Fair enough. Can't say I have paid that much attention to England outside the perennial WC and Euro disappointment. Beckham may well have been better at international level than Gerrard, but I still rate Gerrard higher at club level. You are right about him being played in the wrong position for England tho' imo. His best two seasons at Liverpool came when he was RW and in the hole respectively, so I never understood why successive England managers kept putting him in CM ahead of true CMs like Scholes and Lampard, despite the constant underperformance of the team as a result. Have always thought that at WC 2006 we would have beaten Portugal had Gerrard been played in the hole supporting Rooney from the start, instead of leaving him isolated and frustrated. But that's the manager's fault, not Gerrard's.
Since '96 our best chance was '04 euros. We had a great team then. Rooneys injury hampered as he was on fire. Lampard was incredible at the time and Owen was on form. That penalty shoot out was hard to take especially after Lamps late equaliser in ET made me believe. We had bad luck that year and to a lesser degree '02.
Personally I thought we had a better chance in 02. We should have buried them when down to 10 men but we just seemed to lose all momentum. Portugal absolutely dominated us in 04 for possession and chances, and once Rooney went off our formation was all wrong with Scholes stuck on the left whilst Lampard and Gerrard completely failed to click in the middle. I think the fact we were so outplayed in that match was one of the main reasons Scholes retired.
The so-called 'Golden Generation' was at its peak for the 2002 tournament IMO but we blew it. We still had the same players for 2006 but for some reason we became way too over-relient on a very young Wayne Rooney despite have the likes of Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Scholes and a still pretty decent Michael Owen in the side!
We blew it in 2006 cos Scholes had retired by then, and Owen got injured. Beckham was getting on a bit, and Gerrard and Lampard were still lumped together in the centre, despite Hargreaves being a much better CM at the time. I think we'd have had a much better chance in 2006 if Sven had convinced Scholes to come out of retirement and played Scholes and Hargreaves at CM with Lampard in front of them supporting Rooney and Gerrard on the right wing. Or Gerrard supporting Rooney with Beckham on the right if Scholes wouldn't come out of retirement. Those were the positions the players all played best in for their respective clubs, and I still to this day can't work out why Sven didn't just play the best players in their best positions instead of sticking with the Gerrard and Lampard disaster in the centre.
I think you are doing the same thing wrong as Sven did, trying to fit all our best players into the starting line-up! Wasn't being put on the left part of the reason Scholes retired from England? Gerrard played left, right and DM to accommodate Lampard too, its only in the last two or three years Stevie has been played in the middle. I agree about Hargreaves but it had looked poor for England prior to the 2006 tournament, in was during the group games that he emerged. IMO, only one of Gerrard, Lampard or Scholes should have played. They all wanted the AM role and the former two got in each others way for years. Sticking Rooney in there just makes it worse because, although he is played upfront, he drops deep and into similar areas that FL and SG want to be in. Only way I'd have played two of them (omitting Hargreaves) is if Scholes played in one of the deeper CM roles like he's done in recent times for Man Utd. If there is one thing Fergie and Man Utd have proved over the last few years it is that a team is better than having the best individuals.
Also, every great team has a spine of stars and the rest are water carriers, otherwise egos affect the team, which is why England always fail and why the likes of Real Madrid don't win everything every year. Barca have their water carriers United too, and they keep winning.
No, from 2004 onwards it was always Lampard and Gerrard in the centre under Sven and later McLaren. Scholes retired due to being stuck on the left to accommodate those two - in 2004 it was Scholes left and Beckham right, in 2006 it was Cole left and Beckham right. Hargreaves hadn't done that bad for England, he was just marginalised for the press for not having been born in England. Either Hargreaves or Carrick would have worked fine in the centre alongside Scholes - Scholes had played at the highest level in a midfield two for years for Utd, often with a striker like Cantona or Rooney who would drop deep, so that midfield pairing would have worked with Lampard or Gerrard in a more advanced role. In fact, at the time Scholes was arguably the only real CM out of the three, with Lampard and Gerrard only really moving into a true CM role later in their career. You are right about Rooney playing off Gerrard or Lampard, but he has proven he can play as an out and out striker for Utd when he doesn't have to drop deep or when he's given a different role in the team. But moving those two out of CM would at least have given us a workable system, with the potential to move Lampard or Gerrard out of the team for Crouch if it wasn't working up front. And it would have been a damn sight better than trying to shoehorn two midfielders into a two man midfield when neither of them have ever excelled in that role.
Top pro Beckham, was in tears at the end of his last game. Can't really question his love for the sport.
Well if you only want one, theres no point combining them ala Frankenstein as Lamps already has all of gerrards attributes + more SUPER FRANKIE LAMPS SUPER FRANKIE LAMPS
the only thing super about frank is his waist. if you put a peanut neat his gut it starts to orbit the fat ****
Oh a fat joke, how clever. You are clearly very jealous of Super Frankie Lamps goal tally and the fact he is a truly decent bloke. More intelligent than you too. I cant imagine he would care about the opinion of a plastic, gloryhunter who has never been to a live game mind...
