Frank Lampard

weringo · 3 Jan 2007 at 23:46

Gilly said:
The last 3 years of his England career he was one of the worst players on the park. Including the opposition.

Perhaps because the manager played him (a right footed centre midfielder) in the left of midfield.

ruffneck · 4 Jan 2007 at 12:14

Marvt74 said:
Congratulations on not being a Chelsea fan, anything else you post?

I quoted Gilly becasue Im Lazy, maybe you should be less pedantic? :rolleyes:

HangTime · 18 Feb 2007 at 22:04

Vegeta said:
I can think of a whole host of players better than him that would probably do a better job playing with Lampard in the center of the england midfield, the most notable are Dyer and Barton for me, i'm sure if Dyer was fit the last few years and made a name for himself he'd be in the england side without a doubt.

I don't get all the fuss about Barton. He's a good player but certainly not England class, and I loved Lampard's reaction to the comments he made:

Barton came out and said when he was on holiday in Dubai, he was up at 6am every morning running - "would you see Lampard or Gerrard doing that?". To which Lampard responded "that made me chuckle - difference is, I've been doing that since I was 10 years old". Nail on the head there, only a couple of years ago Barton was far too busy stabbing lit cigars in the eyes of trainees, or getting in bar room brawls with teenage Everton fans to concern himself with football.

As for his ability, I'd rather have the following ahead of him in the centre of midfield for England (no particular order and not a comprehensive list):

Gerrard
Lampard
Nolan
Parker
Dyer
Butt
Sidwell
Jaglielka
Carrick
Beckham
Jenas
Huddlestone
Davis
Barry

Yes, you heard me, I've got the likes of Jenas in there, and players who's best position isn't centre mid. That shows you just how far down the pecking order I have Barton.

Incidentally, I just thought I'd point out that despite Lampard having a 'poor season', no English player in the top flight has scored more goals than him. That includes Rooney, Owen, Gerrard, Johnson, Defoe, Bent or anyone else you care to mention.

Gilly · 18 Feb 2007 at 22:35

weringo said:
Perhaps because the manager played him (a right footed centre midfielder) in the left of midfield.

Perhaps because his head went. In fact almost definitely because it did.

The other midfielders have all had to play out of position at one time or another. Gerrard was at his most effective on the right for a very long time and Fat Frank has been employed on the left before, most notably in the last England game against Spain.