Frank Lampard – David Platt For A New Generation
July 5, 2006 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
I can’t take full credit for the comparison sadly, I read it on another football blog this morning which will have to go uncredited because I can’t remember which of the few dozen or so I read every day it was. If it was yours then I apologise.
I really do think it’s a useful comparison though, mainly because I never could understand how so many big clubs took a punt on David Platt (at one time he was one of the top players in the combined transfer fees list ever, how shocking is that?) and I can’t believe that so many mugs have been sucked into the Frank Lampard hype so that he is voted in the top three players on the planet. The mind boggles.
It’s been well documented on The Footie that I have very little time for Lampard as a player or a “star” and if I was writing this back in the early 90s it could very well have been David Platt who was on the regular receiving end of my tirades instead. A good goal for England against Belgium in Italia ‘90 made David Platt’s career and as far as I know he didn’t do anything again after that. Frank Lampard, despite having the most shots on goal in the whole tournament, didn’t even find the net against the footballing superpowers of Paraguay, Sweden, Trinidad & Tobago, Ecuador or a pretty poor Portugal and has left the biggest footballing show on earth with nothing but a tattered reputation.
Platt used the World Cup as a stepping stone first to Bari then Juventus (JUVENTUS FOR GOD’S SAKE!!!) alongside such footballing luminaries as Roberto Baggio and Gianluca Vialli and then to Sampdoria where he enjoyed probably his best spell in Serie A. On his return to England he found himself on the ‘B’ side of the Dennis Bergkamp transfer and helped cement the new post-George Graham regime at Highbury by doing very little of anything and completely failing to set the Premiership alight, much like he never really did anything of note in the old First Division for Aston Villa before his spell abroad.
Frank Lampard has two advantages over Platt though: he plays for all conquering, title buying Chelsea AND he isn’t prematurely balding with a funny cone shaped head (pudgy yes, gargoyle no). Lampard didn’t need the springboard of a World Cup to give him a career drifting from one foreign club to another, year after year, he already has everything he needs in the comfort zone at Chelsea. Plenty of shooting opportunities from range, Makelele and Essien to do the dirty work and give the ball to him and Duff, Robben and SWP to do his running and dribbling. Pretty much all the chubby one does is stroll around and shoot from long range around 20 times a match. Easy money if you can get it.
Neither Lampard or Platt were much good in the air. Neither can pass the ball anyway other than sideways and back. Neither was particularly good at tackling. You seeing a pattern emerging yet? Both played an extraordinary amount of times for England based on a reputation scarcely deserved and neither have half the talent of their midfield partners in the England team (Gazza for Platt and Gerrard for Lampard) yet still successive England coaches will build sides around them and club coaches will pay over the odds in fees and wages to have them on their squad list.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Frank Lampard junior, the David Platt for a new generation.
LOL – Alan; A Hammer or Scouser?
do you actually know anything about football?? how old are you?? i bet you support liverpool dont you!! i would have lampard in my team any day, yes, shit world cup, but dont blame the goal drought on him, try looking at the lack of strikers. and if you are going on world cup form then that ronaldinho guy is shit, didn\’t score any goals, massively over-rated. c*ck.
Norman: Yiddo actually
FLEB: I didn’t blame England’s goal drought on Lampard, I said he had more shots than anyone else in the tournament and didn’t score. What’s that saying about not being to able to hit a cow’s a*se with a banjo? I say it out loud and I picture Fat Frank winding up another piledriver that threatens the punters in Row Z.
Also, were you calling Ronaldinho, Frank Lampard or me a “massively over-rated c*ck”?
I just think that he’s had the worst possible world cup for a player of his age and skill – he needs to be rotated in Chelsea. How many games has he missed in the last three years? He must be knackered.
Alan I disagree with you on this one. Lampard is much better than Platt, his strongest footballing asset is his consistency and he has shown that in the premiership. He also played some decent champions league matches, especially last season’s second leg against Barca. He had one bad tournament and his ability is questioned. While on the otehr hand he played well in Euro 2004. He has, probably, one more tournament in him, but the point remains how will Mclaren fit him in his line up?
