If Lamps and Gerrard can't gel against Kazakhstan they never will

1:54pm Friday 10th October 2008

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Kazakhstan are still a bit miffy about that Borat film.

The Sacha Baron Cohen comedy tour of America went down like a lead balloon back home in Almaty. I can’t see why but for some reason they didn’t get the joke.

Now the national team will use the stick their country took from the spoof documentary as an added incentive to give it their all at Wembley tonight.

And no, they won’t be stepping out in those green all-in-one male swimsuits that Borat squeezed into.

What England can surely expect is another Andorra-esque brick wall that will need to be knocked down. Don’t bank on too much Kazakh ambition; instead it is more likely to be another 90-minute session of attack against defence.

More interest will be generated by the team that Fabio Capello sends out for this pea-shelling exercise. And in particular, whether he plans to accommodate both Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard again.

Will they ever work well together in the same midfield? Lampard admits that he is as bored with the debate dragging on as anyone.

But given his rampaging display in Croatia – a game that Gerrard missed through suspension – the jury remains as unconvinced as ever.

If they cannot hit it off against opponents as limited as Saturday’s, you fear it will never happen. Perhaps then it will be time to knock the partnership on the head for good and bring in a rotation policy. Or maybe something more radical.

As Borat might say: “If it not success, I will be execute.”