Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Burnley’s start to the season has somewhat exceeded expectations as Sean Dyche’s men currently lie 14th in the Premier League after the first 10 matches. Their tally of 11 points is impressive and what is more impressive is the fact that they have picked up home wins over the Merseyside duo of Liverpool and Everton while earning a very creditable drew at Old Trafford last Saturday.
And in no small part have those results been due to the form of their goalkeeper Tom Heaton. The former Manchester United goalkeeper frustrated his former club with a string of saves that made sure that Burnley were to leave The Theatre of Dreams with a well earned point. It was just another in a string of great performances by Heaton already this season and the question now is whether or not he will be given the chance to start for England later in the month.
With England playing both Scotland in World Cup Qualifying action and Spain in a friendly at Wembley in the space of four days then the opportunity for Heaton to add to the solitary cap that he has already earned looks ready to present itself.
It was a friendly in which Heaton was given his first outing for England when the Three Lions went on to beat Australia 2-1 at the Stadium of Light back in May but that was only a 3 minute cameo after replacing Fraser Forster, now the 30 year old will be looking to earn a first start for the national side.
If Heaton is to be awarded a start then the logical time would be the friendly versus Spain. That game which could very well be interim manager Gareth Southgate’s last in charge would be the perfect chance to blood some players who are not familiar to the international scene.
But many will reckon that the Burnley no.1 has done enough to warrant inclusion for the tie against the ‘Auld Enemy’ when Gordon Strachan brings his Scotland side to Wembley on November 11. On current form then you would have to say that Heaton deserves the chance.
It’s not just when earning points for Burnley that he has been impressive, he arguably had one of his best performances of the season so far when Southampton ran out 3-1 winners at St Mary’s last month. Also he was on the losing side he made no fewer than 10 saves from The Saints 14 efforts on target.
Although Fraser Forster on the opposing side may have gone home with three points it was Heaton who earned all the plaudits and possibly edged himself up the England goalkeeping pecking order. But has he done enough to dislodge Joe Hart.
Hart who is currently having a Manchester City sabbatical while plying his trade for Serie A outfit Torino has been solid if not spectacular since he started his loan spell at the start of the August and obviously it would be to no detriment if he was to start against Scotland but you would have to argue that someone else right now is deserving of the England goalkeepers jersey.
Critics may argue that Heaton only has to make so many saves because the Burnley defence is weak but the point is he still has to make those saves and if it wasn’t for him then they certainly wouldn’t have reached double figures in terms of the points tally at this point of the campaign.
Instead of playing the same tried and tested players for the national side, then perhaps we should focus more on playing players who are actually in peak form. Right now what have we got to lose. Expect Tom Heaton to earn at least one more cap this month but in my opinion he deserves two.
