Why Heskey deserves his England call up

By: Shaun | September 4th, 2007

Heskey Before you lose interest in this blog by thinking I’m a biased Wiganer who (of course) would think that Heskey deserves his call up, please bear with me. Over the past season and a bit I have watched Emile at the JJB stadium. In nearly all the games he has played in he has made a big impact. Some of the games he has been ‘invisible’ and had not had as much influence as the fans would have liked but most of he time that was due to Wigan having a team that played as strangers together and after a few passes turned to alehouse football- the big ‘hoof’ up the field to the striker.

However, this season it has been different. Chris Hutchings has brought a new style of football to the club and the ball seems to be staying on the ground a lot more. Ball-into-feet seems to suit Heskey better. The work-rate is first class though. If his team mates can find him, Heskey can be influential. However, work rate is not the only attribute that makes a good striker.

“We all think Emile could be greedier around the box,” says Hutchings. “But he will often see a team-mate in a better position and instinctively try to find him. We’d like him to score more goals but it should not be overlooked how much he creates for us at Wigan. He takes so much pressure off the other strikers, he never hides and he always takes responsibility. He sets a precedent with his unselfishness. He had a great understanding with Michael Owen at Liverpool and I’m sure that can work again for England.”

As Hutching says, everyone at Wigan would like Heskey to score more goals. Goals. Things that the ‘experts’ assume makes a great striker. Heskey is a great striker but, as we have already discovered, should perhaps score more. All the England fans (except Wigan supporting ones) have latched onto Heskey’s goal record. There have been plenty of;

“Ooh, Heskey doesn’t score nowhere near enough goals to become an England player. His goal ratio isn’t good enough”. After people have looked at these stats:

International career totals

Apps Sub Goals Yellows Reds
England 43 (17) 6 4 0
England U21 16 (0) 3 2 0

As well as this;

“Quite frankly he has never been good enough. He is a marginal Premiership player”.

I could go on about the endless lists of crap spouting from messageboards about Heskey’s recall but I won’t. The general consensus amongst the vast majority of England fans is that Heskey is not good enough.

His goal ratio for Wigan is about 1 goal in 4 games. Its worse for England but as i and Chris Hutchings have already mentioned, Heskey is not all about goals. He is reliable, unselfish towards his team-mates and contributes to whatever team he is in.

If he works as hard for England as he does for Wigan i think that Heskey can be a success. He can prolong his England career again. He gets ignored in the premiership most of the time despite his heroic performances. 2 goals against Chelsea in a thrilling 3-2 match last season when he had the champions defence in complete disaray. All over the pitch against Sheffield United in the last game of the season. Attacking, shooting, defending, blocking, heading away. You name it, Heskey did it.

So, don’t judge Heskey on the goals. After all, you’re not meant to judge a book by its cover, are you?