Does Emile Heskey deserve more respect?

Papiss Cisse scores a wonder goal (probably the best goal I have ever seen myself) and you get that old punchline that never seems to go away: Emile Heskey coulda scored that, ha ha ha ha ha!!! I read in one of the papers this week that one thing Roy Hodgson should not change as England manager is Heskey's mind on international retirement. I went to Villa park with a mate last year and all the talk was of a pending defeat because Heskey was playing. England 5 Germany 1...and even Heskey scores. I might have missed the headlines of Heskey being responsible for Third World famine, war in the Middle East and the global recession but I'm sure they are out there in print somewhere! A bit OTT that last sentence but you catch my point.

Granted his scoring record of 1 in 4 is hardly anything to write home about but when was his goals record relevant anyway? At Leicester City he was a key component in helping them gain promotion to the Premier League and played a major part in them staying there. At that time he was one of the most sought after young players in the country which culminated in a move to Liverpool. At Liverpool he formed an outstanding partnership with Michael Owen and I'd argue that Owen has never been the same player since. I was, at the time, probably in the minority of red's fans disappointed when he was moved on because I felt he could still do a decent job. He performed well at Birmingham and Wigan whilst maintaining a place in an England squad dubbed 'the golden generation' before moving onto Aston Villa. Despite constant niggling criticisms he has always managed to walk into another PL first team which, for me, is the benchmark of a good player. Crap players kick off on park pitches at 10.30am every Sunday morning.

Heskey's forte was always his link play and ability to bring others into the game. I don't know any of his strike partners personally but I'd wager my house on almost every one of them naming him as one of their best partners if not THE. If I remember correctly Wayne Rooney was insistent on Heskey lining up alongside him at the 2010 World Cup because he knew better than anyone how influential Heskey was. He was somewhat made the scapegoat for England's pathetic 0-0 draw with Algeria, by the media anyway (yawn), and was subsequently dropped for the final group game against Slovenia. Yes we managed to win that game but after taking the lead our front men struggled in the second half to hold the ball up allowing the Slovenians to regain possession in their own half with relative ease. Heskey would have been a perfect replacement on the hour mark to ease the pressure but hey he did get the final five minutes. Luckily we got through to then go on and beat the Germans in the second round...oh no we lost 4-1 but would have turned it around had Fabio Capello not replaced Jermain Defoe with Heskey as Harry Redknapp suggested post match. Don't blame the dodgy refereeing for that defeat. Blame Heskey. Our Harry, the peoples choice did!

Emile Ivanhoe Heskey will never make a football fans dream team but he was a helluva better player than he was given credit for and if, after his Aston Villa contract expires, he decides to call it a day then I for one will be tipping my hat at a very good professional career.

Cheers guys.

haha!

FS
I understand your point - Heskey does get rather more criticism than he deserves from fans who don't understand what his role is in the team. Primarily he's there as a target man and to receive the 'out' ball from defence or midfielders, so he needs to be good with his back to defenders and to be able to run into channels. He's good at both of these and at linking with players joining from deeper positions.

It is though a fair criticism that as a forward player he has never really scored enough goals or showed great composure when he gets a chance in the penalty area. I do wonder a bit if this relates to the amount of criticism he's got over the years, as he now seems a bit shot-shy, and often looks to lay the ball to a teammate rather than take a chance himself - all the criticism having eroded his confidence in front of goal.

Overall then, I think he's shown himself to be a decent Premier League player (which makes him a gazillion times better player and wealthier than all of us keyboard warriors), but he probably got more games for England than he should have because of there being few directly comparable English players in the league for much of his career.

Oh, and as for why we lost to Germany, that had much more to do with positional discipline amoungst our midfielders and defenders - from my recollection certainly one if not two German goals came from John Terry being in attacking positions ahead of the ball and no-one covering the hole he'd left at the back. The Germans were very good at exploiting this with quick counter-attacks. Not sure how Heskey can be blamed for defensive positional failures and for a lack of accurate passing from our defenders and midfielders.

He performed well at Birmingham and Wigan whilst maintaining a place in an England squad

Did he?

The only time he excelled was at Leicester! And half a season at Liverpool. Other than that he was as much use as an inflatable dart board!

He's got a bad reputation simply because he's not a goal-scoring striker, nor does he have a lot of pace or technical ability. Yet, despite this, several of the world's best managers have believed Heskey can offer the team something more than others. His strike partners have often said how good he was to play with, because with him by their side there were so many chances created, he was very good at occupying defenders, holding the ball up, creating space and making a nuisance of himself.

I think he's very underrated, he perhaps wasn't the best choice for the World Cup in 2010 because he hadn't been playing well for Aston Villa and clearly his age wasn't helping. I do think he deserves a lot more respect as he has been playing at the top level for nearly 15 years now and throughout all that time has been heavily criticised.

On top of that, he's always seemed like a really nice, humble guy, you could pick on much worse guys to criticise.

14 goals in 68 appearances for Birmingham, 0.21 a game.
15 goals in 82 appearances for Wigan, 0.18 a game.
9 goals in 90 appearances for Aston Villa, 0.10 a game.
7 goals in 62 appearances for England, 0.11 a game.

HE'S A FLIPPING STRIKER!

Oh and he was the one who tackled Rio and put him out of the 2010 World Cup - mind you, Rio's probably grateful for that!

Duty281 wrote:

Oh and he was the one who tackled Rio and put him out of the 2010 World Cup

Not all bad then.

Duty281 wrote:14 goals in 68 appearances for Birmingham, 0.21 a game.
15 goals in 82 appearances for Wigan, 0.18 a game.
9 goals in 90 appearances for Aston Villa, 0.10 a game.
7 goals in 62 appearances for England, 0.11 a game.

HE'S A FLIPPING STRIKER!

Oh and he was the one who tackled Rio and put him out of the 2010 World Cup - mind you, Rio's probably grateful for that!

If he's not bought he played to score goals then it's not necessary for him to score goals and he shouldn't be judged on it.

I believe he has over 100 premier league goals, so yes he does deserve some more respect.

On the other hand he has managed to get more than 10 goals once in 15 plus years as a premier league player and his all round game/ability isn't good enough for a top level footballer - he has relied on his physical attributes to make it in the game and it is no coincidence his goal tally has plummeted since he hit his 30s.

He does have the odd good game.

Played well against Bolton, from what I heard.

What frustrates me as a villa fan is, for his size, he spends so much tim on his ass.

I still remember when he destroyed Argentina in a friendly. I remember Sensini retiring from international football due to the physical nightmare Heskey gave him!

Obviously not the most technically gifted player in recent years and it's not his fault managers pick him for the England team. I would rather say it goes to show how dire England are in attack.. Other than 4/5 years of Michael Owen's career and now Wayne Rooney (whose increasingly looking like a player who doesn't really enjoy playing as a lone striker or leading the front line) there hasn't been anyone else. Heskey's physical attributes offer an option, so maybe people are a tad harsh on him.

I wonder if his bank manager respects him after looking at how much money he has in the bank?