Portsmouth Purchases Peter Crouch

Portsmouth has completed a $22 million move to bring Peter Crouch back to Fratton Park after seven years, during which Crouch played for four other clubs and earned his way squarely into the England setup.

Crouch, the tallest player ever to put on a Three Lions shirt at 6′7″, spent the last three seasons at Liverpool, where he scored 22 goals in 85 league matches but led the club in ‘06-’07 with 18 goals in all competitions, including a hat trick in Liverpool’s 4-1 victory over Arsenal.

He was obviously out of favor at Anfield with the emergence of Fernando Torres, and manager Rafael Benitez found a formation that worked towards the end of the year — playing Torres as a lone striker with Steven Gerrard right behind him. Crouch was relegated to long stretches on the bench, usually coming in very late in games when Liverpool needed a spark. His playing style and body build wasn’t suited for Benitez’s preferred gameplan, and there was no way Crouch was ever going to be more than a role player as long as he stayed on Merseyside.

He’s come back to the South Coast now, where he’ll immediately link up with fellow England international Jermain Defoe. The two have the potential to feed off each other brilliantly — Crouch is very good at holding up balls and playing with his back to goal, allowing others to come into the attack, and the speedy Defoe should be able to run off Crouch and benefit from the big man’s dirty work.

There is no doubt that Crouch has superb technical ability, especially for a man his size, and he provides options that many teams aren’t built to defend against. His stats at Liverpool don’t truly reflect how good of a striker Crouch is; he was never put in a position to succeed and was playing in a system that limits individual creativity for the most part and focuses on the team and playing as a unit.

Under ‘Arry Redknapp, for whom Crouch will be playing for the third time in his career, he’ll have an opportunity to thrive. Niko Kranjčar and John Utaka are very good crossers of the ball from the wings and will give Crouch service he just wasn’t getting at Liverpool. He should be able to build more chemistry with the English contingent at Portsmouth (David James, Glen Johnson, Defoe, Sol Campbell, etc.) than he ever could with a semi-United Nations delegation at Liverpool, and that will come in handy.

For $22 million, Portsmouth signed a player who can score anywhere from 15-20 goals a season and almost as importantly, brings the skillset to allow guys like Defoe and Sulley Muntari and Utaka to come into the play and collect what Crouch starts out of the air. This was a very good signing for ’Arry’s club, and the regular first team games Crouch will get and the chance to continue to play in Europe (albeit the UEFA Cup, not the Champions League) will benefit the player as well. Look for Defoe and Crouch to form a productive partnership, certainly at club level, but I have a feeling they could be leading England’s front line as well in World Cup qualifiers this fall and beyond.

Liverpool's Woes Continue

If you didn't watch the game yesterday and only saw the 0-0 full-time scoreline between Liverpool and Blackburn, you would most likely credit Liverpool for going on the road and getting a point against one of the up-and-coming teams in the Premiership. Yes, it was a game that if Liverpool truly believed themselves to be title contenders, they should've grinded out a victory and taken full points, but there's nothing wrong with earning a draw away from home.

However for those of us who watched the game, you have to question (once again) manager Rafael Benitez's tactics and squad selection. He gave Dirk Kuyt the start again even though it's been forever and a day since Kuyt scored from anything other a PK in the Premiership and left Peter Crouch on the bench until the 71st minute. He started both Sissoko and Mascherano instead of going with a more attacking mindset (Kewell on the right wing, Benayoun and Gerrard in the center, Babel up top with Crouch, Riise at left wing instead of left back, and Aurelio at left back). Sissoko and Mascherano are good players in their own right, quality holding midfielders, but Benitez had to know that Blackburn was going to park the bus and he needed more creativity and skill than those two provide in the midfield. Kewell wasn't fit to play the whole game and neither was Aurelio, but starting them and playing them for 60 minutes probably would've given Liverpool a lead and then they could've been subbed out for a more defensive-minded formation.

When Crouch finally entered the fray, he linked up multiple times with captain Steven Gerrard for Liverpool's most dangerous chances of the day. Blackburn keeper Brad Friedel was up to the task though, and the game ended 0-0. This isn't the first time Crouch has been brought on late and still made a contribution; he did the same against Besiktas in the Champions League last week. Dirk Kuyt is completely off-form right now. He can't hit the broad side of a barn with his shots, his finishing is awful, and he doesn't give you any speed or aerial ability at all. I guarantee that the next Premiership game Crouch starts, and not Kuyt, will be won by Liverpool.

England vs. Estonia Recap

The result of this game never seriously looked to be in doubt as England traveled into Estonia's capital city and beat the hosts 3-0 behind a goal apiece from Joe Cole, Peter Crouch, and Michael Owen. For the second time in the same number of games, however, David Beckham was the real difference-maker and provided two brilliant crosses that led directly to goals. Beckham was clearly the most dangerous player on the field and he didn't even look to be at full strength after injuring his ankle just a quarter of an hour into the game.

With all this being said, and though it was the kind of game that may ease criticism of Steve McLaren temporarily simply because England won, in reality England's performance was not nearly as inspiring as could have been hoped for. The Three Lions did just enough to win the game and not much more. Fans should keep their optimism tempered until England host Israel in 3 months' time as that will be more of an indicator towards England's Euro 2008 future. Peter Crouch will not be available (yellow card accumulation) for that match and Israel has allowed only 7 goals in 8 games (even that is misleading because 3 of them were in the same game against Croatia).

That is in the future though; for now fans will take a bit of comfort in a 3-0 win and a favorable result in the Croatia-Russia game (0-0) which has pulled England to within 3 points of the top two teams in Group E for Euro 2008 qualification.

Updated Group E Standings:
1. Croatia (17 points, +12 Goal Differential, 7 Games Played)
2. Israel (17 pts, +10 GD, 8 GP)
3. Russia (15 pts, +10 GD, 7 GP)
4. England (14 pts, +10 GD, 7 GP)
5. Macedonia (7 pts, -1 GD, 7 GP)
6. Estonia (0 pts, -14 GD, 7 GP)
7. Andorra (0 pts, -27 GD, 7 GP)

Note: Top two teams qualify for Euro 2008 (cohosted by Austria and Switzerland)