Five reasons why Glenn Murray should go to the World Cup
Don’t know if you’ve heard, but Glenn Murray is the fourth highest English scorer in the Premier League so far this season with 10 goals. In 2018, he has notched seven times from nine appearances in all competitions. 34 he may be, but the striker is in the form of his life.
That has led to some speculative claims that he could make a late dash to join Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the little jaunt to Russia this summer. Indeed, we used our column in this weeks Brighton and Hove Independent to champion the Murray for England cause.
Could it happen? Well, if you still aren’t convinced, here are our five reasons why Glenn Murray should be going to the World Cup. Let the #GetGlennOnThePlane campaign begin.
He’s scoring goals. Lots of them
Only three English players have more goals than Murray in the Premier League this season – Harry Kane on 24, Raheem Sterling on 15 and Jamie Vardy on 13. For the purposes of our argument, Sterling is in fact a winger. That leaves Murray as the third most in-form striker eligible for England in the top flight. Aside from Kane and Vardy, Murray has outscored every other striker that Southgate has called up for England duty this season – Tammy Abraham (4), Marcus Rashford (4), Danny Welbeck (3), Jermaine Defoe (3), Daniel Sturridge (2), and Dominic Solanke (0). The Three Lions boss said at the start of the campaign he would be basing his selections on in form players playing for their clubs. That puts Murray ahead of all us, presuming Southgate sticks to his word.
He’s different to any other striker, bar Kane
When you look at the likes of Vardy, Rashford, Sturridge and even though he is no spring chicken himself, Defoe, they all rely on one thing pace. Variety is the spice of life but there isn’t a huge amount of variety in England’s forward options. Should injury befall Kane before or during the tournament, then that leaves England with less hope than they already have but more pertinently, a very one dimensional looking front line. Murray adds something different in that he has the skillset of a traditional target man. Who better to throw on than a player adept at holding the ball up when we’re desperately holding onto a 1-0 lead in the closing stages against Tunisia, or to try and nick a headed goal in the final minutes against Panama when we’ve resorted to launching balls into the box in the hope of salvaging a draw?
He can take a penalty
Experienced Brighton watchers will remember there was a time in League One when between them, Murray, Ashley Barnes, Elliott Bennett, Chris Wood and Gary Dicker contrived to miss so many penalties that every time we were awarded one, Gus Poyet would hide behind the Withdean dugout rather than have to suffer watching the inevitable miss. Not any more, for Murray at least. His record from the spot since returning to the club in the summer of 2016 has been near-perfect, with only one miss against Burnley earlier this season and that could be blamed on the dodgy Amex turf as well. He’s taken and scored them when the pressure has been on – something that England routinely fail at.
He wouldn’t be the first veteran striker to make the squad in a World Cup year
England’s squad for the last World Cup featured a veteran striker with a prolific career in the lower leagues who was only called up a few months before the tournament. Rickie Lambert received his first call up in August 2013 at the age of 31, scored with his first touch in international football two minutes after coming off the bench against Scotland and nine months later, his passport was receiving an unexpected stamp from Brazilian passport control. For all Southgate’s talk about youth and the promotions of the likes of Abraham, Solanke and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, the England boss hasn’t been averse to selecting older players either as the recalls of Defoe and Ashley Young prove.
He’s a ready made story for when The Sun try to derail the team a week before the tournament
Before every tournament, The Sun will do some digging and find a story to destabilise the England team just before departure to a major tournament. Well, they won’t have to try very hard if Murray is in the squad. His arrest for tax evasion should do nicely and with the press focusing on him, it will mean Jack Butland, John Stones, Dele Alli and Kane don’t have to worry about any pictures of them dressed stupidly from 10 years ago will make it onto the front pages.
A distraction free World Cup? That is even more farfetched than the thought of Murray getting a call up #GetGlennOnThePlane
