There was something really quite sad and deeply depressing about watching Steven Gerrard’s performance for England against Ukraine on Tuesday night. As the Liverpool skipper gloriously hustled and foraged in midfield, winning possession and spraying superb diagonals to the flanks, there was an acidic feeling of disappointment eating away at the enjoyment. Steven Gerrard is now 32-years-old.
Only in this country, could we spurn the prime international years of one of Europe’s finest central midfielders, to fulfill an impossible task. The near on eight year attempt to play both Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the same midfield, has amounted to a level of delusional alchemy that only those wearing the Three Lions were blind to see. This is an uncomfortable admission that many of us are happy to now sweep under the carpet and consign to history. But Gerrard’s performances at Euro 2012 so far, demand that the matter is finally put to bed.
Let us start by denouncing the club bias that has so often clouded the Gerrard/Lampard debate. Frank Lampard has been one of the best midfielders, not just on our shores, but also in European football, over the past eight years. Memories are notoriously short in football and the beauty and efficiency of Andres Iniesta and Xavi has warped our expectation of the world-class midfielder. But Lampard has scored 186 times for Chelsea from the centre of midfield. His ability to perform consistently at the highest level has been nothing short of phenomenal- it has been nearly ten years since he failed to hit double figures for league goals in a season.
He has three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and a Champions League medal. In his real pomp, arguably between 2004-2008 Lampard was part of a Chelsea team that were amongst one of European football’s most consistent performers. You don’t finish runner up to Ronaldinho for the Ballon d’Or if you’re ‘overrated’. Frank Lampard will be remembered as one of the best midfielders of the Noughties.
However, Lampard will never be remembered as a great international footballer and it’s not necessarily his fault. Gerrard and Lampard have both been two of the outstanding midfielders of their era, but that doesn’t mean they both possess identical attributes. Lampard is a better and more consistent goal scorer than Steven Gerrard is. His positional awareness to score those goals is amongst one of the sharpest in the trade. He is far less likely to spew out the infamous Hollywood ball than Gerrard, but that is meant as a compliment. He has it in his locker, but there is often a beautiful simplicity to Lampard’s passing. You can’t possibly knock a man who pulled the trigger on so many beautiful goals, but it may well be that Lampard is a better decision maker on a football field.
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But it’s Steven Gerrard’s all round game and most notably his defensive attributes that give him, or at least should have given him, the anchor point in their International tug-of-war. You can fire statistics and argue till you’re blue in the face, but Gerrard is the better all round footballer- not necessarily by much, but he maintains a natural defensive instinct, the ability to forage and hustle for the cause. And just because he is so adept, as Frank Lampard is, playing to closer to goal, doesn’t mean he can’t work hard for the cause. His performances at Euro 2012 aren’t just some miraculous fluke- he has always been able to do that.
People often like to use Gerrard’s attacking flashpoints as their tool in the Lampard debate. But when he’s pulled Liverpool out of a hole, a la Istanbul and Cardiff, it’s been his work rate in the heart of the pitch that made as much different as his memorable goals. Again, you can name countless examples when Lampard has done the same for Chelsea, but he does not have the same vigour or influence in the centre of a 4-4-2 as Steven Gerrard. It is really quite difficult to see how Roy Hodgson’s side would have been as successful with Lampard playing next to Parker. Not in the current formation, anyway.
But this is what brings us to the point that perhaps many have missed in the Lampard/Gerrard issue. World Cup winning coach Marcelo Lippi hits the proverbial nail right on the head here:
“In this day and age you win if you become a team. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve got to have the best football players in the country. It’s possible that the best, all together, don’t become a team. It’s like a mosaic, you have to put all the pieces together.”
If the England national team had the tools and resources to set themselves up in the mould of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea team, then Frank Lampard may well have been remembered as the most poignant English midfielder in 50 years. Unfortunately, the realities that have bestowed the Three Lions have been a hell of a lot harsher and we simply have not had enough players to the tune of Lampard or Gerrard. The fact that we’re still playing 4-4-2 is testament to this, but the fact is that Steven Gerrard’s skillset is more likely to bring us success than Frank Lampard’s. It’s not about bias. It’s about logic.
If England really do dare to go any further in Euro 2012, than it will be Steven Gerrard who is the foundation that Roy Hodgson’s men build upon. And maybe we should savor the performances of the now England skipper, however belated they may be. Because to prevent the failings of the future, we could do a lot worse than acknowledging the failures of the past. Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard were two of the best players we had. But it is Gerrard who makes the better team.
Gerrard, Lampard or neither? Have the Skipper’s performances finally convinced you of his International credentials? Or are you loathe to the fact that Lampard couldn’t make the plane to Poland? Tell me what you think, follow @samuel_antrobus on Twitter and tell me how right or wrong I am!
