Drop Frank Lampard?

[thebigman]

proved how over rated he is again, slow, average distance shooting, no real link up play with the strikers and other midfielders...a hinderance imo

gerrard is twice the player lamps is and i would rather carrick played behind gerrard allowing him more freedom to do what he did today

frank = good for chelsea because of 2 defensive mids behind him, bad for england in the majors, especially this year

[BridgeMonkee]

bad for england in the majors, especially this year

in the majors? :confused:

Frank is a great player who had a bad game.

['Strobaby]

I fear that if Lamps is not on the pitch, we'll "get" (read:have) to see Hargreaves for an extended period of time. So Lamps can suck it up all he likes, as far as I'm concerned.

[thebigman]

over rated and slow, no killer ball in last third

carrick and gerrard please

['Strobaby]

in the majors? :confused:I think he means big games. Unless Lamps has been moonlighting in MLS.;)

[SharpshooterTom]

On a better day, Lampard would have taken all those chances. Probably ended up scoring a hatrick and you would have all thought he was our saviour. Unfortunatley it was just one of those days. Gerrard has had them too!

Carrick doesn't really offer all that much, but he's better than Carragher or Hargreaves so I'm baffled as to why Sven considers those two in that position before him.

[sendorange]

Carrick offers the best range of passing.

Although I think Eriksson will play Hargreaves. If the Phil Neville of Bayern can stick to doing the simple stuff of the game, then I would say that's fair enough. We need to give Gerrard and Rooney as much license to go forward as possible without needing to get involved in too much dirty work.

Carragher is a step too far on the defensive side, and does not have enough recent midfield experience.

[Stud83]

Clearly Gerrard and Lampard can't both have good games when they are in the same team. Drop Lampard against Sweden, try to use Gerrard in his normal position, with Carrick playing under him, and see what happens. If it works out - great. If it doesn't - we're still through to the next round

[benwb]

Definitely no. Would be madness to drop our best midfielder and top scorer in the qualifiers and euro 2004.

[Andy Bennett]

Yeah, let's drop the highest scoring member of the squad in the EPL and joint top scorer with Rooney in euro2004 because of a couple of games when he didn't score against packed defences. :rolleyes:

[sendorange]

Lampard's goals in the Premiership mean nothing in the World Cup. Different teammates, different opposition, different environment.

Scoring his goals in Euro 2004 was good, but we still played below potential in that tournament which our unbalanced midfield did not help. This was also 2 years ago.

The performances in the first 2 games have been well below standard. Something has to be changed in the midfield as it's clearly too slow, either a pacey dribbler needs to be drafted in or a ballwinner who can allow for Gerrard to play an attacking role.

Right now Beckham's final ball, Gerrard's quality and Joe Cole being the most capable of playing on the left leaves Lampard as the odd man out.

[thebigman]

agreed, but the lampard fan boys run rampant, only looking at his goal record this season when hes basically got alot of support behind him

hes not very quick, average passer and has a decent shot...im not saying hes shit but id pick gerrard over him anyday and weve seen they both dont play well together

[sinner78]

lampard is turning into david platt for england.
midfield goalscorer who can knock in afew goals but not be so great in passing and other areas.

[eirebhoy]

I think the fact that when Lampard is discussed the only reason people have for keeping him in his goals says it all. If you would consider Gerrard as a defensive midfielder (well he is playing that role for England), you cannot have 1 defensive midfielder partnering an out and out attacking midfielder. It just doesn't work. When Roy Keane and Paul Scholes were in their prime you wouldn't see Fergie playing the 2 of them together in a 4-4-2. Nicky Butt or someone similar would be in behind them.

Gerrard is ok for a 4-4-2 because he's a box to box player who does work off the ball when the opposition have it. Lampard cannot play in a 4-4-2 because his only job is to score and set up goals. You wouldn't see Riquelme, Juninho, etc. playing in the centre of a 4-4-2. In fact, Juninho would be a star in any team in the world but he has to stay on the bench because Brazil have to play 2 defensive midfielders. If Sven was in charge they'd play one defensive midfielder and they'd be playing terrible football as a result.

[eirebhoy]

If you look at some of the teams in this world cup and the players they have playing as defensive midfielders:

Brazil: Ze Roberto and Emerson
Argentina: Cambiasso and Mascherano
Holland: Cocu and van Bommel
Spain: Xavi and Alonso
Italy: Gattuso/De Rossi, Pirlo/Perotta
France: Makelele and Vieira
...
England: Gerrard

Notice something wrong? :) Gerrard would be absolutely fine in a 4-4-2 because he does a lot of work off the ball and is good defensively. He should be in there partnering Carrick. Lampard cannot play in a 4-4-2 because he is an out and out attacking midfielder.

Put it this way, take Ze Roberto out of the Brazil team and replace him with Juninho or take Cambiasso out of the Argentina team and replace him with Aimar. You might have better individuals on the pitch but you'll have a much worse team.

[jcsd]

I don't think it's a good idea to drop a player just because they forget to bring their shooting boots to a game.

[Agent Red]

I'd give him a go as the holding midfield player against Sweden. His passing would be more accurate than our back four, he'd sit outside the box at corners and wide crosses for his long range shots and it would allow Gerrard to add an extra dimension to the front men.

[cachundo]

Lampard is carrying a yellow card. If he's dropped vs. SWE, and if Sven's asked about it, that will be the rationale.

The problem is that Gerrard also carries a yellow. So Sven's dilemma is who to rest vs. SWE, one or both?

Somewhat related, Crouch also carries a yellow.

[thebigman]

its tied pinches

[benwb]

Lampard is not an average passer. He's one of the best passers in the world.