The most underused English Footballer?

To me was Clive Allen, this guy was a goalscoring machine and only got 5 caps for our beloved country.

Do you agree or who do you think should of had more, my second would be Matt Le Tissier, he really should of choose one of the other home nations, never know he might of won Scotland the 1996 euros or the 1998 world cup!

 

Le Tissier was a great player that unfortunately was around at a time when we had eight or nine excellent forwards. Flair players have always been considered luxuries in this country and I doubt it'll ever change.

Messi couldn't win Scotland the Euros or World Cup, let alone Le Tissier.

 

Clive Allen banged them in for fun at QPR, and Spurs but at International level, think he was lacking that little bit extra...

Plus there was a certain Mr Lineker playing pretty well for England at the time...

 

Past

Les Ferdinand (17 caps, 13 starts, 5 GOALS)
Andy Cole (15 caps, 9 starts, 1 GOAL)
Malcolm MacDonald (14 caps, 5 starts, 6 GOALS!)
Jackie Milburn (13 caps, 13 starts 10 GOALS!)
Tony Cottee (7 caps, 1 start)
Ruel Fox (0 caps)
Lee Clark (0 caps)

Present

Adam Johnson (11 caps, 3 starts, 2 GOALS)
Danny Murphy (9 caps, 1 start)
Tom Huddlestone (3 caps, 1 start)
Kevin Nolan (0 caps)
Steven Taylor (0 caps)
Leon Osman (0 caps)

Especially the ones in bold!!

 

Allan 'Sniffer' Clarke. 19 caps, 10 goals. The first and (I think) only English player to make his international debut at the World Cup finals.

 

Great call on Osman, never understood why he's not been near the England squad. I actually think a fair amount of quality strikers from the 90s were horribly underused. Fowler and Wright especially would be much closer to being regular starters today and I think players like Collymore, Sutton etc would have got a lot more playing time as well. Also think Kevin Phillips could've scored a lot of goals if he'd be given a run.

Looking back a few years Brian Clough had a point in saying that he should've played a lot more (his goalscoring record was ridiculous, even if mostly in second division). Also, Stanley Matthews played just over 50 games for England, but over more than 20 years, which suggests he wasn't always being picked (although the War would have something to do with it).

 

Glen Hoddle,the England team should of been built around him,but as usual we had a manager whose idea of football was to run and run,instead of skill.

 

Only problem there was the fact that Le God was not a forward though he could score for fun.

 

Le Tissier was criminally under used. It's a scandel that England managers feel they can only pick players from the top 6 teams. Players like Osman, Lambert, Holt, Dyer... They have to join a top team or they won't play for England. What's the betting that A Johnson will stop getting picked now he plays for Sunderland and is actually getting some match time

 

Martin Chivers

 

gareth Bale

 

Leon Osman is the obvious one that should be in there without a second thought and you got Steven Taylor who statistically is always one of the best in the EPL and Anthony Pilkington should get a mention too.

 

Emile Heskey

 

Dyer

 

Steve Bruce
Kieron Dyer (because of injury)

 

Hargreaves?

 

It's a mystery Osman hasn't a cap, it's not like England are blessed with players of his style.

 

And yet when he was England manager, Hoddle didn't take Le Tissier to the 98 world cup. Ironic

 

Or Gazza for that matter!

 

I would say that shocks me...until I remember this is England we're talking about, and every coach for the past ten years has stuck with the same centre back pairing regardless of form, fitness, injury, or criminal investigations for racially abusing a fellow professional.