The Lampard Interview

Well I want to start by saying that after the less than encouraging start for Lampard in the Capello era it is great to see him giving the press conference today.  One of the things he addressed was fan support, and quite frankly he is the best person for it because he has been the object of quite a lot of abuse from England fans, sometimes I wondered who these idiots thought he was playing for.  Anyway all I have to say on the "boo boys" is 64 caps, 14 goals.

Alright so now the main thing everyone is writing about, the can Lampard and Gerrard play together in the same midfield question.  Well I can remember this question in the June 2006 issue of FourFourTwo before the world cup, I know it has been around longer than that but that is the longest time frame I can pull up in my mind.  Now this is a question that has never been answered and has found a similar question at the club level as well, can Lampard and Ballack play in the same midfield.  

I have taken a few levels of coaching and as you progress to more advanced things you start to realize you have to let players figure out each other first and then once they have an understanding on how to play together you build that into your tactics.  With the limited time spent together in the England squad unless the manager aims to solve the question it will never be worked out between these two.  Of course there is also the possibility that no they cant find a way to mesh and than what?  Honestly, all club allegiances aside, over the course of a season when you consider all of the games played the only way to pick one would be to flip a coin.  So then what at a national level?  Name both in a squad and just go with the more in form of the two? 

Of course I have my own idea, which is if they can't play together give them each a half.  Crazy you say, well that may be but I think I am on to something.  If they both knew they were only playing 45 minutes they could go out there and play like their hair is on fire because they wouldn't have to save anything for a second half.  I think it would be an amazing sight to see 45 minutes of Lampard giving everything he has followed by 45 minutes of Gerrard doing the same.  The other benefit is the metal aspect of this plan, imagine how the opposition would feel going into a game knowing they had to face one of the worlds best midfielders giving everything(300% in Rooney math) for 45minutes and then even if they deal with that they then have to face one of the worlds best midfielders who is going to give everything he has for 45minutes.  I certainly would not look forward to the prospects of that.