WHZ View: West Ham ace Aaron Cresswell worthy of an England call-up
At least one West Ham player will have his eye on Gareth Southgate’s England squad announcement this Thursday for the World Cup qualifiers.
The Three Lions are set to face off against San Marino, Albania and Poland before the end of March. There has been much discussion about who Garth Southgate will select at left-back.
Regular starter Ben Chilwell has struggled for minutes under Tomas Tuchel, whilst Aaron Cresswell and Luke Shaw have been in fantastic form. If Southgate opts for players in form, he’ll surely be looking at the West Ham and United men.
According to the Sky Sports Power Rankings, Cresswell is the best performer of the lot and should be in the England XI. The Power Rankings are measured by awarding points to players for 35 different statistics. This could be goals scored, assists, tackles, blocks, heading, etc.
The Hammers defender pips Shaw due to having more assists than him this season and his minutes played. Cresswell hasn’t missed a single minute of Premier League action this term. He’s been a creative force for West Ham down the left-flank this season, it’s arguably been the season of his career.
Who’s in with a shout?
West Ham captain Declan Rice looks set to be called up again after an impressive string of performances. He’s played 13 times for his country and scored his first international goal against Iceland in November.
Another has to be Jesse Lingard. He was crucial to the England side that reached the semi-final in Russia 2018. He’ll be hoping his form for the Hammers has caught Southgate’s eye. The attacker has scored four, assisted one and won two penalties in six games for the Hammers.
The number eleven was sorely missed by the Hammers at the weekend. We were defeated 1-0 by Manchester United in a really frustrating game. We missed that attacking spark, the quick turn of pace to get us up the pitch. Lingard has that in abundance, he’s proving it week in week out in claret and blue.
It’ll be interesting to see if Southgate rewards him with a call up on Thursday. To have three players called up would be fantastic for the club, although, at the moment Rice is the only certainty.
In other West Ham news, our editor James Wood answered some of the fans burning questions, including who we’ll be looking at in the summer window.