Lamps chop?
FRANK LAMPARD must be axed at once from Fabio
Capello’s World Cup qualifying team. That is the firm belief of
former England star Chris Waddle who reckons that Chelsea ace
Lampard unbalances the side.
England have one friendly left, at home to the Czech
Republic on August 20, before Capello’s World Cup campaign begins
on September 6 with a double-header away to minnows Andorra and a
massive trip to Croatia.
Also in Group Six are Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan
with only the winners guaranteed a place at South Africa 2010. A
poor start will leave England fighting for their lives — as
happened in the failed Euro 2008 bid — and, to Waddle, that means
taking big decisions immediately.
Waddle, who was in Trinidad last night as one of BBC
Radio’s expert analysts, said: “Capello wants to play a 4-4-2 or a
4-5-1 and you’re not going to get the balance right with Steven
Gerrard and Lampard. We know that.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a big player at a club,
you’ve got to think about the team and the shape and balance. “You
can’t think ‘he’s a good player for Chelsea; he’s a good player for
United; he’s good for Liverpool’.
“So I think Lampard will be the one to miss out and
that’s unfortunate for Frank because for Chelsea he scores goal
after goal and not many midfielders score as many as he does.
“Frank is a good player and a good passer but he’s very similar to
what we’ve got. If you look at most countries, they have two or
three players who they build the team around.
“They put the grafters in to do the work but then they
look to the flair players who are going to win football matches.
“Gareth Barry gives a better balance and Owen Hargreaves is the
future. So Hargreaves and Barry are musts. Then it’s about
complementing left and right, who plays in the hole, and the
striker.
“He needs three of those positions to be filled by
players who can go and win us the game. Wayne Rooney has to be one
of them but, because of the energy he’s got, his best position in
international football might be on one of the flanks. “He’s a very
unselfish player, who runs well and his fitness level is fantastic.
At United he plays on the left so it’s not an alien position for
him.
“So you could have Rooney there with Gerrard floating
in the hole, David Beckham on the right for balance and delivery
and then there’s the one up front. “The big question is ‘how do you
get the best out of Gerrard and Rooney?’ They are the two players
who are going to win you the game — alongside Beckham’s
set-pieces.
“As for who plays as the main striker do you go with
somebody with pace, like Michael Owen or Jermain Defoe, or someone
who can hold the ball up, like Dean Ashton or Peter Crouch?
“Capello has never really fancied Owen, even though
he’s got a very good scoring record. But we’ve got to find the
striker who complements the rest of the players.”
Waddle who was capped 62 times by his country between
1985 and 1991 and reached a World Cup semi-final added: “We haven’t
really got players who can run with the ball. They’re all
passers.
“What Capello’s probably been surprised about is that
technically we can only play one way. We’ve got to play at a high
tempo and press teams. “We’re very good at set-pieces, which is why
Beckham is still involved. “But overall he’s probably quite shocked
at how we can’t keep possession and can’t play a different
tempo.
“So when you have to go to Plan B, what have we got?
Nothing. We don’t have any other options. “Capello’s got to get the
team right starting from the Czech Republic in August, going into
the qualifiers because we can’t afford to get a bad start. “He’s
got a lot of things to look at over the summer. And, at the minute,
he probably thinks there’s a lot of work to do.
