Many have said it is hard to pick one England player out from the rest after their excellent performance over Croatia on Wednesday, but it seems fairly obvious to most that Aaron Lennon was the shining light for Fabio Capello.
Aaron Lennon, sitting at the top of Capello’s plans for his World Cup sqaud.
The Tottenham winger put in a man-of-the-match performance during the 5-1 victory that ensured England’s place at the World Cup 2010. Lennon was a constant nuisance for the Croatian defence and fully justified his selection over Shaun Wright-Phillips.
England boss Capello didn’t hold back in his praise for the winger after the game either. He said that despite being on the bench against Slovenia at the weekend, Lennon ‘was always going to be in the starting XI against Croatia’.
The Italian went on to say that the former Leeds man has been ‘fantastic’ for Spurs so far this season and that the England team ‘needs a player like him’. Overall, it is fair to say that Capello rates Lennon very highly and he certainly values the role he plays in the team and expects his selection to improve England’s odds for the World Cup.
It wasn’t just Capello that reserved praise for Lennon though, David Beckham also singled out the 22-year-old as ‘an exceptional player’ who has ‘always done well’ when given his chance for England.
One of Lennon’s main assets, of course, is his pace and Beckham admitted he would do anything to have ‘just a little bit’ of the youngsters’ speed on a football pitch. It is, after all, what causes defenders so many problems.
Lennon has developed his game even further under Harry Redknapp at Tottenham though and he is more than just a winger with pace. He has skill, direction and flair to go with it. England are now reaping the benefits of this and hopefully he can be one of the star men in South Africa next year.
