How About Gerrard At Right Back?

Filed in archive England on June 15, 2006

image: football co.uk

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.