‘England squandered Steven Gerrard & Frank Lampard talent’

Jamie Redknapp believes England are guilty of “squandering” the talent of midfield duo Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.

The Chelsea vice-captain is expected to earn his 100th Three Lions cap when Roy Hodgson’s men face Ukraine in their World Cup qualifier in Kiev on Tuesday night.

England skipper Gerrard and Lampard received praise after impressing in a 4-0 victory over Moldova at Wembley on Friday night, with the Liverpool talisman netting the opener.

Former Three Lions midfielder Redknapp, who is Lampard’s cousin, feels the national side should have departed from a 4-4-2 formation to extract the best from their midfield generals.

But ex-England managers Sven-Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren and Fabio Capello largely persevered with the orthodox tactic, which in Redknapp’s view was to the detriment of Gerrard and Lampard.

“Frank has become an outstanding international footballer, even if I feel the ability he and Steven Gerrard possess has often been squandered,” Redknapp wrote in his Daily Mail column.

“For too long England were stuck in the dark ages tactically, employing a 4-4-2 formation when two outstanding midfielders would have been so much more effective deployed between a holding player and the striker.

“Frank has spent most of his career playing in a 4-3-3 at Chelsea. With England, a succession of managers have stuck to 4-4-2 — with bizarre consequences.

“At the 2010 World Cup we had Gerrard playing on the left wing.”

Redknapp added: “Even so, the two have won more than 60 per cent of the England games they have played together and that says so much about their quality. Congratulations, Frank.

“You deserve to be on the verge of joining a very exclusive club.”