Quote:
|
Originally Posted by redmarkYankees
I think the problem with Gerrard/Lampard is that Gerrard is just better at every aspect. In the first half against Paraguay when we were playing well, Gerrard was actually playing fairly deep a lot of the time, and hitting some great through balls (on the ground, or switching wide). He can also tackle, which Lampard is pretty poor at. Gerrard doesn't need total freedom or to be started too far forward, he plays well as a box-to-box player and is at his best carrying the ball from deeper. The problem is, Lampard doesn't track back enough, and can't tackle when he does, so Gerrard doesn't get forward as much as he should because he feels that he should stay deep. It's funny, that it's Lampard who needs to play with a holding player; Gerrard just needs another Gerrard.
With Gary Neville out, it might even help to have Gerrard as a narrow right-sided player and Beckham at right back providing the width, at least against Sweden to see how it goes.
|
Yeah, and that's why Lampard needs to be left out. He's great at what he does - attacking, shooting from distance, but he's wasted when he plays defensively. So as you say, picking him and Gerrard together takes away much of Gerrard's game as he has to cover for Lampard. To me it's an example of picking the best players instead of picking the best team.