After a few pints last evening, I found myself in a discussion with a United fan wherein I defended Peter Crouch as a productive option for England based upon his strike rate. The slurred rebuttal was "sure, Crouch can score the 3rd goal in a 5-0 drubbing of Macedonia but he can't score when it matters against the big teams...when Rooney is healthy, he can score goals that matter".
Being drunk, I of course switched on the computer when I got home and prepared the table below:



Turns out that NEITHER is very productive from the standpoint of what I will call the "Non-Crap Strike Rate", particularly when set against some of the England legends of this century. In fact, of the current squad, only Owen can really claim to net meaningful goals at a decent clip.

I MUST get the wife to change the computer log-in password when I go out drinking tonight.

RY... your vision of what is a crap team (in the past) might be a little off.

Hungary (!!!) for example were easily one of the best teams in the world for a stretch of time.

Have a little bit of a read up on England getting a footballing lesson by The Magical Magyars. Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis, Nandor Hidegkuti. Some of the best players of their generation, and of all time.

It's only in recent years (well, the last 20 years) that they've been crap.

But taking that into account I'd agree with your conclusions. It's an interesting piece of work! It would spark an interesting debate on a more populated/chatty football forum

Good work RY

You both need to get out more you sad pair of bastards and get a life!!! Oh wait it seems RY does get out

Yes - The Hungary that Greaves would have played against would have been a very good side. They just won more trophies playing for Real Madrid and other club sides. Though they never won the World Cup they were undoubtedly the best international team for a while.

I get out occasionally too!!!

As it happens I'm off up to Hitchin in a short while to watch the Martyrs...






















oh wait! you said get a life! - that's perhaps not the same thing!

Hungary should really have won the 1954 world cup. They were beaten by West Germany 3-2 in the final despite

a) being 2-0 up in said final
b) hammering the Germans earlier in the competition 8-3!!!

The game is one of the most controversial in World Cup history, Puskas equalised in the 89th minute only for the ref to disallow it, that would have made it 3-3 and then who knows?

[/end football geek mode]

Fair enough. That makes Greaves' non-crap strike rate even better. The question for England cir. 2008 remains: Who can/will score meaningful goals for Fabio? His history as a manager does not indicate that he is very patient.

Good question RY. Following his comments RE: Rooney and future England captaincy I'm guessing he's expecting Rooney to be around for a while. If he can get the best out of him, and make him a regular scorer for England then all the better.

Perhaps Jermain Defoe will get a chance now he's playing/scoring regularly in the Premier League. He certainly has all the attributes to make himself a meance in the opposition penalty box at international level.

And of course Owen's international record speaks for itself - but can he keep going on reputation/record itself, or can he actually do the business still?

Crouch is also still an option, the boy does good when called upon. You can only score against the opposition put in front of you, if it's crap teams then you still have to get the goals.

It's a case of 'watch this space' I suppose.