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Crouch, Carroll or Holt up front for England at Euros?

Roy Hodgson will announce his first England squad today, the players representing the country at Euro 2012. With Rooney suspended for the first two games the side is looking a little lightweight in terms of goal scorers, many punters are thinking England are at best an outside Euro 2012 bet. In the possible absence of Darren Bent the three likeliest candidates to fill the centre forward position for England are Peter Crouch, Andy Carroll, and Grant Holt, all who have had varying degrees of success this season for their clubs.

Just a few weeks ago the mention of Andy Carroll being considered for Euro 2012 would have been met with raised eyebrows. In the last few weeks though he has been showing the form that saw Liverpool pay £35 million for him. His appearance as substitute in the FA Cup Final transformed a Liverpool performance that until then had been below par. His goal which he put away with some aplomb after showing a couple of nice touches in the box first, brought Liverpool back into the game, and his contribution for the rest of the match kept Chelsea on their toes. He then carried on where he left off in the league game against Chelsea a few days later when he gave the Chelsea defence, particularly John Terry, a torrid time.

Crouch has the advantage over the other two in terms of international experience having played 42 times for his country scoring a highly impressive 22 times. He has also seen action in tournaments before in the 2006 and 2010 World Cups. Crouch has enjoyed a good season following his transfer from Spurs to Stoke, being one of only three English players to make it to double figures in the goal scoring charts in the Premier League with 14 goals. He his highly thought of by the fans, being voted player of the season, and manager Tony Pulis has regularly been praising him and suggesting he should be playing for England again. The last time he played for England was in 2010 when he scored in a 2-1 home defeat to France. Since then he seemed to fall out of favour with Capello, but a new manager might see things with fresh eyes and give Crouch a call.

Although a tall man Crouch’s strength is not just in the air, he scored one of the goals of the season with a stunning volley against Man City. Former England striker Gary Lineker has also thrown his weight benhind Crouch, saying “He is a proven goalscorer at international level, I would be surprised if Crouch is not in the squad. I would definitely consider him”.

The third prospect is Norwich’s Grant Holt, who with fifteen goals is the second highest English goal scorer in the Premier league this season behind Wayne Rooney. He is untested at international level but is in form and has proved his ability with some excellent performances in his first season in the premiership. England have two friendlies, away to Norway and home to Belgium, before the start of Euro 2012, and it could well be that Holt get’s a chance to show what he can do in at least one of them, we’ll find out today when Hodgson names his squad.

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