Does Rickie Lambert Deserve His England Call Up? The Statistics
Usually, the top scoring player from a nation is naturally drafted into their national squad for international games, but for some reason the English see things differently. We have seen it in the past with the likes of Darren Bent, before he was an Aston Villa player, and Grant Holt last season when he was effortlessly banging them in for Norwich. And the same people calling for those to be in the squad, using the ‘highest scoring Englishman’ line have been adamant that Southampton goal-getter Rickie Lambert deserves a shot.
We are used to seeing the same forward picked for national games in this country. Wayne Rooney as first choice with Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and an additional figure which is the less favoured completing the numbers – the likes of Bobby Zamora, David Nugent and Michael Ricketts have all featured over the years. But with Lambert scoring 15 league goals last season for the Saints, the same as Chelsea star Frank Lampard, surely the bullish centre-forward deserves his chance, no?
As well as the goals, Lambert created 80 chances for his team-mates, a huge amount for a player outside the top four. His shot accuracy concluded at 57%, an impressive feat which put him 10th in the Premier League from all forwards who played more than 30 games. The only Englishman to surpass this was Peter Crouch, but he hardly set the world alight with Stoke last season, did he?
Lambert deserves his chance, there is no doubt about that. But flicking through the England squad for the Scotland friendly next week doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Do you think Roy Hodgson got it right?
– All statistics via Squawka –
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