Fabio Capello faces two major selection headaches ahead of England's World Cup qualifier against Croatia this evening and, unusually, both revolve around Tottenham players. The Italian must decide whether to start in-form Jermain Defoe ahead of Emile Heskey and whether Aaron Lennon has done enough to play ahead of Shaun Wright-Phillips on the right hand side of midfield.
Whilst most England fans, and pundits, have been clamouring for Defoe to start alongside Rooney, the forward, who is in the form of his life, is a victim of his own success. Having scored eight goals in his last nine England appearances, he merits a place in the starting line up but Fabio knows that, in Defoe, he has a potent goal scorer to bring off the bench when the time is right. Every time Defoe comes off the bench and does the business he only serves to strengthen this opinion.
Yet it makes little sense to assume that Rooney and Defoe cannot work as a partnership. Both players like to drop deep, and neither prefers to play with their backs to goal, but as England and Spurs hero Gary Lineker pointed out, in the late 1980s he and Peter Beardsley struck up a productive partnership when neither player was blessed with height or physicality.
While it might be true that Rooney prefers to play off Heskey, the Aston Villa man is out of form for his club and it remains difficult to see why Capello perseveres with him when he has always advocated picking players on form. On that basis, Defoe is the hottest striker in the country at the moment.
As he did when confined to the bench at White Hart Lane under Martin Jol, Jermain has been saying all the right things in the run up to the game. While his form may not yet be enough to secure him a starting place this evening, he knows that every time he comes on the pitch and grabs a goal, he takes one step closer to securing a place on the plane for South Africa.
That prospect looked distinctly unlikely for Aaron Lennon just a few months ago. Despite encouraging performances last season the jet-heeled winger had been all but forgotten on the international scene. Instead the media debated with Capello whether Theo Walcott was ready to succeed David Beckham on the right hand side. Yet, like Defoe, an irresistible start to the season has thrust Lennon back into the reckoning and, helped by a promising cameo against Slovenia, he may be the more likely of the Spurs duo to start at Wembley this evening.
The word from the England camp is that Lennon featured prominently in Capello's tactical build up to the match, practising alongside right-back Glen Johnson. His main rival for the position, Shaun Wright-Phillips, endured an anonymous first half on Saturday and has seemingly played his way out of contention. Beckham, who did not feature against Slovenia, may have started to wonder whether he has left his move back to Europe too late for one last shot at World Cup glory.
Even if we place bias aside, I personally believe that both Defoe and Lennon deserve to start. The former because he's the most in-form striker in the Premier League and the latter because he's the best of the available options. Yet neither should be too downhearted if they resume their place on the England bench as, even in this early stage of the season, they have both made significant progress in their attempts to secure a place at football's biggest tournament next summer.