Lawton is far from convinced that Gerrard is the real deal.
'While his fellow Merseysider Wayne Rooney explained what it is to be a truly world-class player, Gerrard, like most of his celebrated team-mates, floundered on another inferior level. Of course he has great attributes. Of course he can explode into the action. But that's not what we are talking about. We are discussing players who bend games to their will, who impose not just their talent but their understanding of what they are supposed to be doing.
Maybe Chelsea's new coach Jose - "show me the water and I'll walk on it" - Mourinho fancied himself to bring on Gerrard the way he did Deco, the Portuguese playmaker who had brilliant moments on the way to winning the Champions' League with Porto but has so far failed to make a significant impact on the Portuguese campaign. With Gerrard, you could only have wished Mourinho the best of luck. His challenge would not have been just to discipline Gerrard's game. It would have been to throw upon it a little light.
Gerrard was a disaster in Euro 2004 because he consistently revealed his ignorance of what great midfielders do. One thing they definitely don't do is spend most of their time trying to catch the eye. It is true that sometimes they do erupt spectacularly - Bobby Charlton, Johan Cruyff, Gerson, Franz Beckenbauer, sweeping out of a withdrawn position, could all do it quite beautifully and with devastating effect - but most of the time they are determining the rhythm of their team. They are getting into optimum positions to take the ball and then use it. Gerrard's lack of economy for England over the last week or two has been quite shocking.
You might say he has plenty of time to improve. Yet he is 24 and at this age most great players are moving towards the final stages of their development. Gerrard has great talent, but has he the mind of a true midfielder? Does he have the technique and the craft and the care to build a performance rather than produce sporadic, eye-catching assaults on the opposite goal? All available evidence says no.'