Nothing to Prove? Or Everything?

Two sublime finishes from Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the quarter-final first leg at the Emirates stadium last night will certainly have gone a long way to proving his doubters wrong. The big Swedish striker has been touted as one of the best players of his generation by many on the continent, but he has always had his critics, many of those in the United Kingdom. One of the biggest gripes the naysayers had with him was that he never scored in the Champions League knockout round. He changed that with a goal on German soil against Stuttgart in the last round. Another accusation levelled at him was that he never performed against English teams. Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia will have to disagree with that after his showing in north London. As for not doing it in the big matches, Ibracadabra already has a winning goal in El Clasico against Real Madrid to his name this season.

The superstar striker seems to have it all, with aerial ability, great control, no lack of pace and a powerful shot, yet it seems he will always have his detractors. With a demeanour that can come across almost as arrogant as Cristiano Ronaldo, and an attitude that sometimes resembles the laziness of Dimitar Berbatov, the 6 foot 5 inch forward is perhaps not the most likeable character. The man was Capocannoniere (top scorer) in Italy last season with 25 league goals for Internazionale. In fact, in every season he spent in that country, his team finished top of the league (albeit with Juventus, their titles were stripped after the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal). That's a total of five Serie A triumphs. On top of two Dutch Eredivisie titles won while at Ajax earlier in his career. So what exactly does Ibrahimovic have to prove?

His worth, maybe. Despite these achievements, and his silky playing style, the price Pep Guardiola was willing to pay for him sparked outrage across the football community. £40 million PLUS prolific striker Samuel Eto'o. Eto'o, many reckon, is better than Ibrahimovic, with 130 goals in 200 Barcelona appearances, including two in separate Champions League finals. He is also only a year older than his Swedish counterpart so the vast difference in value is highly questionable. The difference is certainly his playing style. Eto'o is a hard-working goal-grabbing striker. Ibrahimovic gets goals but adds a lot more creativity and panache, the kind of football that the Catalans adore. This perhaps, is what Pep Guardiola values so much. After all, the manager is no chump, within 18 months of taking over Barcelona he had won six different trophies - every single trophy the club had competed in during that time. Football's top coaches clearly rate him. Last season his manager at Inter, Jose Mourinho, claimed he was the best footballer in the world. With team-mate Lionel Messi comfortably holding that title at the moment, it might take a long time for the rest of the world to agree. But if he carries on scoring like he did at Arsenal, and lifts the Champions League trophy this May, he may well win over all his doubters...

Fighting for Fabio

With South Africa 2010 looming large, Wayne Rooney seems to be the only England striker who knows he will be in Fabio Capello's starting line up. The United man has been in sparkling form, surpassing his previous season best by 10 before the end of March. But with England prone as ever to the 4-4-2 formation, who is the best man to partner him up front? Here is the case for five Englishmen hoping to be on the pitch at Rustenburg to face the USA on the 12th of June:

Emile Heskey:

With 106 Premier League goals and 57 England caps to his name, the Villa striker certainly has the experience to start in South Africa. The often-maligned Leicester-born forward featured prominently in the qualifying campaign and was widely regarded as influential in Rooney's match winning performances. He provides a considerable amount of assists and helps open space for his strike partner (as was the case with Michael Owen in their Liverpool days and with England under Sven-Goran Eriksson) but his biggest stigma remains a lack of goals. With only seven for his country and averaging just five league goals in his last four seasons, the jury is still out on whether another, goal scoring target man could be the better choice. Cue...

Peter Crouch:

Well, we say a goal scoring target man. Despite netting twenty in thirty-seven England caps, Crouch has only found the net for Spurs six times in the league this season. However, he made a big impact in England's last match against Egypt and like Heskey, provides plenty of assists to his strike partners. Not as strong or pacy as other strikers, Crouch certainly has the skill and height to trouble defences and his impressive international record will stand him in good stead to make the starting line up in South Africa, but one of his Spurs colleagues will be hoping otherwise...

Jermain Defoe:

The diminutive Londoner is more of a natural finisher than Heskey or Crouch but if he's to play alongside Rooney then Capello will be making a big decision. Playing two small frontmen has never been popular in the world of football, and Argentina were much-derided in the South American qualifiers for the use of tiny trio Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi as a front three. Having said that, Rooney has developed his game this season, holding up the ball and scoring headers. Therefore it isn't completely impossible to see him acting as more of a target man with Defoe flaunting his pace and shooting ability alongside him. The striker can be erratic though, and while looking like a world class performer one week( the five goals against Wigan come to mind) he can then go a few games without catching the eye. He's enjoying his most successful season to date, with seventeen league goals, but that is three less than...

Darren Bent:

With twenty league goals, which would have been enough to win the golden boot in last season's Premier League, already in the bag, the former Spurs man must have his heart set on South Africa. Bent has excelled in an often struggling Sunderland side, netting against Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool in the process. Clearly a big game player, the ex-Ipswich youngster has yet to show it for England with no goals and only five appearances since his debut against Uruguay back in 2006. He's experienced a major snub before when he was the highest scoring English player in the 2005-06 Premier League and still failed to make Sven's 2006 World Cup squad. He can't do a lot more to get in the England squad, but his place on the plane is far from certain, unlike...

Steven Gerrard:

The Liverpool skipper and England vice-captain hasn't been enjoying his best season but is a dead cert to be in South Africa. However, with Gareth Barry and Frank Lampard forming a solid partnership in the centre of midfield, and plenty of options for the wide berths, could Stevie G do a job for England up front? Playing in the hole behind Fernando Torres last season, Gerrard found his best form, netting sixteen times as Liverpool came agonisingly close to that long-awaited title. This year, with injuries playing a part and a poor squad around himself and Torres, the scouse hero has failed to regain his form of 08/09. But with Rooney establishing himself as an out and out striker, a system which sees the two Liverpudlian's dovetailing up front for the Three Lions could work out well for all parties. But with only a couple of friendlies left before it gets serious, Capello may well have left it too late to experiment...

The nation awaits until June the 12th to see Fabio's final frontmen...