World Cup Brazil 2014 / Weltmeisterschaft Brasilien

[Sweder]

No argument re the above, but we're talking England, not Liverpool. Beckham always grew an inch or two in a Three Lions shirt, whereas Gerrard shrinks. Those swahbuckling, dragging-your-team-forward heroics are just what England needed. I don't blame the man himself, as I'm sure he'd love to be thought of as an English Lionheart. It seems there's a different kind of pressure that squeezes the life out of him on the international stage. He was outplayed by Jordan Henderson in the last match. There's a sentence I never dreamed possible.

The Beckham analogy is not meant as an inter-club sneer. Rooney suffers by comparison, as has Lampard and others in the past. EG touches on this strangely English club-over-country thing we have going on. I don't feel it personally but it's clearly there and seems to extend to the players. It's deep, in the DNA. Something to do with the FA set-up perhaps? The influx of foreign players to the EPL may explain part of the malaise, but the truth is decent players will come through. Oxlade Chaimberlain, Barkley, Sturridge, Sterling, Llallana, all fine examples of English players holding their own in a field full of foreigners. I take Waddle's point, though. 'We're always told these players will be great in two years' time. It's always two years. I've waited for those two years to come around and I'm still waiting'. Jam tomorrow is our clarion call.

Gerrard is our captain, our leader. He is chosen for the remarkable, undeniable qualities he's shown in Istanbul and against West Ham, where he fashioned the most unlikely of equalisers whilst playing on one leg. I've seen no leadership from him in this World Cup. He chose the eve of the pivotal Uruguay game to remind the new, as yet untainted players with fear of failure. 'If you lose this game you'll have a shit summer'. What on Earth was that?