Frank Lampard insists England's players will not get carried away
about their chances of success at this summer's World Cup.
Fabio Capello has performed a remarkable turnaround of
England's fortunes since being appointed as England manager a
little more than two years ago.
The Italian has installed a sense of discipline in the squad
following his arrival and guided the side through an almost perfect
qualifying campaign.
The Three Lions have lost to Brazil, France and Spain in
friendlies but are still regarded as one of the favourites to lift
the Jules Rimet trophy in South Africa.
Lampard was in the England squad which reached the
quarter-finals under Sven-Goran Eriksson in 2006 before losing out
to Portugal on penalties.
That squad was criticised for raising expectations by
publicly saying they were going to win the tournament but Lampard
believes the squad will take a much more level-headed approach this
time around.
"There's an inner confidence within the squad but I don't
think we're thinking about winning the trophy. We've been here
before," said the Chelsea midfielder.
"The experienced players who have been here before know that
it doesn't really matter what you say before the tournament or what
your form's like a few months before the tournament, what really
matters is how you play when you get there.
"You get asked the question a million times - "Can you win
it?" and the obvious answer is "Yes we can if we are playing well"
but you have to go there and win it.
"With the squad we have got and the way we have played, we
are doing everything right but when we go there we have to do
everything right there."
This World Cup is likely to be Lampard's last in an England
shirt and he believes the tournament will be one of the most
important events of his career.
"This year is a big year for me," the 31-year-old added.
"It's obviously a World Cup year so it's career defining. If
we were to go there and win it then who knows what would happen
after that?
"It'll be difficult to do that but it's nice to be in that
situation where you're contesting on all fronts and I'm lucky
enough to be doing that."
Lampard was honoured with the Football Writers' Association's
annual tribute award at the Lancaster Hotel in London last night.
As well as starring at international level this season, he
has been instrumental to Chelsea's success in the Barclays Premier
League.
The 31 year old has scored 11 times this year for his club,
who sit one point above Manchester United and have one game in
hand.
With Chelsea, United and Arsenal all dropping points
recently, the title race looks like it could go down to the wire,
but Lampard insists that will not hamper his World Cup
preparations.
"I don't think I'll become distracted by the World Cup," said
Lampard, who has 76 England caps.
"When I play for my club you get into the zone about playing
club football. I don't look too far ahead.
"It's nice when the draw comes around, you get excited and
when it gets nearer you get more excited but there's too much going
on at Chelsea, it's too important.
"We are in everything at the moment so we are focused
completely on that. Hopefully when it comes to the end of the
season I'll be confident after winning things with Chelsea and go
to the World Cup."
