Lampard: leave me and Gerrard work it out

FRANK LAMPARD believes further focus on whether he and Steven Gerrard can combine at the heart of England’s midfield is “looking at the wrong issue” for national team success.

Manager Fabio Capello will be forced to change the side that thumped Croatia last month for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan due to a foot injury to Chelsea wide man Joe Cole.

It is believed the Italian will ditch his holding midfielder, a role filled so well by Aston Villa’s Gareth Barry in Zagreb, and instead opt to pair fit-again Liverpool captain Gerrard with Lampard in the centre.

Despite the duo rarely seeming to work well together in the past — and indeed each has appeared to thrive when allowed to adopt their familiar club approaches for England — Capello knows if his team are to reach South Africa 2010, and indeed the latter stages of the competition, getting the best out of the world-class pair could prove key.

Lampard, though, maintains the perpetual examination of the dynamics of their partnership is unnecessary.

“It is very important to talk about the team,” the 30-year-old said. “We can look into the wrong issues. We are breaking it down much too much.

“I am not trying to find issues with certain players. Stevie and I have not really done quite what we could do over the last couple of years.

“We have been playing at a high level for our clubs and people expect the same for England and it does not always happen.

“But the Croatia performance shows that when we play as a team, that is what is important.”