Abraham, Bamford, Ings, Calvert-Lewin - Who is England's No.2 Striker?

England manager Gareth Southgate has many selection dilemmas coming into Euro 2021, with the backup striker role behind Three Lions captain Harry Kane perhaps being one of the trickiest of them all, with an array of options in good form this campaign.

The first player on this list is Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham, who has six goals in 20 Premier League appearances for the Blues this season, despite only playing 1,016 minutes.

The 23-year-old can count himself unlucky not to have had more opportunities this season after scoring 15 goals in 34 Premier League games last season, however, the former Aston Villa loanee only scored five of these in his last 22 outings last campaign, and with a change in the system for Chelsea under Frank Lampard and now Thomas Tuchel, he has found himself lower down in the pecking order behind Olivier Giroud and Timo Werner.

Abraham has six caps for England, scoring his only goal in the 7-0 hammering of Montenegro at Wembley Stadium on 14th November 2019.

Something that has tended to hamper the Chelsea man is the number of big chances that he misses, as in the 2019/20 season, he missed 22, with only Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus spurning more in the Premier League with 24. With international football tournaments often being decided on incisive moments, this could perhaps sway Southgate from selecting Abraham.

Next up is Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford who is having an excellent season goalscoring wise, having found the back of the net 13 times in 26 matches, creating five assists along the way.

Something that may hamper the Leeds United striker's chances are his shot to goal conversion rates, as he has had 69 efforts in the league this season, converting 19% of these into goals. The Leeds man comes across as a striker that relies on the quantity of chances he gets as opposed to being clinical, which again doesn’t suit international football.

No player has missed more big chances so far this season than Bamford with 15, which is something he will have to work on, however, the number of goals the Leeds striker has scored this season will certainly give Southgate something to think about, especially considering the fact that he has never been capped for the Three Lions senior squad.

Southampton man Danny Ings was the favourite to take the role of backup striker behind Harry Kane last campaign prior to the Euros being rescheduled and will be hoping that he is not a victim of circumstances, having scored 22 goals in 38 league matches for the Saints last season.

The 28-year-old has been involved in 35% of the south coast clubs Premier League goals this campaign, scoring eight in 21 appearances. He will fancy his chances over the likes of Bamford as he has a 26% shot to goal conversion ratio, having taken 31 shots to the Leeds strikers 69.

Former Burnley man Ings was actually called up by Southgate for his Under 21’s debut back in 2013, and has impressed in recent international matches, having scored an overhead kick in a 3-0 win over Wales at Wembley last November.

The final striker on this list is Everton man Dominic Calvert-Lewin. This season has been his best for goalscoring in his career so far, having hit 13 goals in 22 league matches, the same amount as he scored throughout the whole of the last campaign.

It looks as though the Influence of Duncan Ferguson at the club has seemingly improved the Sheffield born forward’s game, as he has a good shot to goal conversion ratio with 27% and also provides a good areal threat, which is always a useful trait to have if you’re trailing late on in a game against a team that is playing a low defensive block.

Alike Ings, Calvert-Lewin also scored against Wales in November, in what is the Toffees striker’s only international appearance.