ash4hullfc wrote:
What's Gerrard's excuse then?
Gerrard's been poor, but, like many of the other players, Gerrard's excuses could be: constant moving of position; lack of chance in his best position; lack of players who play to his strengths; lack of players for Gerrard's strengths to be realized, and many more.
Some of these excuses can be given to other players, though: Rooney seemed to thrive playing in a 4-5-1 this season, or a 4-2-3-1, or whatever it is, yet was played in a 4-4-2 without any noticeable service. Lampard, throughout most of his career, has been part of a 4-3-3, with him being the most advanced of the midfielders; he is very capable, but he is also very reliant upon players like Mikel, Essien, Ballack and before them - Makelele. Lampard is a very capable passer and shooter, whilst he is an able defender, but, asking him to control the game, or asking him to pick the ball up in the centre circle and make consistent correct decisions isn't his game, he struggles to do it on the international stage; why continue to ask him to do it?
Gerrard is very similar, he prefers to be the most advanced of a midfield three, especially at international level, as his passing is very direct and often too direct, ideally you'd have him playing in the hole with freedom to run into, with a striker who will play off of the defender's shoulder, whilst also being quick enough to get onto his through balls, or hold it up for him to support. Problem with that, though, is there aren't many strikers who can do that, Torres is probably the best at it in the world, whilst you could throw a few others in there. Rooney, you would think, probably isn't the correct player for Gerrard to play behind, but, the other forwards are so poor, it's hard to see what the alternative is, because we lack the complete '9', even if Rooney has been made into a makeshift one.
England's problems are very deep, they have no particular style or direction when they play, we have no particular formation that we aim to play, we just pick whatever's available and expect it to work. Our star players all have their respective club sides built around them, which results in them struggling to adapt when they're asked to take on a different role, for example: Gerrard struggles on the left and lacks the discipline to stay out there, but David Villa done it quite easily for Spain, despite being the main man at Valencia. The examples are there throughout the side, whilst Capello seemed to think it would all gel by throwing a couple of 'team players' in there like Milner, Barry and Heskey, who'll do a job in whatever position, despite their obvious limitations.
Problem we face, though, we have no other choice but to play the stars, 'cause everything else is such a step down, it's hard to believe they'll do something remotely close to 'good', so the stars seem to be the safe option until something else arrives, but it doesn't look to be coming, not even close.
