Frustrated Crouch ducks row with club

Euro 2008: Peter Crouch is far too indebted to Rafael Benitez to criticise him with any vengeance, but there was a definite hint of frustration in his voice last night as the Liverpool striker reflected on the bittersweet irony of becoming an England regular at the first stage of his Liverpool career when he has found himself pushed to the edges.

One of the few England players to emerge from the World Cup with any credit, Crouch can boast that his 11 goals for England in 2006 is better than any striker has managed in a calendar year.

These, however, are uncertain times at club level for the 25-year-old, and he grimaced when asked how he found it easier getting into the England team than the Liverpool one.

"I am frustrated," he said. "I just have to put up with it, I suppose. I want to play every game and I feel like I could play every game. I feel I've done well for Liverpool and that I've played well for them.

"So it's frustrating. I want to carry on my good form, but if the manager wants to rotate there's not much I can do about it."

It is not Crouch's way to kick up a fuss through the media, and he made a point of praising Benitez's record as well as pointing out, more than once, that he always felt the Spaniard had appreciated him when others had written him off.

Yet Crouch is entitled to have blurred priorities going into the Euro 2008 qualifying matches against Macedonia and Croatia as England's man-of-the-moment after a run of games for Liverpool when he has largely been displaced by Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt.

He has started only one of Liverpool's past five games, and not even scoring twice in the Champions League against Galatasaray, including a spectacular scissor-kicked volley, could retain his place for the following Premiership match against Bolton Wanderers, a game that was lost 2-0.

"I missed four games in a row, which I did find frustrating, then I came back in Europe and scored twice (against Galatasaray), so I don't think it has affected my form," said Crouch. "But then I was out of the team again for the Bolton game.

"The manager has these decisions to make. He sets the team up depending on who we are playing against and if he looks at the opposition defence and thinks it would be better for Bellamy and Kuyt to play, he will do it. It's not based on form. It's just a different approach.

"In England we have been brought up with a type of manager that if you do well you play the following week. But the manager at Liverpool likes to rotate and he gets results that way, so you just have to accept it. I'm not going to bash any doors down."

He would, however, be justified to point out that he has scored five goals in his nine Liverpool appearances this season and, though he is far too polite to point it out, that is more than Bellamy and Kuyt have managed between them.

Bellamy has one in 11 while Kuyt has two in eight, yet, for the time being, Benitez is favouring the new recruits, signed at a cost of £15 million.

Benitez, in fact, has changed his starting XI for 94 successive games. Crouch's superior strike-rate and his status at international level do not seem to have any influence with a manager he describes as hard to please.

"You come back from England games when you've done well and he is quick to get your feet back on the floor," said Crouch. "Straight away he will tell you that you have to work harder and improve. Even when you've had a good game (for Liverpool), he will still pick on the things you could have done better."

Steve McClaren is a far less experimental manager than Benitez, even if there may be a swing to 3-5-2 at some stage of Saturday's encounter with Macedonia. Crouch's goals have cemented his place, and he moved to quell concerns that his style of play was not suited to playing alongside the returning Wayne Rooney. "Wayne likes to drop off and I can play a higher line," he said. "I think that will work well."

All the indications are that McClaren is already convinced. It is Benitez who seems uncertain about how and where to utilise the tallest striker in England.

Rooney (20), joined the squad this week for the first time since McClaren took over.

Crouch said: "He gives the lads a lift. He's a bubbly character and great to have around the squad. He looked sharp in training and it's good to have him back."