THERE are two reasons why Michael Ricketts should be picked to go to the World Cup Finals.

The first is that the Wanderers striker is a totally unknown quantity at international level and the second is that he is brilliant coming off the bench.

Wanderers hater Mark Lawrenson might well be right when he says Ricketts is not yet as good as some of the other strikers Sven Goran Eriksson has to pick from.

But there is a strong argument that Ricketts can add something to Sven's squad that no other striker can.

Sven is going to pick four strikers and he is going to go with Michael Owen and Emile Heskey in his starting line-up every time.

So the other two are going to be on the bench and there isn't a better player in England at coming off the bench than Ricketts as his goals record proves.

The Bolton man also has a big edge over the likes of Robbie Fowler, Teddy Sheringham and Andy Cole in the fact that the opposition will have no idea how to handle him.

Every international team knows exactly how Fowler, Sheringham and Cole play and how best to play against them.

They won't have a clue what Ricketts' strengths are or how to counter them and in an arena where knowledge is everything he could be a very powerful secret weapon in Japan and South Korea.