Deeney deserves an international chance
Should the now 30-year-old Troy Deeney be given a chance by England? Gareth Southgate has made it pretty clear that his effective but robust style would not suit his England team, but why not?
Harry Kane may have won the Golden Boot at the recent World Cup but half his goals came from penalties and, perhaps because he was carrying an injury, his latter displays in the tournament were somewhat ineffectual.
At Craven Cottage recently, Deeney seemed to terrorise the Fulham centrebacks who never began to subdue him.
Now that England have lost the pace and incision of Jamie Vardy, who has retired from international football, they surely need to replace him.
Southgate may have his view of an ideal way of playing football but one has not yet seen it work convincingly. We saw again at Wembley against Spain, even if they did have a valid goal ruled out at the end, how difficult England find it to score.
Does Deeney’s robust and challenging methods not suit the national team’s socalled style? But what is that style? The said reliance on dead-ball kicks is surely an implicit concession of tactical failure.
What, pray, does Danny Welbeck give to an England team, when this season he is finding it hard to get on the field for Arsenal?
“I would pick him,” says Watford’s former England keeper Ben Foster of Deeney. “He offers a different dimension.” The former Walsall player shows selfdiscipline, too. With a special diet he lost a lot of weight during the close season.