Five-star Defoe ‘on his way to South Africa’

November 23, 2009

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp believes Jermain Defoe has made an unanswerable case for inclusion in England’s World Cup squad by becoming only the third player to score five times in a Premier League match.

Defoe’s five-star show came in Tottenham’s 9-1 hammering of Wigan on Sunday and Spurs boss Redknapp believes it will have convinced Fabio Capello to take the striker to South Africa.

Defoe has not started a match for England this year and, with Capello set to take only four forwards to the finals, cannot be sure he will make the squad.

Capello regards Emile Heskey as the best foil for Wayne Rooney — the only automatic choice among the strikers — and Peter Crouch and Darren Bent are in contention with Defoe for the two other places.

Redknapp believes Defoe’s finishing ability should put him at the front of the queue.

“Wayne Rooney’s fantastic – a complete all-round player – but as a finisher, Defoe is the best out there,” the Spurs boss said. “I’m sure he’ll go to the World Cup. Fabio will see the goals he’s scored.”

Defoe knows what it is like to miss out on a World Cup, having been one of the last players to be cut from the England squad for Germany in 2006.

It was partly that experience that prompted him to work on building his upper body strength to make himself a more effective all-round player.

“He’s got stronger this season and is using his upper body strength a bit more and holding people off and Capello will be impressed,” Redknapp added.

“When he concentrates and plays his football, he can be unstoppable.”

Defoe’s five-goal display was the first since Alan Shearer struck five times for Newcastle against Sheffield Wednesday in 1999. Andy Cole, who hit five for Manchester United against Ipswich in 1995, is the only other player to have achieved the feat since the launch of the Premier League in 1992-93.

LONDON (AFP)

Tags: alan shearer, andy cole, automatic choice, capello, Emile Heskey, england squad, Harry Redknapp, ipswich, jermain defoe, launch, manchester united, peter crouch, premier league, sheffield wednesday, star show, strikers, upper body strength, wayne rooney, Wigan, world cup squad

Agbonlahor backed to claim England ticket to SAfrica

September 20, 2009

Martin O’Neill has backed on-form striker Gabriel Agbonlahor to shoot himself into Fabio Capello’s England squad for the World Cup finals in South Africa next year.

The Villa forward is currently on the fringes of his national team and missed out on the squads for the recent matches against Slovenia and Croatia.

But his goal in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Portsmouth made it three in his last three matches and O’Neill believes Capello will have taken notice of the way his striker, who has been working on his upper body strength, shook off Pompey defender Tal Ben-Haim to score Villa’s second just before half-time.

“He conjured something from nothing and that gave us a massive lift,” O’Neill said. “He is playing brilliantly for us at the moment and it was a fantastic goal.

“South Africa is a long way off but if he can continue that sort of form he will be hard to ignore.”

The build-up to the match had been dominated by O’Neill’s decision to drop Nigel Reo-Coker after a training ground spat but the Northern Irishman was determined to concentrate on what is now a four-match winning run for his side.

“The fuss had nothing to do with today,” he said. “We got a bit of momentum going before today and it was important to keep that going. We looked a bit tired which is inexplicable but we won the game and know we can play much better.”

It was Portsmouth’s sixth successive defeat and manager Paul Hart acknowledged more would follow if his side did not improve their defending.

“I thought we played well in the first half and they did not give us many problems. But you are distraught if you give away two goals that you would be distraught about if you were an 11-year-old.

“That gave us a mountain to climb but overall we played extremely well. They were two errors that in terms of Premier League football I can’t quite understand. I have got great belief in my players and I do think we will turn things around.”

James Milner had given Villa the lead with the England winger converting a spot-kick after Stiliyan Petrov was felled in the area by Nadir Belhadj.

Agbonlahor then sealed the points with a superb strike from just outside the area.

BIRMINGHAM, England (AFP)