Interesting that the OPTA stats for both last season and the season before has Lampard way out in front of any othwe player in the League for:
Successful passes
Shots on target
Distance covered
I also seem to remember him breaking some sort of goal-scoring record last year. Anyone else remember? Must be my imagination.
Playing a virtually free role in central midfield for the most expensively assembled fantasy football side in European football history, hardly the hardest job in modern football is it?
In fact I think Chelsea could stick a shopfront dummy in the centre of midfield and given the right wind conditions it could hit the top of the OPTA stats for some of those very meaningful categories. Maybe they already have tried this experiment out and are using a useless lump like Lampard to prove me correct?
The problem with those OPTA stats for passes completed, for example, is that they don’t track how far those passes are — so a player who makes 10 out of 10 five-yard sideways passes is going to be rated higher than one who makes 8 out of 10 40-yard passes.
As for shots on target, Lampard probably had more of those than anyone else at this World Cup. But it means fuck-all if you can’t score from a single one.
I still think he’s a solid player, but far from the second-best in the world. He’s got a great team around him at Chelsea that makes him look better than he is; put him in an England shirt, with the expectation that he can step up and pull the team along with him, and he gets shown up.
CHING! There goes Jen hitting the nail right on the head.
Lampard=over rated ponce who’s shortcomings are covered up in an all conquering side.
Jen’s point about sideways passing completion rates sums up everything that is bad about Frank Lampard. Using OPTA Stats to defend him Rob is just plain wrong. Hang your head in shame.
I think you are being a bit harsh on Lampard. Apart from Joe Cole who in the midefield did play well? Please don’t say Gerrard, his passing during some of the games was woeful. The trouble is that people would sooner lay in to a Chelsea player – with the usual babble of “title buying Chelsea” – than they would Liverpool.
He was unlucky not to score, but sometimes that happens. It has to be said that it was getting a bit annoying watching him shoot from almost anywhere, but I guess if you are a scoring player you want to get that first goal.
Ronaldinho didn’t score and hardly had a great World Cup, is he suddenly an over-rated player? I think if you look at his form for Chelsea there is no doubting his ability, so give the guy a bit of credit why don’t you.
i think frank lampard is absolutely gorgeous
Alan, who are you exactly? Have you ever played football yourself? Have you ever watched Frank play? Clearly not if you are still calling him fat. Although to be fair I imagine you must be in pretty good shape yourself from chasing around that bandwagon…
Whenever an overrated player starts getting found out, some faux supporter will drag out the stats! This is football not American Football, we can all see that he is not the player he and Jose claim he is shame Steve Maclaren can not! And how the hell did he not get sent off in the Carling Cup final, does he have some dodgy Brian Barwick videos? he certainly is protected from somwhere, no getting sent off, and never dropped or subbed by England! Amazing
How did I miss this one before ? Alan you are a genius mate, I am constantly surronded by “idiots” who claim that Lampard is the greatest English player at the moment with references to his match winning performances for Chelski etc…
Well I can’t see it, I saw him live at Anfield the other week and he did NOTHING. He made no impact, he didn’t control the midfield and he was certainly shown up by Stevie G again. Perhaps he is now stuggling to hide his lack of talent in a Chelsea side that is misfiring this season ?
lfcrule1972, thanks for that wide ranging and unbiased input. What happened the other umpteen times when Chelsea beat Liverpool in the league then? If you don’t like being surrounded by people who rate Lampard, perhaps moving from Surrey to Liverpool would be a plan.
Hey Ben I must have mis-read the topic of this piece, I thought it was about how Lampard is not half as good as he thinks he is – NOT how good the Chelsea team are.
Cheers for correcting me though when I need a lemming’s point of view I will surely look you up again. If you are a Chelsea fan well done on back to back league titles, shame about this year tho eh ?
As for living in Surrey – do me a favour, full of self important over paid twats – I take it you live in a Chelsea postcode then ?
Are you actually saying that Lampard is playing well at the moment then ? Did YOU actually see the game at Anfield ? No ??