Carroll has better allround game than Defoe, is FAR superior in the air than Crouch, but most importantly he is actually scoring goals regularly and playing very well. He is the most in-form English striker by a distance atm despite being just 21. Your blind hatred for him is embarrasing quite frankly. I don't understand what last season has got to do with it anyway, Carroll wasn't great a year ago, yet has improved 10 fold over the course of last season. He scored consistently from January onwards and has taken his form into the Premier League.
Darren Bent should also probably be in the England squad, but that's another argument.
Michael Owen is currently behind Rooney, Berbatov, Hernandez, Bebe and Macheda for Man Utd. He's completely and utterly finished, man. I had the displeasure of watching his gutless performances for us towards the end of our relegation season. He didn't score from
December onwards, in a time where 19 year old Carroll and free transfer journeyman Peter Lovenkrands managed to scored 3 goals a piece in far fewer minutes on the pitch. His allround game is very limited, and his finishing ability is drastically overrated. His major attribute (pace) has totally and utterly deserted him. By saying he scored a hattrick in Europe recently, are you referring to that hattrick he scored
over a year ago?
It's not as if he didn't get the service either, btw, he simply missed chance after chance. The following video shows how poor he was towards the end of that season:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqTeGL99lhA
Since then he hasn't exactly turned it round has he? Ferguson quite doesn't rate him, and neither do Manchester United fans. A quick scout on any Man United forum will show you that. And also, quite conversely to what you think, I'm pretty sure any sane England fan would far have Carroll in the team than modern day Michael Owen.