RICKETTS RIPE FOR THE PICKING
Ricketts is widely touted as a preferable alternative to Liverpool's out-of-sorts Emile Heskey and Chelsea's diminutive front man Zola - who has played alongside some of the best forwards in the world in his career - voiced his beliefs that the Bolton man is the better striker:
"He (Ricketts) reminds me of Heskey - but he is technically better and scores more goals."
In his first ever season in the top flight, Ricketts has flourished against exalted opponents. The 23-year-old powerhouse has blasted 12 goals for Sam Allardyce's team, making him the highest scoring Englishman in the Premiership this season. That total is 10 more than the struggling Heskey has managed, with the Liverpool man recording a hugely disappointing 32% shooting accuracy in the process - 16 percentage points lower than Ricketts. In fact Heskey has managed just seven shots on target in more than 23 hours football - Ricketts has actually scored nearly twice as frequently as the Liverpool man has even managed to force the keeper into action.
But it is not only the number of times Ricketts has found the net that is impressive - it's the quality of the opposition he has scored against and the composure with which he has taken the majority of his chances that has really made people stand up and take notice of the prolific front man. The £300,000 steal has netted against Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United this season, his strikes helping Bolton secure draws against the London clubs and wins over the northern giants.
Not only has Ricketts managed to score with 23% of his efforts compared to Heskey's 9%, he has proved himself to be a decent provider of chances setting up two goals for team-mates, which is just one fewer than Heskey this term.
Heskey has often been deployed wide on the left-hand side for England, with Sven-Goran Eriksson utilising the Liverpool man's power, pace and ability to get past the full-back to good effect in the past. But the England manager might be interested to learn that the former Leicester striker has enjoyed very little success when pulling wide this season. Liverpool's £11 million man has played just 14 crosses into the box and has yet to connect with a single attempt.
Ricketts meanwhile has fired across nearly three times as many centres as Heskey while embarking on more successful dribbles and runs than his England rival and has, on the whole, been far more productive in the final third.
It is also worth mentioning Ricketts' excellent record as a substitute last season, seeing as if he is to get a chance for England it is more than likely to be from the substitute's bench. Ricketts was introduced late into the action on 15 occasions in the 2000-01 league campaign and scored a staggering 10 times from the bench. This season he has started in practically all of Bolton's games, but has still had an effect when joining the fray belatedly. His equaliser against Arsenal came after he was introduced from the bench, while against Stockport in the FA Cup third round he set up Tore Pedersen for Bolton's third only two minutes after stepping on the pitch and scored a wonderful individual goal just 11 minutes later.
That is the kind of impact England could do with from a substitute if they find themselves in trouble during this summer's World Cup. On current form, Ricketts is the ideal candidate to provide that impetus.
