The two best midfielders in the World (seeing the Ronaldinho is, after all, a striker) in the same team: England.

Will this be enough for the team to win the World Cup? Having Lampard, Gerard and Beckham in the middle, will that make a winning team? What if the strikers don’t rise to the occasion? With Rooney injuried, England will have to rely on Crouch and Owen. One played only 5 matches and scored 1 goal for the national team, while the other is just recovering from injury and from a not-so-good year at his club team, Newcastle.

Lampard, however, is confident that his midfield partnership with Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard can bear fruit, dismissing nagging doubts that the two do not link well at international level.

“We believe we can play together,” said Lampard. “I don’t know how the manager will put us together, whether it’s as a two, part of a three, or one more forward than the other.”

Lampard has scored 20 goals for Chelsea this season and Gerrard 23 for Liverpool, including two screamers in this month’s FA Cup final.

“Our real strengths are going forward and making and scoring goals,” said Lampard.

This is true: both players really know how to score. But, will this be enough? It was for France in 1998, when in the last games, strikers didn’t score one goal, the least.

Both Gerrard and Lampard will be making their debuts in the FIFA World Cup finals. Eriksson did not pick Lampard for Japan and Gerrard was injured.

“I’ve added quite a lot to my all-round game in the last four years. I’ve probably added more goals and I’m probably more creative in my play,” Lampard said. “I’ve scored quite a lot of goals since the last World Cup and that makes a big difference from midfield.

“I hope my peak is to come. It would be a great time to peak in a World Cup.”

Source: WCoffsite