Colin Malam analyses the reasons for England's continuing commitment to a single-player strike-force and looks for alternative choices

The Daily Telegraph Monday 6 November 1995

He may have missed a sitter against Legia Warsaw in midweek. And, yes, it is all of 14 games since he scored a goal against foreign opposition. Even so, Blackburn's Alan Shearer remains the striker best equipped, and most likely, to spearhead England's attempt to win the European Championship next summer.

As Terry Venables prepares to name his England squad for the friendly against Switzerland at Wembley on Wednesday week, he will not be short of advice on who ought to be the lone striker in the controversial formation he believes to be the most effective way of penetrating foreign defences.

In all probability, most English football fans would plump immediately for Les Ferdinand, who has celebrated his move to Newcastle with a champagne spray of goals. Few could understand why Ferdinand was not preferred to Shearer in last month's grim goalless draw against Norway in Oslo, and most were baffled by his omission from the substitutes' bench as well.

So, to be honest, was I. Nothing, though, could have underscored more heavily Venables' conviction that if anyone is going to make the one-striker system work, it is Shearer. As for Ferdinand's absence from the bench, that was an unavoidable consequence of the England coach's opinion that Teddy Sheringham provides first-class cover for both Shearer and the "withdrawn" striker.

Shearer tops Venables' list for the simple reason that he has a wider range of attributes than any of the other candidates among the crop of English forwards said to be the most abundant and talented for many a long year. Shearer is brave and strong, he is good in the air, he holds the ball up well, he combines intelligently with other players, he has a turn of speed and, most of the time, he displays a killer instinct in front of goal.

Not that Shearer is perfect, by any means.

No doubt the whole of Tyneside is howling by now that Ferdinand possesses all of those qualities, and more. But does he? Any contention that the former Queens Park Rangers man has thrived in Newcastle's one-striker system is liable to be undermined by the fact that it has been achieved against English defences no sounder than the security systems at Downing Street.

Closer examination of Ferdinand's play reveals that, while blessed with explosive acceleration, he tends to run in straight lines towards goal. That can be devastating against square English back-fours, who leave space behind them, but it tends to be rather less rewarding against foreign opponents skilled in the art of denying opponents space or playing them offside.

There is also a measure of indecision about Ferdinand's finishing. While utterly certain about where to put the ball when meeting a cross first time with head or foot, Newcastle's replacement for Andy Cole (remember him?) sometimes dithers disastrously when he has time to think about a chance.

Not that Shearer is perfect, by any means. As Gary Lineker has pointed out, he needs to learn how to make runs to create space for himself rather than for the other striker in an attacking partnership. Having improved his own game enormously in Spain, Lineker remains convinced Shearer ought to complete his education abroad against more solid and knowing defences.

Lineker, of course, loved operating as a lone wolf. He revelled in all that penalty-area space made available to him by Peter Beardsley's withdrawal to a deeper, more constructive position when they played together so productively for their country. In fact, Lineker is exactly the sort of predatory, calculating striker England need to make their 4-2-3-1 system work.

If Shearer cannot make a decent job of replacing Lineker, you feel, Liverpool's Robbie Fowler is the most likely of the other candidates to do it. A true penalty-area predator, Fowler has the priceless ability to find the back of the net.

There are two potential England strikers at Liverpool, of course.

Roy Evans, Liverpool's manager, says Fowler is being encouraged to improve his general play, but not at the expense of his natural gift for scoring goals. Evans is happy to see the Toxteth youngster, still only 20, developing nicely all the time, and he tries hard to put into perspective the whispers about Fowler's behaviour off the field.

"Yeah, there's been a couple of little things," Evans says, "but nothing that was really naughty. They've been pranks more than anything else. Even so, we've had words with him, and I thought it was good that, in an article a few weeks ago, he admitted he'd have to improve his image. He's done that, and his attitude's been far more mature over the last three months."

Evans has no doubt in his own mind that Fowler is perfectly capable of playing successfully as the lone striker in any team. "I think he quite enjoys it at times. You haven't got to think about working off other people: you just move and try to get into dangerous positions.

"He's got the stamina and instinct to do that. So playing up front on his own is not something that would bother him one little bit. As long as his team-mates get support up to him, Robbie will score goals. He'll do that at any level, you feel, and not let you down."

There are two potential England strikers at Liverpool, of course. The other one cost a British record fee of £8.5 million and is struggling to get into the first team at the moment. For Stan Collymore, the immediate challenge is not to play for his country but to play regularly for his club.

While recognising that some adjustments need to be made by both parties, Evans is convinced Collymore's strength and power will be blended into Liverpool's distinctive passing game eventually. He is also certain that this big lad with surprisingly good ball control has the ability to play for England.

"Stan enjoys playing as a lone striker," Evans says. "He did it for Nottingham Forest, where he had a good working relationship with Bryan Roy. He prefers having somebody close behind setting up things for him, and the likes of Nick Barmby and Peter Beardsley would be doing that in the England team."

And what of the one-striker system itself? "I think it works ideally if you've got a man who can come off and link up, and maybe two more linking from midfield," Evans says. "It's about getting support up there, because you certainly can't leave a guy totally on his own.

"I think our strikers do tend to play too flat. At European and international level, you can mark yourself out of the game if you play hard up against defenders. A bit of depth off each other makes them more difficult to mark."