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With Gary Neville out injured for England's encounter with Trinidad & Tobago, Owen Hargreaves and Jamie Carragher have been mooted as possible replacements. Leaving aside the idiocy of not taking a recognised right back in case of exactly this situation, how about playing Steven Gerrard back there?
The Trinidad game is must-impress as well as must-win for England, with all the other genuine World Cup contenders making reasonably convincing starts France excepted. The England midfield looked unbalanced (as usual) against Paraguay, so the Trinidad game would be the ideal time to play a proper holding midfielder (step forward Michael Carrick) and let Frank Lampard attack, attack, attack. Beckham (despite his wonderful passing, crossing etc) still lacks the ability/will to go past a left back, making overlapping runs from a quality full-back essential in terms of penetration. God bless Jamie Carragher, he's a solid defender, but can you picture him beating a full back and sending a tantalising cross into the box? Me neither, but I can see Gerrard doing it.
For all his talents Gerrard has rarely dominated an England midfield and it's getting on for six years now. Not his fault. While Gerrard's real strength is his attacking instinct, he's also got the heart for a good tackle and this has led Sven to shackle him with defensive duties. Duties that a lesser player could perform.
It may seem backward thinking to shackle the Liverpool captain with more defensive duties by playing him even further back, but at least there won't be the "who goes, who stays?" routine that he regularly performs with Lampard. When the time is right for a full back to push on, he can really go for it. Think Cafu only with a perfectly level hairline.
5 Responses
Sam on 15-06-2006 at 6:57 am
How about dropping Lampard and playing Hargreaves as the holding midfielder?
It’s obvious Carra can do the right back job (better than over the hill Nevile).
The real worry is Cole at left back, a diasaster waiting to happen.
Jon on 15-06-2006 at 7:49 am
absolute rubbish!gerrard should be the one attacking. Carra was awesome at right back against Jamaica and the crossing argument is total rubbish. JC was moving up the right the whole time and set up a goal with a great cross in.
You sound like one of the few people id like managing england less than sven.
Larry on 15-06-2006 at 8:12 am
So Carragher can’t get down the wind and put in an accurate cross, something like the one he put on Crouch’s head in our final warmup. Gerrard at right back, of course he can, however it is because he and Carra are class versatile players that they get played out of position whilst other don’t. You and Sven have a lot in common and neither of you will have contributed anything useful to an England victory.
Ben on 15-06-2006 at 8:18 am
UNBELIEVEABLE! How the hell can moving the worlds best central midfield player be helping the England team? Lampard should be dropped anyway for Carrick which would allow Gerrard to play his normal attacking game! Carragher played right back against Jamaica and I’m pretty sure it was him going past the left back and laying a lovely ball across the 6-yard area for Crouch to tap in……Daryl, sort it out!
daryl on 15-06-2006 at 9:40 am
True enough, Carragher did do that against Jamaica. But I’ve also seen Peter Schmeichel score a volley! Just saying it’s not his natural game.
Obviously the best thing for Gerrard is, as Ben suggests, to play him in central midfield with a holding player, but Sven seems very reluctant to do so.
I was just suggesting a way for Sven to get all the big names on the pitch (which is what he always wants to do) without Gerrard and Lampard getting in each other’s way.