Gerrard or Lampard?

One month ago yesterday, England put in their best performance in years to humble Croatia 4-1. Three days later and Liverpool put in theirs, beating Man Utd in the league for the first time in what feels like a lifetime. The big name missing from both of those winning teamsheets – Steven Gerrard.
While it would be churlish of me to suggest that the midfielder’s absence was the only reason behind those significant victories, wins that have invigorated both Liverpool’s and England’s campaigns, it is no coincidence either.
This isn’t meant as a personal attack. I’m sure Stevie G’s a very nice bloke. I don’t know and don’t care how many GCSEs he’s got; his cringeworthy wannabe WAG Alex Curran is only interesting because she helps draw comparisons with David Beckham.
Becks’ finest hour was, quite scarily, seven years ago, as he rescued England’s World Cup qualification hopes with that last minute free-kick at Old Trafford. He was of course hailed as a national hero for his all-action display. But by many of the more knowledgeable football spectators in the country, it was pointed out that had Beckham not spent most of the game chasing the ball, out of position, playing his famed Hollywood passes, England wouldn’t have needed saving in the first place.
Gerrard’s all-action displays and versatility for Liverpool often earn him the label of a ‘complete midfielder.’ He runs, tackles, passes, shoots, even takes set-pieces. Every time penalties shows itself as the worst way to settle a tied contest, we get a number of suggestions for better options, my favourite being an extra time period in which both teams lose a player every 10 minutes until a winning goal is scored. He’d be pretty handy at that.
Beckham and Gerrard are one of a rare number of players who often manage to make themselves look very special as their teammates flounder alongside them. Beckham was a one-man team that day against Greece, and Gerrard often looks like one in rescuing Liverpool from their stickiest moments.
But, as displayed by the defeat of Man Utd at Anfield in September, Rafa Benitez’s most successful tactical approach is the one where he sets his team up to press the ball high up the pitch. It completely stopped United’s passing game, as it did to so many of Europe’s top sides on the way to Champions League triumph in 2005, with Gerrard also absent for big games in the knockout rounds. It requires tremendous discipline from the whole side, the midfield in particular. Discipline that Gerrard doesn’t have.
All too often, he runs around like a headless chicken, giving away possession with those Hollywood balls he’s learnt off Becks, and then finding himself hopelessly out of position whilst trying to win it back.
I’d be a fool to doubt his worth to Liverpool in recent years, scoring invaluable goals at key moments.
But ask yourself this, how often does a top performance from Gerrard come with a top performance from his team? He’s the opposite of influential.

He’s been the heart of the Liverpool side for years now, because they’ve had no other playmaking option. But England do.
When Gerrard, and accomplice Benitez, timed the Liverpool skipper’s minor groin op perfectly to escape England duty whilst not missing any club games, Gareth Barry was partnered in midfield by Frank Lampard.
Of course, the Chelsea midfielder is no newcomer. He’s been arguably the finest midfielder in the Premiership for the past five years, repeatedly breaking the 20-goal-a-season mark. He powered Chelsea to back-to-back titles under Jose Mourinho and got himself a second place in World Player of the Year in the process. Most importantly, he was sublime against Croatia and in imperious form for the Premiership pacesetters this term. He’s taken his, always impeccable, passing game to whole new levels now partnered with Portuguese playmaker Deco.

Both Sven-Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren tried to partner Gerrard and Lampard together in centre midfield on repeated occasions, and enjoyed very little success. But Avram Grant, and more latterly Phil Scolari, have partnered Lampard and Michael Ballack, a duo who bare very closely resemblance to the Lampard-Gerrard model, together in the same side with great success.
It is now almost universally accepted that Lampard and Gerrard can’t play together. But the more important conclusion that must be drawn from the Croatia game, where Lampard played a lot deeper than usual in an excellent performance, is that Gerrard and Wayne Rooney can’t play effectively in the same side. With Rooney dropping off his strike partner, they play in the same space, and get in each other’s way. When the Man Utd forward was left to pull the strings in Zagreb, the results were fantastic.

