Gerrard 1 Lampard 0.

For some time now England have been able to boast of having not one but two of the most rated central midfield players in the world.

In the red corner presenting Steven Gerrard, captain fantastic of both Liverpool and England, athlete extraordinaire, scorer of sensational goals, and blessed with the ability to drop a pass over 80 yards onto a sixpence. He has also got the knack of scoring spectacular goals when it really matters - including THAT goal against Olympiakos which enabled Liverpool to go on to eventually win the Champions League, and maybe the finest goal ever scored in an FA Cup final which took them to extra time. Since 2000, he has been capped eighty seven times by England and scored nineteen goals.

Then in the blue corner, there’s Frank Lampard, Chelsea’s modern day master of box to box play, goal scorer extraordinaire, and the owner of 3 premier league winners medals, not to mention being a three times runner up. It’s an amazing feat that Lampard scored twenty plus goals and notched twenty plus assists in seven consecutive seasons at Chelsea. He also weighs in with a very impressive eighty three caps for England since his debut in 1999, with twenty goals (twenty one if you include the finest chip never scored in an England shirt.)

So with two world power houses in midfield both pulling on the three lions, surely all is well for Fabio?

Not quite. There has been much written about who the better player is, which probably shouldn’t have concerned us too much. There has been even more written about whether they could actually play in the same team - which has become a much more pressing issue, especially since the debacle of the World Cup.

Has it ever been sensible to presume you could accommodate both when they are effectively the same player? Surely they would be making the same runs, would want the ball at the same time, and would try to get on the end of the same crosses. Or wouldn’t this at least be on their minds, and therefore putting them off their natural instinctive game? Plus, who on earth would be defending when both our central midfielders would be at the other end of the park?

A much too risky strategy for any sane English manager, so inevitably the more flexible Gerrard has been played on the left wing, the right wing, and as a centre forward, while Lampard holds steady at the central midfield spot.

Well maybe enough is enough.

The best thing to come out of the 2 weekend Euro qualifiers (apart from Adam Johnson) was that Lampard was injured, and Gerrard got the central attacking midfield slot all to himself. He looked a different player. His vision drove England’s game and took the pressure off Rooney as the sole saviour and inspiration of Team England. His stronger physical presence made Barry’s job easier too, and Barry looked much more comfortable as a result than when he partners Lampard (often resembling a jittering wreck.)

More importantly it also allowed the manager to pick wingers to play on the wing - fast, tricky, pacy men who can cross the ball and terrify full backs. Enter James Milner, Theo Walcott, Aaron Lennon and Adam Johnson. That’s a pretty exciting bunch of players I would be happy to pick two from any day of the week.

So hopefully, the debate is over. Two into one just doesn’t go, so let’s just pick one of them at a time, just as Spain have to when choosing between Alonso and Fabregas (on the basis that Xavi is a dead cert.) They can't fit Fabregas in the team, so he has to settle for being an impact player off the bench. Arguably both had an equal part to play in them lifting the World Cup.

So advantage Gerrard for now, leaving Lampard to fight for his place when he’s fit again or to build a new role coming from the sub’s bench. I hope it’s the latter - better a player noted for his goal scoring coming off the bench to snatch a late goal than Michael Carrick....