Lampard better without Gerrard

Sir Tokyo Sexwale · June 21, 2006

Holy Jebus motherf***ing Christ. I don't believe what I'm reading. READ THIS - GERRARD 2-0 LAMPARD

It was one of those nights when Sven-Goran Eriksson might have awoken in a cold sweat. If, that is, he managed to get any sleep in the first place. England's manager confided recently that he struggled to switch off after matches and this was a night when his mind must have been burdened by the long inventory of faults that is making the idea of Sven becoming Sir Sven seem faintly preposterous

His angst will have begun with the defining image of Michael Owen collapsing to the floor with the anguished look of a man who knew it was all over. There was the inability to defend from crosses, the way the team disintegrated after the interval, then the shock factor of seeing key players going AWOL when they were needed the most. And when all that is done, Eriksson must return to the nagging problem of how to reconfigure what is essentially a malfunctioning midfield when Steven Gerrard returns to the starting line-up against Ecuador on Sunday.

Everyone knows the answer, of course - that Eriksson will return Gerrard alongside Frank Lampard in a flat midfield quartet, with Owen Hargreaves stepping down. Whether that is the right solution is another matter entirely. For the opening hour, before everything went horribly wrong, Lampard certainly gave the impression that he was far more comfortable playing without Gerrard than with him. Or, to put it another way, he was happier with a holding midfielder beside him rather than one whose natural instinct is to attack.

It is a curiosity. If there were such a thing as an overrated world XI, then Lampard would have been offered the captaincy after his performances against Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago. Suddenly Gerrard is taken out of the starting line-up, a more defensive replacement is brought in and, hey presto, Lampard is back to looking like the player he is for Chelsea rather than the player he was for West Ham. Does Eriksson ask Gerrard to drop into a more defensive role? Or would that be too great a sacrifice in terms of losing Gerrard's attacking thrust? Eriksson is not sure, and he is not alone.

About the only certainty is that a wound-up Gerrard took his omission last night as a personal affront. He is said to be bewildered by what he sees as undue caution and, demonstrating a level of selfishness with which he is not usually associated, Liverpool's captain is irritated that, in his mind, Eriksson did not trust him to get through the game without collecting his second yellow card of the tournament.

To the rest of us it made perfect sense. Imagine the hullabaloo if Eriksson had involved Gerrard from the outset and a slightly mistimed challenge, an instinctive curse or an accidental brush of limbs had resulted in him picking up a one-match suspension. Imagine the hostility of the anti-Sven headlines. The Swede's conservatism may have triggered Gerrard's reflex outrage but Eriksson was right to play safe and, as someone who prides himself on being a team player, it is disconcerting to learn that this largely admirable midfielder has been sniping behind the manager's back.

As the Professional Footballers' Association's player of the year stepped out, in came the guy who is rapidly gaining a reputation as England's odd-job man. Quietly, effectively, Hargreaves set about the task of mopping up in front of defence, laying the ball off simply, making his usual crisp challenges while, all the time, hoping to prove to the sceptical English fans that his relationship with Eriksson extends far beyond that of teacher and pet.

It cannot be easy being asked to play like Dunga when there are Englishmen in Germany who have loudly let it be known they think he is dung. Fair? Undoubtedly not, but it has become a fact of life that the 25-year-old is the player the fans dislike the most. They don't like the way he speaks with a Canadian twang. They don't like the fact he bypasses the football vernacular to talk about zones and sections. They don't like the fact he is one of the few players who does not sing God Save The Queen. They don't even like his hair. Most of all, they say, they don't like the way he passes the ball.

Football can be brutal but even the most ardent critic would struggle to argue that Hargreaves did his job anything but diligently. He is not a player to conjure up the sort of moment Joe Cole delivered after 34 minutes but neither is he the dud that has been made out. He got a thumbs-up from Eriksson midway through the first half and, as well as a number of telling interceptions, his presence at the base of midfield allowed Lampard to press forward without worrying about cover.

Piece of absolute s**** article if I've ever read one

Maldini · June 21, 2006

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