Source: Eurosport
Holding Lamps to benefit England
Frank Lampard is ready to sacrifice his attacking tendencies to ensure that he and Steven Gerrard can 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, Chelsea are launching a search for young Asian football stars of the future.The club has teamed up with the Football Association, Kick it Out and the Asian Media Group to launch the 'Search for an Asian Soccer Star'.They will be holding open trials for youngsters from Asian backgrounds during the May Bank Holiday with the most talented players being offered a three-day residential try-out at the club's academy.It will take place between May 2-4 at Chelsea's training ground in Cobham for players in the under-12 to 14 age groups and will be open to London and south-east based players from Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi backgrounds."We realise that there is a lack of representation of players from Asian backgrounds within the game and we hope that the competition will help inspire Asian youngsters," said former Chelsea and England star Graeme Le Saux."We want to show that race is no barrier to joining our club and that opportunities for Asian players do exist."We are proud of the religious and racial diversity at Chelsea and it is important that all clubs share our ambition that players should only be judged on their talent and their potential," he added.[LNB]