Unfortunately, for tonight’s Kazakhstan game, the weakness of the opposition should allow Fabio Capello to pick Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney and still secure an easy victory. With Joe Cole’s injury leaving Stewart Downing as the only natural left winger, Gerrard could play out there – another example of a square peg in a round hole, or worse as part of a 4-3-3 that doesn’t suit any of them, especially Rooney.
Fabio, it’s a ballsy decision, but the right one. Pick the team with future challenges in mind. Show that you pick on form and not name. Lampard, not Gerrard.

Football's new gentry

Since Man City became the newest of the Premiership’s new money, they have beaten Pompey 6-0, lost away at Wigan, been knocked out of the Carling Cup by League One Brighton and somehow relinquished a 2-0 lead at home to Liverpool, eventually losing 3-2.
Most significant though was the first game since the Sheikh takeover, a 3-1 home defeat at the hands of Chelsea. For it showed them just where it is they need to go.
It’s not often that Liverpool – Man Utd isn’t the biggest game of the day, but the meeting of the two richest clubs in the world grabbed the headlines.
The two have a plenty more in common. Both have histories as entertainers, with plenty of soul but ultimate underachievement. Also, the departure of likeable, but always butt-of-the-joke, nearly men Ranieri and Eriksson to be replaced by real deal managers Jose Mourinho and Mark Hughes accompanied their financial boosts.
Mourinho achieved remarkable success immediately, winning two league titles in his first two seasons in charge. But Chelsea were a lot closer before the huge cash injection, already a successful cup team in recent years, having finished third in the Premiership and with Champions League experience. Man City are nowhere near that yet, and their road to the top will not be as easy.
Hughes is a strong-willed manager, and early promises from the Sheikh owners not to interfere with his job are encouraging. They’d do well to follow the lessons from Stamford Bridge. After two seasons of success, Mourinho was undermined by owner Roman Abramovich, who bought Andriy Shevchenko from A.C. Milan against his manager’s wishes. It’s no coincidence that Chelsea haven’t won the league since.
The signing of Shevchenko was also the first time a real global name had come to the West London club. Mourinho brought in a number of young players with huge potential, but who had not yet won anything in their careers, arguably placing a winning mentality and hunger for success above even ability in his selections. More importantly still, the core of the side was English, with John Terry, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole reaching new levels of performance in their careers.
For all of the accusations of “buying the title”, he built a team, putting substance first and style later. Petr Cech kept a record 25 clean sheets in the 2004-05 season, as Mourinho based success around defensive foundations, before unleashing Damien Duff and Arjen Robben to add the flair upfront.
At Man City, Hughes will do well to resist the urges of the Sheikh shopping-list, full of galactico names, and build himself a team of players, not superstars. Unfortunately the early signs here are not too promising, with Robinho falling into the latter category, and the side looking exhilarating when they turn it on (the 6-0 win over Pompey in particular) but all too flaky away from home when they don’t.
The core of the team Hughes must take forward is already there: Richard Dunne and Micah Richards at the back, and the resurgent Stephen Ireland and Shaun Wright-Phillips going forward. Arguably, the sky blues have got a lot more young home-grown talent than Chelsea did, with Michael Johnson and Daniel Sturridge looking like excellent prospects. Hughes must make sure they still get a chance in the side.

The royal blues’ victory at the City of Manchester Stadium in mid-September showed the distance the home side are behind. After trailing to an early Robinho free-kick, which created a fervent atmosphere in the stadium, Chelsea showed their character to equalise within minutes. They dominated play for the remainder of the game, and were rewarded with a beautiful second through Lampard and a comfortable Anelka third to save Peter Kenyon from having egg on his face after missing out on Robinho’s transfer.
Chelsea showed similar ruthlessness to cut down young pretenders Aston Villa last weekend, while clinical Man Utd have won their last two with a dodgy first and a sumptuous second. With Liverpool showing they’ve finally got that bit of resilience needed to challenge, and Arsenal slipping away to join City and Villa in the battle for the final Champions League spot, the big four has become the big three, with three more tailing them.

