THE RIGHT WINGER SERIES PT8: CONCLUSION
So we have taken 7 weeks to get to this point: Who is England’s best Right Winger? After profiling 5 men; Beckham, Walcott, Bentley, Lennon, Wright-Phillips and Milner what conclusion have we come to?
England currently have some pretty good options in the midfield. Gerrard, Lampard, Carrick, Barry etc. Owen Hargreaves is returning to full fitness…
Capello seems to have settled on Lampard and Barry as his first choice partnership in the middle – although a fit Hargreaves could change that. This means that Gerrard has been used in a fluid left wing position. He drifts in and out and links up play. Therefore the only place left to debate really is the right wing.
Joe Cole and Ashley Young would be my back-up left wingers, so that means we only have 2 or 3 places left in the squad.
In a squad you want a couple of options. With that in mind I would pick Lennon, Walcott and Beckham.
Lennon should be England’s first choice winger. He is an out and out winger. He’s fast, tricky, a good crosser and possesses decent goal scoring ability. He can create space and goal scoring opportunities and that’s what being a winger is all about.
Beckham still has one of the best right foots in the game. His leadership and calm, mature head is a valuable asset to the team. And if plan A isn’t working, throw on Beckham and Crouch and I can guarantee you a goal.
Walcott is a good winger. He is lightening fast and has a good eye for a gap. He can also double-up as a striker.
A midfield with Gerrard, Lampard and Lennon sounds very dangerous. And looking across to the bench and seeing J.Cole, Young, Beckham and Walcott instills belief that England could just have the squad to challenge for top honors.
Read ‘Part 1-7′ here:
THE RIGHT WINGER PT5 – LENNON
Possibly the hardest thing about being a writer who has decided to remain neutral, is to in fact remain neutral!
Now I don’t want to be too harsh on anybody. Neither do I want to over sing someone’s praise.
I do however find it very hard not to sing the praise of Aaron Lennon!
To me Lennon is the future for England. Fast, tricky, confident, fast (yes I said that twice), he can run at and beat defenders, get crosses in and most importantly he scores goals – good ones!
On top of that he creates goals, that he and others can score. Some wingers may score the odd goal but it’s a case of right place, right time.
This boy can do all the hard work and put the ball in the net at the end.
Once again our good friend Sven, I think was on to something when he picked him to go to the 06 World Cup. Even then he was being primed as Beckham’s successor and that’s exactly what I think he should be.
Lennon had a rough season last year with a whack to his confidence, but (as with most of the Hotspur players) the arrival of Harry Redknapp has brought the best out of him again.
At still just 22 years of age, Lennon has plenty of years ahead of him to mature even more and become possibly one of the best wingers in the league and England’s main wide man.
I certainly think he has the potential to do so! Aaron Lennon could become a name and player talked about all over Europe and I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘bigger’ teams come knocking!
Let’s just hope he doesn’t go to Liverpool – it didn’t work for Crouch and Keane.
Read ‘Part 1,2,3&4′ here: