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Before waving farewell to Frank Lampard next summer, his employers may wish to put a price on replacing a man capable of scoring 20 goals from midfield in four English seasons on the spin. Oh, that’s right, there isn’t one. All Roman Abramovich’s money cannot buy another Lampard because here, at least, he does not exist. Cristiano Ronaldo will have to keep up last season’s scoring form until May 2010 to equal his consistency. Lampard’s detractors, of which there are strangely many, certainly when he plays for England, dismiss his scoring feats as the work of fortuitous deflections, in which case, what a lucky boy he must be: 83 deflections since August 2003. There have been 50 Premier League deflections, five Carling Cup deflections, nine FA Cup deflections, 11 deflections in the Champions League and eight for England. Last year Ronaldo, a more aesthetically pleasing player, scored 23 in all competitions for Manchester United, but the year before his aggregate was all but half that. Lampard’s quality is his relentlessness. His bravery, too. For a man who is notoriously thin-skinned and turns each perceived slight into the kind of grudge that made the Montagues and Capulets such problem neighbours – witness the way he has escalated a little local difficulty when returning to Upton Park into a war with supporters at his former club, West Ham United – Lampard never hides when he is on the field. The anti-Lampard stampede is boring and wrong. |
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I don't think the mere fact that someone plays for a small club and is pretty good makes them underrated. Ryan Nelson is a good defender, but he certainly gets the praise he deserves. Same with Samba. In truth, Ferdinand is possibly the most underrated player in the league. He's probably the best defender in the world at the moment, yet half the clowns out there think Woodgate is better.
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