Seemingly Important Question: Lampard or Gerrard?

September 16th, 2008 | by: Daryl |

Please don’t fall asleep. I know this is an old question, but it’s one that Fabio Capello will have to answer for England’s next World Qualifiers (Kazakhstan at home on October 11th and Belarus away on October 15th, since you ask).

Assuming Fabio Capello agrees with everyone else in the world (except Sven) that Gerrard and Lampard are not a good central midfield partnership… then who does he pick?

He might, but only might, try the old Gerrard on the left (but then tell everyone he wasn’t) trick again. But I doubt Capello will want to mess with the feelgood factor from Croatia, where the team looked nicely balance. So assuming both are fit, I’m curious about who will start in midfield against Kazakhstan and (more importantly) Belarus.

Both men showed how important they are today. Gerrard rescued Liverpool today with a sweet right footed strike and a penalty, while Lampard led Chelsea to a 4-0 win over Bordeaux with a goal and two assists.

My take on this: they’re equally good and very very similar. Both are central attacking mids, but still more box to box than traditional number 10. Both can tear up and down the field and pull a goal out of nowhere, but neither has what you’d call a bag of tricks. You wouldn’t get either of them confused with Juan Roman Riquelme for example.

The only differences I can see between the two is that Lampard is perhaps better at retaining possession (less long balls) while Gerrard is better at taking a game by the scruff of the neck.

Chelsea fans will say Lampard, Liverpool fans will say Gerrard. Because that’s how that is. My guess is that most neutrals will say Gerrard, but based more on personality than performance.

Really, it doesn’t matter. I 100% mean that. Either Lampard or Gerrard would do a great job for England if used correctly. And we’ve learned from bitter experience that they can’t both do that job simultaneously. So the important thing isn’t really which one of them starts, the important thing is that one of them starts without the other.

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Alex

I feel like Lampard has a greater tendency to go missing from games than Gerrard, and would go with Gerrard for that reason. I think the only time I’ve seen having both on the field working was against Greece or Andorra in one of McClaren’s first matches where Gerrard was on the right and Hargreaves separating them. I don’t particularly think that’s worth resurrecting though. And Hargreaves is still injured as per usual, I think.
ghost of steve finnan

Way to take an actual position. I mean who would you pick? make a choice!!

I say Lampard for now, coming off the croatia game.
Sasha

Lampard, definitely. He has his teammate Joe Cole (and John Terry) to work with. Gerrard has never linked up particularly well with anyone on the England team. Capello seems to have found a recipe that works, so why not continue using it? On the other hand, it is true that England could probably afford to experiment against an opponent such as Kazakhstan, and play Gerrard.
http://epl.theoffside.com Rob

I think Lampard links up with Rooney better. Gerrard can drop a 60 year pass on a 20p, but with Rooney and Defoe up front, that really isn’t what we need is it?
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

“Way to take an actual position. I mean who would you pick? make a choice!!”

Fair enough. Right now I’d go Lampard just because the team performance against Croatia was so good. And imagine having Gerrard to come off the bench if a game needs changing?

But my overall position – which I still think counts as an actual position – is that either is fine so long as it’s not both.
http://ivorycoast.worldcupblog.org gianfranco

This question has been the topic of many a bar discussion for a long time now, but for me it has to be Lamps, not because of me being a Milan fan and all, but becuase Lamps is the more complete player and the better fit in the squad. Just the other day I heard someone say why does Lamps suck for England and not for Chelsea, and someone piped in quickly with an answer, Gerrard. Take nothing from Gerrard, and pool fans may disagree, but Lamps is truly the better player, leader, and gamer time and time again.
http://www.soccershop.com mike

Lamps has the magic…fast, quick, accurate skill set and makes fine decisions.
Alberto Pazzini

Neither. These two idiots play very well for the clubs but play like fools for England. Get rid of them and England will win.