Looking ahead to the World Cup next year, the mood in the England camp is clearly optimistic.

However, setting aside nobler qualities like blind loyalty and unwavering support, it is worthwhile to take a moment to realistically assess England's chances.

In recent editions of the World Cup, England have most often been let down by  lack of attacking verve and goalscoring options. Past World Cup winning sides have almost always had a good supply of scoring options. Winning teams have consistently led the stats in terms of total goals scored -  e.g Italy finished second in 2006, Brazil won it in 2002, France were crowned champions in 1998 and Brazil finished second in 1994.

There is a clear and strong correlation between a team's position on the goalscoring charts, and its position in the final standings.

Accepting the importance of goals in the ultimate outcome, let's look at the most common source of these goals - strikers and forwards. A look back at the goal statistics from the last couple of seasons (2008/09, 2007/08 - European Leagues), and a brief analysis of the goalscoring outlets of England and their key rivals, lead to stark, depressing revelations.

England are clearly the worst off on the goalscoring front:

They have no strikers/forwards who are among the top five goalscorers in their respective leagues on a consistent basis.

Argentina (with Messi, Aguero, Milito, Higuain), Spain (Villa, Torres, Guiza), France (Benzema, Trezeguet, Gignac) and Brazil (Fabiano, Kaka, Robinho, Grafite, Olivera) are in the best health on the scoring front, while Italy (Gilardino, Toni, Del Piero, Di Vaio) and Germany (Mario Gomez, Kuranyi, Helmes) are also not too badly off.

All of these teams have attackers who are, or have been, among the top five scorers in their leagues in the last two seasons. In contrast, the ONLY English player in the top five in the last two seasons is Steven Gerrard (14 goals in 2007/08).

With no players consistently and prolifically hitting the back of the net, year in year out, do England have a realistic chance of mounting a serious challenge at the 2010 World Cup?

Regardless of your answer to the above question, these statistics (see Goalscoring Options - Health Check below) re-emphasise the urgent need to revitalise and revamp the English youth system. But with the World Cup exactly a year away, it seems there just isn't enough time.

The stats/raw data used for the above analysis are included below and make for interesting reading:

GOAL SCORING OPTIONS - HEALTH CHECK:

Argentina - HEALTHY: Two or three strikers/forwards among the top five scorers in their leagues. 2007/08 - Aguero, Cavenaghi. 2008/09 - Messi, Higuain, Milito.

Brazil - HEALTHY: Two to four strikers/forwards among the top five scorers in their leagues. 2007/08 - Fabiano, Olivera. 2008/09 - Kaka, Robinho, Grafite, Bostos.

Spain - HEALTHY: Three strikers/forwards among the top five scorers in their respective leagues. 2007/08 - Villa, Torres and Guiza. 2008/09 - Villa, Torres and Guiza.

Italy - BORDERLINE HEALTHY: Two or three strikers/forwards among the top five scorers in their respective leagues. 2007/08 - Del Piero, Borriello and Luca Toni. 2008/09 - Di Vaio and Gilardin. 

France - BORDERLINE HEALTHY: Four strikers/forwards among the top five scorers in their leagues. 2007/08 - Trezequet, Benzema, Cisse and Gomis. 2008/09 - Anelka, Gignac, Benzema and Hoarau.

Germany - BORDERLINE HEALTHY: Two strikers/forwards among the top five  scorers in their respective leagues. 2007/08 - Gomez and Kurany. 2008/09 - Gomez and Helmes.

England - UNHEALTHY: Only one midfielder/striker among the top five scorers inthe Premier League. 2007/08: - none. 2008/09 - Gerrard.

LEAGUE SCORING STATS for 2007/08 and 2008/09:

Spanish League 2007/08 - 1. Dani Guiza - 27 goals (Sp). 2. Luis Fabiano - 24 (Bra). 3. Sergio Aguero - 20 (Arg). 4. David Villa - 19 (Sp). 5. Ricardo Olivera - 18 (Bra). 2008/09 - 1. Diego Forlan - 32 (Arg). 2. Samuel Et'oo - 30 (Cam). 3. David Villa - 28 (Sp). 4. Lionel Messi - 23 (Arg). 5. Gonzalo Higuain - 22 (Arg).

English Premier League 2007/08 - 1. Cristiano Ronaldo - 31 (Por). 2. Emmanuel Adebayor - 24 (Togo). 3. Fernando Torres - 24 (Sp). 4. Santa Cruz - 19 (Par). 5. Robbie Keane - 15 (Rep of Ire). 2008/09 - 1. Nicolas Anelka - 19 (Fr). 2. Cristiano Ronaldo - 18 (Por). 3. Steven Gerrard - 16 (Eng). 4. Fernando Torres - 14 (Sp). 5. Robinho - 14 (Bra).

Italian League 2007/08 - 1. Alessandro Del Piero - 21 (It). 2. David Trezeguet - 20 (Fr). 3. Marco Borriello - 19 (It). 4. Zlatan Ibrahimovic - 17 (Sw). 5. Adrian Mutu - 17 (Rom). 2008/09 - 1. Zlatan Ibrahimovic - 25 (Sw). 2. Marco Di Vaio - 24 (It). 3. Diego Milito - 24 (Arg). 4. Alberto Gilardino - 19 (It). 5. Kaka - 16 (Bra). 

German League 2007/08 - 1. Luca Toni - 24 (It). 2. Mario Gomez – 19 (Ger). 3. Kevin Kuranyi - 15 (Ger). 4. Marcus Rosenberg - 14 (Swe). 5. Vedad Ibisevic - 14 (Cro). 2008/09 - 1. Grafite - 28 (Bra). 2. Edin Dzeko – 26 (Bos). 3. Mario Gomez - 24 (Ger). 4. Patrick Helmes - 21 (Ger). 5. Vedad Ibisevic - 18 (Bos).

French League 2007/08 - 1. Karim Benzema - 21 (Fr). 2. Mohamadou Niang – 18 (Sen). 3. Djibiril Cisse - 16 (Fr). 4. Bafetimbi Gomis - 16 (Fr). 5. Fernando Cavenaghi - 15 (Arg). 2008/09 - 1. Andre Pierre Gignac - 24 (Fr). 2. Karim Benzema – 17 (Fr). 3. Guillaume Hoarau- 17 (Fr). 4. Michel Bastos - 14 (Bra). 5. Ireneusz Jelen - 14 (Pol).