Darren Bent Should Start Against Germany

November 11th, 2008 | by: Daryl |

It’s squad selection time for the ~~grudge match~~ friendly against Germany pretty soon. Rumour has it that David Beckham won’t be making the trip, which is fair enough as he hasn’t played since Galaxy’s season ended. Badly. The move to Milan will likely see him back in Capello’s squad, but does it really matter anymore? Beckham is the past, and friendlies are about the future.

That in mind, how about a call-up for Darren Bent? The Spurs man has finally found his form and banged in five goals in his last two games (see video below).

Bent is currently the top English scorer in the Premier League with seven goals and exactly the type of player England needs right now.

I’m convinced that Rooney needs a target man to play off of, someone who’ll be strong and occupy defenders and allow Rooney to drop deep. Right now all we have is Emile Heskey.

Could be worse, but what if he gets injured? Like he is right now. With Heskey likely out for the game against Germany and Darren Bent in from, I’d say the time is right. The Spurs striker is 24 now and done his time waiting around. Time to call him up and play him from the start.

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http://epl.theoffside.com Rob

I’ve not thought of Bent as quite England quality before now – but you’re right he’s been on fire the last couple of weeks (i.e Post-Ramos), so he deserves a shout for sure.
http://littlemissdiana.blogspot.com diana

Agreed. Daryl, I almost chuckled when I saw that you crossed out ‘grudge match’.

Anyhow, the latest FIFA rankings are out. England is now, 10th. Up four places. What a difference a Fabio Capello can make. And in regards to Germany (since we are going to play them next week)…up one place to, second.
dave p

Daryl, Bent is noty a target man. He is an on the shoulder, speed mercahnt who likes to get played into behind the defenders. Its a square peg into a round hole to play him in the manner of a HEskey. I love Darren Bent b/c he plays like me -but at a 50x higher level-so I’m not bashing him, but he must be played to his strengths or else it will be a poor move.
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

dave p, Yeah, I agree with that. He’s definitely not a proper target man and I wouldn’t expect him to hold the ball up or anything. But he’s at least a more physically imposing player than an Owen or a Crouch and at least having him on the shoulder of the last defender pins them back a bit and hopefully gives Rooney some space to play in.

That said, the truth is that we do need a proper target man for the future. I just don’t know who it could be. Any ideas?