Peter Crouch strikes a chord with Capello

Published on Thursday 4 March 2010 22:03

THE harmony Peter Crouch brought to England's victory over Egypt on Wednesday night struck just the right World Cup note for Fabio Capello.

After watching an off-beat performance from his team in the first half of their friendly with the African Nations Cup winners, Capello went for a different tune at the break. Replacing Jermain Defoe with Crouch made the music so much sweeter as the Tottenham forward scored twice, either side of a Shaun Wright-Phillips effort to secure a 3-1 win in the final match before Capello names the provisional squad he will take to Austria for altitude training prior to announcing which 23 players will accompany him to South Africa on 1 June.

"I learned a lot of things," said Capello of his decision to partner Defoe with Wayne Rooney for the first time since September 2008. "They can play together, but there were some things that didn't go the way I wanted. With Crouch we played differently. The movement of the players was much more harmonic."

It is Capello's way to leave a number of his answers open. Mostly this is his pragmatic approach to management. He could have any number of ideas in his head right now but knowing how much club football remains, it would be folly to reveal them.

At Wembley on Wednesday night, most observers would have concluded that Defoe and Rooney as a starting partnership does not work.

Indeed, it was a theory Capello himself hinted at earlier in the week when he declared his preference for a big man and small man combination up front. But the Italian is plotting and scheming, preparing for the day when he puts his plans into practice for real.

"The Egypt defenders are not so tall, but they are always quick and I wanted to see Defoe and Rooney together. I have a lot of different solutions. Sometimes we can play Crouch, sometimes Defoe, sometimes Emile Heskey."

No matter how many options he tries, Capello probably reaches the same conclusion. His team performs better when Emile Heskey is in it.

Yet there is another thing too. Crouch knows how to score goals. In his 57-cap career, Heskey has found the net on seven occasions. A far more prolific scorer, Defoe's figures are 11 goals in 39 appearances.

Crouch can trump them both. His brace took him to 20 in 37 games for his country, more than Dixie Dean and enough to put him joint 18th in the all-time list.

Heskey, though, is hoping the success of his partnership with Rooney during the World Cup qualifiers will ensure his place on the plane.

"Wayne is a great player and has been in terrific form recently and hopefully he can keep going with that," said the Aston Villa striker.

"He has done a lot in his career already, considering his age, and he can go on to do even more.

"Whoever plays up front can make a good partnership – but the one with Wayne and myself has been quite successful in qualifying for the World Cup and it came to us both pretty naturally really.

"I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be going to the World Cup."