McClaren: Crouch becoming perfect fit

12 April 2012

Steve McClaren believes Peter Crouch feels more comfortable in an England shirt because of his international goal blitz.

The Liverpool striker has scored 11 goals in his last 10 games for his country, including the winner in Macedonia last month.

Boss McClaren said: "Crouchy is becoming a part of it. Maybe when he first came in he was a little bit uncomfortable but he's certainly grown into it and through his performances and goals, he deserves to be in."

He added: "Attitude is the key thing and I'm fortunate to work with a squad who have a great attitude to their work and a great intensity to their work.

"Crouchy epitomises that. So do Wayne Rooney and Owen Hargreaves. They all want to play for England. They enjoy meeting up.

"That's a key part of playing football and it's always been my philosophy. They've got to create that culture and think: 'Great, it's England next week, we're joining up, we'll enjoy the work, we want to improve as players'."

McClaren admits it is hard to drop Crouch because of his recent goal record. The big striker has been used sparingly by Liverpool since his heroics in England's 1-0 win in Macedonia.

He has only played 204 minutes of football for his club in a month but proved he still has the goal-touch with a Champions League double against Galatasaray last week.

McClaren said: "Questions are being asked about him all the time and he keeps answering them. You can't knock his record and, once again, he answered in the week. They're not just goals, they're terrific goals and I've seen him do that in training.

"He's not just 6ft 7ins standing there. He's got great touch, great feet, great awareness, he's improving all the time and he's scoring goals."

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