Chris Waddle has urged Fabio Capello either to consider changing England's system or to sacrifice Frank Lampard from his first-choice line-up, suggesting the national side should be built around Steven Gerrard if they are to prove successful under the Italian.
Lampard was one of the seven Champions League finalists excused last night's friendly against Trinidad & Tobago but Waddle, having seen the Chelsea midfielder fail to strike up any real on-field relationship with Gerrard under successive England managers, believes the 29-year-old should struggle to become a permanent fixture in Capello's side.
The head coach is searching for the correct blend in midfield and Waddle, who won 62 caps on the wing for England and was part of the BBC's commentary team in Trinidad yesterday, said: "It's about getting a balance to the side. Capello wants to play a 4-4-2 or a 4-5-1 formation and, unfortunately for Frank Lampard, it's about getting the balance right. It doesn't matter if you're a big player at a football club, you've got to think about the team and the shape and balance. You can't think, 'He's a good player for Chelsea; he's a good player for United; he's good for Liverpool'. You've got to get the balance right.
"Lampard is the one to miss out. And that's unfortunate for Frank Lampard. He scores goal after goal for Chelsea; not many midfielders can score as many goals as Frank can. He's a good player and a good passer, but he's very similar to what we've got. I think Gareth Barry gives a better balance and Owen Hargreaves is the future; they are a must in the team, with Gerrard let off the leash.
"The problem we've got is that we haven't got players who can run with the ball; they're all passers. You're not going to get the balance right with Gerrard and Lampard, we know that, unless you play the three like Chelsea."
Waddle believes Capello will have been surprised at the lack of class he has inherited within the England setup. "The one thing he's found hard - and he's probably been surprised about it - is that he's realised that, technically, we can only play one way," he added. "We've got to play at a high tempo and press teams. We're very good at set pieces still, which is why David Beckham is still involved because he can do that delivery. But overall he's probably quite shocked at how we can't keep possession of the ball, can't play a different tempo, and this has probably been an eye-opener for him.
"He probably thinks there's a lot of work to do. When he came here I think he thought the Premier League is a good league with good players. But, having had a look, he's realised that the players who make most of the teams tick are actually the foreign boys.
"In Italy they can keep the ball and also play a high tempo when they want to. The one thing he has with England is that we can play high tempo, but we can't play anything else. So when you have to go to Plan B, what have we got? Nothing. We don't have any other options. Now he's got to think: "I've had four games. I've got to get the team right starting from the Czech Republic in August, going into the qualifiers.
"We can't afford to get a bad start in the group though, let's be honest, when you looked at the group when it was drawn there's not a lot between us and Croatia. Ukraine may be on the dive now, Belarus will come into the reckoning but, if you were the manager or France, Italy or Holland and had that group, you'd have taken it quite comfortably and thought: 'If we don't qualify, there's something wrong with us.'"
Rio Ferdinand has urged caution over the Fifa president Sepp Blatter's plans for a quota of overseas players in club
football. The Manchester United defender, who began his career at West Ham under Harry Redknapp, believes the influx of talent from abroad has been key to the elevation of the English game, particularly in terms of improving technique and lifestyles. But he also admits that there could be justification for promoting the chances of English youngsters over foreigners.
"You don't want to see a subs' bench filled with foreign players and no English young players; that's when it becomes a concern for me," he said. "You should at least have some homegrown, talented players on the bench.
"That's why you have to pay tribute to people like Harry Redknapp and the manager at Manchester United [Sir Alex Ferguson]. They've been given time and the resources and they've dared to put in the young players when they're kids - myself, Frank Lampard, Jermain Defoe, Joe Cole and Michael Carrick, the list goes on. We came in and were given time to play and were backed by good chairmen."
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