Manchester United legend Andy Cole has had his say on England’s squad ahead of their opening tie against Russia in the UEFA European Championships 2016. The former Manchester United star firmly believes Daniel Sturridge is better than Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy and is in fact, the best center forward in England as of now.
The Liverpool hitman has struggled often with his fitness and was sweating on his selection for the Euros having picked up an injury days before England Head Coach Roy Hodgson announced his squad for the campaign.
However, Andy Cole believes that when fit, Daniel Sturridge, who scored 13 times for Liverpool in 25 appearances in all competitions in an injury-riddled season, offers the England squad more than either Harry Kane or Jamie Vardy do.
“Daniel Sturridge is England’s best centre-forward,” he said “Harry Kane has had a very good season again and Jamie Vardy had an unbelievable season but for me Daniel Sturridge, when fit, not many centre-forwards can do what can do.”
Andy Cole says Rashford selected to be on bench
Andy Cole was also quite surprised with Roy Hodgson’s decision to take Marcus Rashford to the Euros this year. He believes that much like Theo Walcott’s 2006 World Cup selection, Rashford too will end up getting hardly any game time.
Cole also believes that the call-up as an experience building exercise would serve to be futile in the end as he would hardly benefit from any of it unless he gets good game time. Rashford is set to be England’s fourth choice forward with Jamie Vardy, Harry Kane and Daniel Sturridge all ahead of him in the pecking order.
Cole, who won 15 caps for the Three Lions, had this to say:
"I think Marcus has had a fantastic season but he gets in the Euros squad to sit on the bench or to sit in the stands."
"People say experience, but for me that's not an experience to sit in the stands and watch the game. He can watch that at home on TV.
If you're going to be involved and play games then that's experience. But when you look at it and Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge are all there, is he going to play in front of any of those guys? Most probably not.”
England are set to begin their European Championship campaign on Saturday against the Russians in Group B’s second encounter of the day.
