Amid the furore surrounding David Beckhams return to the England squad it passed almost unnoticed that Steve McClaren seems to have woken up to what everybody else has been saying for years — that Steven Gerrard is Englands key man.
Sven-Goran Eriksson spent a long time trying to use Gerrard, Beckham and Frank Lampard together in Englands midfield, with little success. Gerrard, an inspirational, surging central midfielder with the talent and attitude to lift team mates and overpower opponents, was shifted around and even forced to operate on the left.
Even when McClaren got rid of Beckham, Gerrard and Lampard too often tried to operate in the same space, which only resulted in blunting the impact of both.
Last week, however, talking about the recall of the former captain, McClaren said. Initially we had Steven Gerrard on the right but the way he has performed in the middle of the park, I see him being a focal figure there.”
Some British media observers responded to the news by condemning McClaren for returning to the midfield quartet Joe Cole is the fourth man - that failed so miserably in the 2006 World Cup.
However, it seems he could use Fridays Wembley friendly against Brazil and next weeks Euro 2008 qualifier in Estonia to bite the bullet and really make a statement: putting Gerrard in control of central midfield and telling Lampard to keep his tracksuit on.
Mitch Phillips is Reuters UK head of sports reporting
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8 comments so far
Hallelujah!
- Posted by Five TimesAs long as they don´t play Gerrard as a striker again. You could see how good he was at that job against Milan…
- Posted by LondonI’m not sure Mr McClaren has got the bottle to make big decisions so I doubt he’s got the wherewithal in him to drop Lampard.
The Beckham recall keeps his own ginger mug off the back pages, which is the real motivation for bringing him back.
- Posted by JimJim’s right, McClaren doesn’t have the stones. It’s a tantalising prospect, though, the solution that was staring Eriksson in the face: drop Frank. It’s got to be worth a try.
- Posted by jonGerrard is the key of England’s midifield. But Beckham will have to dig a new space on this team. I think Lampard has to play on this midfield. But he’s got to have free space to play there. In Chelsea’s midfield, he had to divide his job with Ballack.
- Posted by Felipe LeonardoHas McClaren said Beckham will definitely start? I’d have thought Beckham as supersub might have possibilities…
- Posted by KevThe middle-aged coach driver that is the England footy coach made an almighty cock-up when he dropped Becks. That was McClaren making a “big” gesture to show the world he was his own man, whilst simultaneously pandering to the UK press - who always love to build a man up and then kick him in the teeth when he’s down.
Becks has consistently out performed the mediocre load of rubbish the ginger one favours; think Downing, Jenas, Richardson, Dyer, not to mention the perennial under-performer Lampard Jnr.
Hope Beckham does a good job, and silences all his whining and jealous critics.
- Posted by Steve0You got your wish, Steve0! He’s the only consistently dangerous player we’ve got.
- Posted by Kev