What’s The Deal With Peter Crouch?
This guy has me puzzled. A skinny Bambi on ice like stature is not one that is widely accepted as a typical footballing build yet this young man has seen his career rise and rise over the previous couple of seasons reaching a climax with his appearance as England’s new and only hope in the 2006 World Cup. I’m just wondering how all of this happened because as a footballer I really don’t rate him much at all. I was surprised that Sven decided to rest his hopes and dreams on the shoulders of Crouch and then failed to bring the sparkling talent that is Jermain Defoe.
It seems to me that Peter Crouch has just bundled his way into the Liverpool and the England team. The guy is plain awkward and I’m not just remarking on his frame, I’m talking about his general game. I’m astounded as to how he has infiltrated the top levels of the English game. In my view he pulls a spectacular goal out once every season and he’s back in the good graces with the Liverpool faithful and the England support. That plus a crap robotic dance of course! The fans, the managers and the media seemed to be sensing that Peter Crouch may not be the great footballer that they had made out pre World Cup but with a wonder goal from an over head kick at the weekend he has soared back into everyone’s hearts, and teams!
I’m not an England fan, I’m not a Liverpool fan but I am a football fan and Peter Crouch just annoys me. As a player I find few redeeming traits, he’s tall so he should be able to head the ball well but then so could I if I was seven foot. I’m just at a loss to establish what exactly he brings to a team. I am open to enlightenment. No-one questions his ability and that I find strange, the media have basically left him alone since the World Cup whilst other players have been put under the magnifying glass. Is it that he is an unquestionable talent or that no-one is interested?
About the author Cathy Thompson
What are you – ignorant?
i think ur an idiot as soon as u say ur not an england fan everything you have to say is bollocks mate crouchy is a random figure but thats wat makes him different hard to deal with for defenders and if your such a football fan u should realise that for such a tall bloke he is very good with his feet!
i disagree !!!
i think he is a breath of fresh air to the english game.
he is that only thing that we’ve got close to the traditional target man up front.
every forward these days are constanly falling over at every oppotunatey. he does head the ball well and being an arsenal fan myself he brings back the memories of alan smith etc…
also he holds the ball up well, you cant deny him of that.
he has’nt been scoring coz bellamy has been picked over him wich is complete nonsense coz he’s crap.
and if your gonna give him stick for the last couple of months then look at the likes of shevchenko (lets not forget one of the best finishers ever to grace the champions league) is way below par. forwards have up’s and down.s the same with wyane rooney at the beggining of the season, he scored in the first game and went dry for ages???
also the world cup was down to sven, he took the wonder kid walcott and did’nt give him a kick (could there have been some fire with walcott running down the wing putting crosses right on peter croachs head????? who knows ??? i think we should have played him.
cheers
Comparisons with Alan Smith! Now I’ve heard it all and I thought you were defending him Ricky
As for the World Cup, Sven had the wizardry of Aaron Lennon to play on the wing but didn’t want to drop Golden Balls and wasted both Lennon and Walcott’s summer on the bench.
I personally don’t rate Crouch either, he gets a few goals but then so did Emile Heskey and realistically neither of those two should ever be pulling on an England shirt.
Is the dearth of quality England strikers at the minute the reason that journeymen like Crouch are even able to pull on the England jersey?
Crouch was the lynchpin of the England strategy at the world cup in the summer – hoof the ball up into the box and hope he gets his head on it. Thats why Sven picked him for the World Cup.
The problem for Crouch is that when the defenders realise that they just have to mop up the second ball off the knock down he becomes largely ineffective. As such he’s no longer marked and that makes it easier for him to pop up with the odd spectacular.
Picking an England striker purely by goalscoring record alone then the obvious choices would be Bent, Rooney and recently Defoe but Crouch’s inclusion at the World Cup simply shows Sven’s hand when it came to tactics. England = long ball??
I’ve never been a big fan of Crouch either. For a guy of his height he’s bloody awful in the air, and once defenders realise that he’s much easier to deal with.
He’s not a terrible player by any means, he’s got a good touch for a big man (TM) and his constant attempts to do outlandishly skilfull things are always good for a laugh (although they sometimes work, see the overhead kicks vs. Galatasaray/Bolton), but he’s not top-class. Ask yourself this: if he was the same size as, say, Jermain Defoe, would he have been picked for the England side?
As a long-standing Liverpool fan I’ve never been that convinced of Crouch’s worth. Yes he scores the odd spectacular goal, and (since he got going) his goalscoring rate has been decent enough… but he misses far too many easy chances, his awkwardness scares defenders, but more often leads to a poor touch.
Liverpool have better options for starting strikers (though I’m not sure if England do?).
I think Crouch has proved he’s a decent player hasn’t he? He’s no world beater (but then few in the England team are) but his odd physique obviously offers his managers at club and international level an option to go long, plus he’s ok at holding it up and bringing others in. Given England’s lack of options and Liverpool’s collection of skillful but small frontmen I think he does the job he’s employed to do fairly well.
Still, you do expect those mad legs to just snap off at some point don’t you?
Indeed you do Fraser. Guy looks like he’s made out of pipe cleaners.