FRANK LAMPARD is ready to sacrifice his natural attacking tendencies to ensure that he and Steven Gerrard can finally work together in England’s midfield.
The Chelsea star has been playing a more disciplined holding role since Fabio Capello took charge of the national team 15 months ago.
It has allowed Gerrard to do more of the attacking, although he was asked to play out of position on the left wing in his last international appearances against Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Capello’s predecessors, Sven-Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren, both failed to find a way of utilising the pair but Lampard insists the Italian has found the key.
"The way Capello works is very authoritative," said Lampard. "Other managers will sit you down and ask how this or that is going, whereas he will just tell us how we’re going to do it. I am playing a different role. It is much more of a holding position, while Steven has been asked to play more on the left, but to be fair it’s worked.
"There had to be a re-jigging of the midfield because it wasn’t working. I do want to get forward because that is my natural game but I will try to adapt."
Meanwhile, Bayern Munich’s general manager, Uli Hoeness, has backed Michael Ballack to lead Germany at next year’s World Cup in South Africa.
The Chelsea midfielder currently captains the side but his leadership has been called into question in recent months after he criticised manager Joachim Low. The rift has since been repaired and Hoeness says nobody else in the current Germany squad has the exper- ience of the 32-year-old.
Germany currently top group four with 10 points from four games and Hoeness is sure Ballack will remain as captain for the finals if they qualify.
"If he stays at Chelsea and things keep developing positively for him there, then he will be a leading figure again come the World Cup," said Hoeness. "We need him because there are no young players as far down the line as he is."
Chelsea midfielder Deco is set for an amazing return to action just weeks after the club’s interim coach Guus Hiddink hinted that a hamstring problem could have finished his season.
