Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard?

Now that we’ve gotten the friendlies out of the way and the team have officially landed in Brazil, England must now turn their attentions to Italy. The first test of this England campaign comes against what could potentially be the biggest test England have for the whole tournament. Italy are a side that have suffered with a generation of talent not fulfilling their potential, (how frustrating that must be) however there are, very much like England, a few undeniable stars in this Italy side. The most prevalent Italian in any England fans mind is Andrea Pirlo.

Pirlo is a Serie A and world football legend who has amassed more success in his 35 years than some teams have in their entire history. This is not however, why he will stick out to even the most uninformed England fan. During the Euro 2012 competition Andrea Pirlo tormented England, relentlessly, even capping off the performance with a palenka style penalty in a high-pressure shoot-out in which equally legendary players such as Ashley Cole couldn’t keep their heads. Pirlo, much like all creative midfielders, has adopted a more deep-lying position in his latter years, this way he is relied on less for his ability to break the lines with a forward run but more to orchestrate the tempo and aggression of the team from behind the midfield. The responsibility of containing Pirlo had previously been placed at the feet of Wayne Rooney, asking him to play a deeper attacking role and sacrificing his attacking threat for a more defensive and limited approach.  This proved to be, at the time, another stick to beat Wayne with but he was essentially being asked to play a square in a round peg. We should not have the same problem this time around.

This new breed England team has two players way more suited to keeping Pirlo quiet. Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard are both creative midfielders whom have similarly taken the step back into the holding position, to great effect to their respected club sides. Steven Gerrard’s Premier League campaign saw him completely change his approach to the modern game. The loss of a yard of pace has limited Gerrard’s forward movement and caused him to re-invent his impact on a 90-min game. The importance of positioning, composure and ball-retention are now central to the England skippers game, this as well as the introduction of play disruption and tracking back seemingly make Steven Gerrard a fantastic adversary for Andrea Pirlo this coming summer. The England and Liverpool skipper has just experienced his best domestic campaign as a professional footballer and should be going into this summer with high confidence and ambition to continue to prove critics wrong. With the exception of the infamous ‘slip’ Steven Gerrard has not faltered this season and has not let any occasion get the better of him, a key feature of an International captain and one that will be needed on June 12 when Pirlo turns up.

Frank Lampard, soon to be a free agent, has just come off of the back of a domestic season in which he was relieved of some of the responsibility he had shouldered in previous campaigns. Very much Like Gerrard and Pirlo, Frank has modified his game to handle his decline in certain attributes like pace and fitness by focusing heavily on his fantastic distribution and reading of the game. Although not as key to Chelsea’s domestic campaign as he once was, Frank played a huge role in Jose Mourinho’s first season back at the helm. A seemingly quiet season from Frank saw him contribute invaluable goals and assists to Chelsea’s campaign but more importantly an element of physicality and aggression to the middle of the park that gave space and time to the likes of Eden Hazard and Oscar. Implemented in a similar role in the England team, Frank could offer a lot more protection to our more dynamic players like Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Stirling as well as holding a deep enough line to keep Pirlo on his toes and limited in his play and distribution and giving our attacking players the chance to get at Italy’s defensive line.

Now with two options in the deep lying midfield role, both of whom come with a wealth of experience and a level head, England should be better equipped to deal with the man who tore them apart two years ago and should in fact be in a position to bring the game to Italy and Pirlo and hopefully set the pace for this young team with a solid and disciplined performance against one of the competitions outsiders and one of the competitions most feared players in Andrea Pirlo. We should look forward to Italy and look forward to seeing what these two idols can bring to the England side now that they have established their new roles.