Adam Lallana and Fabian Delph: Time for Roy Hodgson to take notice of players at smaller clubs in England

Delph: Talent needs reward

For years in midfield, England have tried to play Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard together with very little success. Whilst both have been fine players in their own right, they’ve never managed to function well together and that has clearly been laid out in their international performances.

Both Gerrard and Lampard like getting up the pitch and getting themselves involved in the final third, an area of the pitch where their greater qualities lie. Since the time of Owen Hargreaves at the 2006 World Cup, England have missed a player who can break up play and carry the ball forward.

Michael Carrick has been in and out of the team and has never been allowed to settle into the system. The player who should be seriously considered by Hodgson with the World Cup in mind is Fabian Delph.

Fabian Delph: Showcasing his talent for the world to notice

Delph has had to endure some tough times after moving to Aston Villa from Leeds United in the summer of 2009, but has finally gotten into the groove at Villa Park and is showing the world why the Villans paid 7 million pounds for a teenage midfielder who, at the time, had just one season of League One experience in professional football.

Delph has won the Aston Villa Player of The Month award for the third month running. Aston Villa’s Twitter account called the achievement as ‘remarkable’, and one cannot disagree with that.

Players like Tom Cleverley and Jack Rodwell have been selected in recent England teams. Is Hodgson right to pick them ahead of Delph?

Rodwell is struggling to get a game at Manchester City apart from the odd game in the Capital One Cup, and he has done nothing in those games to convince Manuel Pellegrini to give him more chances in the league.

Then there’s Cleverley who has got his fair bit of chances at Manchester United under David Moyes after failing to break into the United team in the last couple of months last season.

This season, Cleverley has successfully completed just one take on, whereas Fabian Delph has completed 26 with a 74% success rate. That is a clear indication that Delph is a far better player in the tighter areas of the pitch where there is lesser space to work with.

Delph is also much superior with his heading ability, having won 59% (13 out of 22) headers in the league this season. Cleverley, on the other hand, has won just one out of five headers he has contested (a woeful 20% success rate).

Delph makes an interception every 38.6 minutes he plays, whilst Cleverly makes one every 73.1 minutes. You could say that Delph in a weaker team gets more chances at making interceptions, but then again Cleverley’s team-mate Michael Carrick has made the most number of interceptions in the league this season.

It’s pretty obvious that Delph is much better defensively and hence would be a better choice, as it would bring more balance to the team that will always have the skipper Gerrard in it.

In a 4-4-2, with Wayne Rooney and Daniel Sturridge up front, England would be better served with a player who is defensively sound next to Gerrard. Although Hodgson has preferred to play Wilshere higher up the pitch, it won’t surprise many if he beats Carrick to start alongside Gerrard in midfield.

Delph will struggle to break into first team with England, but there’s no doubt that he should be seriously considered as a squad player who can add great balance to the team when required. Past England managers have sacrificed team balance for superstars and Hodgson shouldn’t fall into the same trap in the lead up to the World Cup.

Nearly two decades after Pele’s quote on Le God, England face the same problem. And as long as it exists, you may never see the creators of the game compete with the best.