City fans will quickly realise that money doesn’t buy you love, but it does get one heck of a rollercoaster ride. One or two will become disillusioned and go, but the rest will soon see that money doesn’t make success any less sweet.
After all, football’s traditional elite has always relied on having a bigger fortune than the rest. City’s noisy disruption of the big boys is interesting certainly, and will invoke a great deal of resentment, but it is far from the fundamental change to the face of football that it’s been heralded. Chelsea only did it a couple of years back.
In the enormous commercial business that is modern-day football, City are just a drop in the ocean. Just how Mark Hughes would want it.

Something to talk about

We should have spent the last week talking about the game that reminded us just why we love football.
No, not Arsenal’s youth team’s demolition of Sheffield United in the Carling Cup, as breathtaking as that was. But the Gunners’ first team losing 2-1, at The Emirates, to Hull City, the Premiership newcomers just about everyone predicted to go straight back down again.
Even Hull manager Phil Brown must have ticked it off as a no-hoper when the fixtures came out. It was a ‘you-couldn’t-write-this-stuff’ game, a showcase of sport’s unparalleled ability to write a fairytale story without hint of scepticism.
Arsenal had a goal controversially disallowed and were guilty of trying to walk the ball in before they took the lead through Cesc Fabregas. But two goals in the space of five minutes wrestled the game away from them. The first was absolutely exquisite, Brazilian Giovanni picking the ball up on the left wing with only one thing on his mind. He shifted it onto his right foot and belted it into the top corner from fully thirty yards. Rangers flop Daniel Cousin headed the second from a corner just minutes later and Hull were ahead. Van Persie inundated the away side’s goal in the closing stages, Gallas headed against the bar and Fabregas tested the excellent Myhill from long range. Hull, who dared not just to try and stop Arsenal playing, but to attack themselves – were sixth in the Premiership. (They are now third!)

But instead we’ve spent the last week, well, bitching, about the referees and their decisions that are ‘ruining’ our game.
In the same weekend, J Lloyd Samuel’s perfect tackle on Cristiano Ronaldo earnt the Man Utd player a penalty, luckless Spurs were robbed of one when Lassana Diarra clearly handballed at Pompey and the Wigan – Man City game was decided in the home side’s favour by a dodgy penalty given to Wilson Palacios and another denied Richard Dunne. To name just a few.
It’s not confined to the Premiership either. A week earlier, Reading were awarded a farcical opener at Watford when the ball bounced fully four yards wide of the post, unsighted linesman Nigel Bannister flagging for a goal. Renewed calls for goal-line and other video-refereeing have followed.
Rugby and cricket have benefited from the introduction of technology, not least in terms of entertainment value. But football is not ready.
For a start, both of those sports have, for a long time, embraced the subjectivity of the official’s decision-making. Football needs to do the same, for very few decisions are cut-and-dry, free from all doubt. The level of respect given to football refs is so low that if their prerogative, one according to human error as well as judgement, was taken away, there’d be nothing left.
The new “get on with the game” respect for referees campaign has come from the top, with the officials charged with clamping down on dissent and unsporting behaviour on the pitch. But all too often in recent memory a card-happy display has been followed by a demotion or ‘week off’.
It’s refreshing to say that this wasn’t the case this time round. Rob Styles was the man who awarded that penalty for Man Utd against Bolton, and he was back in charge of Spurs – Hull this weekend. It's a start.
Of course, Giovanni scored another beauty in North London, and that’s what I'm talking about.

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Joe Kinnear might just have struck upon something for the multi-billionaires buying up English football clubs. Why did Mourinho get forced out of Chelsea? Because he was too charismatic for his own good. Why is Keegan no longer at Newcastle? Because he was the most popular man on Tyneside. When the richest of the rich buy their new play-toy they think they can buy the love of the football faithful too, but it’s so often not the case - unless you get Mr Kinnear in as manager that is. He’s so unpopular that there is absolutely nothing to be jealous of. He’s so unpopular that the Newcastle fans might even start to love Mike Ashley. No?