, it would be extremely harsh for England to drop him. It's easy to point out that the teams he's scored against have generally been substandard, but if it were so straightforward to score heavily against them, why don't all strikers do the same? England didn't exactly hammer Liechtenstein (or any minnow, really) under Sven. That's a little bit rich, considering all four (why those four btw?) national teams that you claim to support did no better than England did this year (one of them did not even qualify).
Thats a little rich considering that it doesn't have anything whatsoever to do with the topic or my point FYI - I support TNT because I'm Trinidadian - I support Brazil for the joga bonita (obviously not what we saw from them in the WC) - I support Czech Republic because of my memories of them in Euro 1996 (hazy) and Euro 2004 (clear). I don't think I've ever seen a european team play that beautifully in my lifetime with the exception of Holland (who incidentally I'm obliged to dislike as long as Darth Ruuthless plays for them) - I support Ireland because I consider that they're the exemplars of the Warrior spirit (relatively limited talent, generally underdogs but all effort, determination and persistence) Oh yeah btw, real supporters don't actually change their affiliation if the team doesn't do well, in case you forget, so them not doing better than England is neither here nor there for me. Excuse me for deciding to take a little dig at Ingerland. All white believer felt he was entitled to 'make a little joke' about someone i consider a very good defender (and a really decent individual besides) who was extremely hard done by a cheating goat (who I consider was placed ahead of more deserving strikers for reasons that remain a mystery to me but for which I have my suspicions), so I 'made a little joke' about the Big Bad Three Lions team that's supposed to win the world cup every time it comes around. When I said it was symptomatic of England, I think the WC performance speaks for itself. It got the job done (well at least until the Portugal game ) but it wasn't either particularly stylish nor convincing... reminds me of someone.
Let me guess ... you're the kind of person that catches his wife in bed with another guy and assumes that its because she was walking around, slipped, fell out of her clothes and into his arms right?
HaHa... No I would be the Film Director saying "Crouch, stop playing with that TNT defender, he's not that girly!" and then turn around say to you "Quit playing with the zoom lens of the camera because this is getting a bit too rich to keep the film running" Anyway, you know that Crouch isn't looking to cheat on purpose like Mardona's hand of God, it's not as though he has a hair fetish either. But I don't think the Crouch warrants the cheating label because of a single incident againest a good defender when there is plenty of real intentional cheats to debunk. So maybe he was a bit carried away but he doesn't need to be nit-picked on, especially by so-called England Admirers. I do admire the TNT team and hope that England gets to play them a couple of times more in the recent future. I personally don't mind if the TNT beats England cause England isn't my main team, although I do admire them too. But I admit that Crouch deserve better than the rubblish people are throwing at him because he does deserve his place in the team. What annoys me more is that England supporters are mocking him his limitation, but he himself has a "Soca Warrior spirit" (relatively limited talent, generally underdogs but all effort, determination and persistence) and is an exemplar that even you should be supporting. Which is the essence why I do admire England on whole, they are group of competitive fighters with less skill or talent in the top 10 countries, they don't seem to deserve being up there but they keep pulling it off, and are more politer than most of the top teams, IMHO which is why they there are plenty of non-english fans. Midknight, I am now even more sure that you are going to end up being Johnny-come-lately fan of Crouch as well. Just admit it, you are a closet Crouch fan. Hang loose BTW Sorry for calling your mate a "girl", I'm just being a funny bunny...I thought you would have pick that up?
Peter Crouch has proven a lot of people wrong, but come on he's scoring goals against crappy teams like Andorra and Macedonia! Plus he's a lanky String bean
If Andy Johnson had been playing instead of Crouch for those England matches he would have scored more goals.
Sure, how come you spend your life on the mu forum, seems to be a strange place for a non fan to live. meh, carry on.
Fair enough. I can't say I have any other evidence to say he's a cheat...but thats just the way it goes. You score one wonder free kick in a friendly tournament and everyone figures you're an expert at it for years to come. You make one fascist salute and you're branded a racist for life etc etc I could go on for ages. It just depends on how many witnesses there are. I'm not sure if you're talking about the same England team that the media tries to shove down our throat every two years, but I agree with you on Crouch. He does the best with what he has. So does Christopher Birchall. But neither one is world class in my books for that. Where I do disagree with you is the idea that England doesn't have better strikers who can also show that fighting spirit. If it really is the case, then you'd understand better my comment about Crouch being symptomatic of England... Sorry, the incident still has me rankled...I still believe we'd have held on for the draw if it wasn't for that play and quite frankly, I don't think we'd have played the same way against PAraguay if we had held BOTH group favourites scoreless, but then again I'm just extrapolating...Who knows. Maybe we'll get a rematch in 2010
Crouch World Class? Certainly not. A high International standard yes, but World Class is an accolade too far. I think the only players England have that can be regarded World Class are: Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and John Terry.