Black Widow
10-07-2008, 06:53 PM
Frank Lampard insists people need to stop focussing on whether he and Steven Gerrard can and should play together in the same England team.
The two are widely acknowledged as the best central midfielders of their generation, but as yet they have largely under-performed when paired together.
The pair were both handed their England debuts by Kevin Keegan - but neither he, Sven Goran Eriksson or Steve McClaren have ever been able to solve the riddle of getting the best out of both of them whilst in their starting XIs.
But Italian tactician Fabio Capello looks set to try his own method, by playing the pair of them in his midfield in the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Speaking on Sky Sports News after England's first training session, the Chelsea midfielder was quick to get on the defensive about his and Gerrard's roles.
"All the partnerships all over the pitch are important," he opined.
"We come back to the same thing time and time again, of course it is important and of course me and Steven when we are included, either together or one and not the other - want to be at our best for England and we could both hold our hands up and say for the last couple of years we haven't done that.
"But everyone is trying to find the solution but it is not just me and Steven Gerrard, it is the whole team - Croatia was a start as I said before and we look forward just to getting better and better.
"There are times with any partnership that it works on the pitch and when it doesn't work, we are breaking it down much too much, what is important is getting results - and not trying to find issues with certain players.
"Me and Steven get on well off the pitch and I think we get on well on the pitch but we want to improve and we haven't quite done what we could have done over last two years.
"Me and Steven have been playing at a high level for our clubs and people will expect that playing for England but that is not necessarily always going to happen - but the main thing is that we want England to win.
"It is very important to talk about the team and we can look at the wrong issues, it is not about individuals and the Croatian performance shows when we play as a team and the squad is together that is what is important, the manger focuses on that - the manager will pick the team and the players there will play as a group and with the side issues you can find too many problems, what we want to do is win the game.
"I think we spend too much time trying to break the side down, people complain that the England team is full of individuals but then when we have a game everyone tries to break us into individuals and point fingers. It is not about me and Gareth Barry, me and Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry all these situations, it is not about that at all, it is about winning games and Croatia summed that up."
Good form
Lampard himself is enjoying a rich vein of form with Chelsea and he admits he is feeling very good about his game at the moment.
"I feel like I am playing very good football, up there with some of the best I have played," he continued.
"I don't know whether I have gone up a level or not, hopefully I am, I do try and improve year in, year out but I am very focussed this season on the Chelsea front and the England front and it is nice people are saying that [I am playing well] and I hope to carry on playing the way I am.
"Every player has moments in their career where perhaps you feel confident when you get the ball and at the moment I feel like that. I am fortunate to play in a Chelsea side that move the ball so quickly and make it easy for you to do that and recently with England against Croatia was a similar thing."
Lampard has echoed Capello's hopes that the fans will get behind the side at Wembley against Kazakhstan on Saturday and he hopes the capital venue will soon become a fortress.
"For any team, for England or your club, you have periods where you feel comfortable at home and some away," he said.
"Fans are entitled to their opinions during the game but hopefully with that feeling of confidence from the Croatia game, if we can show from the start of the game our intentions, I think the fans can respond to that and then hopefully we can turn Wembley into a place that is very hard to come to.
Lampard also insisted that they will not be underestimating the Kazak challenge.
"Croatia was a great result and things went for us and we took advantage of them, which is important but no games are the same," he stressed.
"Sometimes at international level regardless of the opposition you have a task to break them down, and maybe once you have, you can go and get the result but it won't be easy and we have to go out and play in the right way."
sky sports
The two are widely acknowledged as the best central midfielders of their generation, but as yet they have largely under-performed when paired together.
The pair were both handed their England debuts by Kevin Keegan - but neither he, Sven Goran Eriksson or Steve McClaren have ever been able to solve the riddle of getting the best out of both of them whilst in their starting XIs.
But Italian tactician Fabio Capello looks set to try his own method, by playing the pair of them in his midfield in the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Speaking on Sky Sports News after England's first training session, the Chelsea midfielder was quick to get on the defensive about his and Gerrard's roles.
"All the partnerships all over the pitch are important," he opined.
"We come back to the same thing time and time again, of course it is important and of course me and Steven when we are included, either together or one and not the other - want to be at our best for England and we could both hold our hands up and say for the last couple of years we haven't done that.
"But everyone is trying to find the solution but it is not just me and Steven Gerrard, it is the whole team - Croatia was a start as I said before and we look forward just to getting better and better.
"There are times with any partnership that it works on the pitch and when it doesn't work, we are breaking it down much too much, what is important is getting results - and not trying to find issues with certain players.
"Me and Steven get on well off the pitch and I think we get on well on the pitch but we want to improve and we haven't quite done what we could have done over last two years.
"Me and Steven have been playing at a high level for our clubs and people will expect that playing for England but that is not necessarily always going to happen - but the main thing is that we want England to win.
"It is very important to talk about the team and we can look at the wrong issues, it is not about individuals and the Croatian performance shows when we play as a team and the squad is together that is what is important, the manger focuses on that - the manager will pick the team and the players there will play as a group and with the side issues you can find too many problems, what we want to do is win the game.
"I think we spend too much time trying to break the side down, people complain that the England team is full of individuals but then when we have a game everyone tries to break us into individuals and point fingers. It is not about me and Gareth Barry, me and Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry all these situations, it is not about that at all, it is about winning games and Croatia summed that up."
Good form
Lampard himself is enjoying a rich vein of form with Chelsea and he admits he is feeling very good about his game at the moment.
"I feel like I am playing very good football, up there with some of the best I have played," he continued.
"I don't know whether I have gone up a level or not, hopefully I am, I do try and improve year in, year out but I am very focussed this season on the Chelsea front and the England front and it is nice people are saying that [I am playing well] and I hope to carry on playing the way I am.
"Every player has moments in their career where perhaps you feel confident when you get the ball and at the moment I feel like that. I am fortunate to play in a Chelsea side that move the ball so quickly and make it easy for you to do that and recently with England against Croatia was a similar thing."
Lampard has echoed Capello's hopes that the fans will get behind the side at Wembley against Kazakhstan on Saturday and he hopes the capital venue will soon become a fortress.
"For any team, for England or your club, you have periods where you feel comfortable at home and some away," he said.
"Fans are entitled to their opinions during the game but hopefully with that feeling of confidence from the Croatia game, if we can show from the start of the game our intentions, I think the fans can respond to that and then hopefully we can turn Wembley into a place that is very hard to come to.
Lampard also insisted that they will not be underestimating the Kazak challenge.
"Croatia was a great result and things went for us and we took advantage of them, which is important but no games are the same," he stressed.
"Sometimes at international level regardless of the opposition you have a task to break them down, and maybe once you have, you can go and get the result but it won't be easy and we have to go out and play in the right way."
sky sports