Englishman to win 100 caps, joining Billy Wright, Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore, Peter Shilton and David Beckham. It is, of course, a tremendous achievement, testimony to his prodigious dedication and determination, his physical fitness and his mental willingness to keep coming back despite the often fractious atmosphere that surrounds England matches. Yet his name fits uneasily in that list. Wright was a consistent centre-half, spectacular neither as a defender nor a distributor, but a natural leader who seemed to embody the unflappable stolidity of the English ideal. As Barney Ronay put it, Wright was the dependable head prefect to the manager Walter Winterbottom's headmaster. Charlton and Moore were both World Cup winners. Shilton was perhaps the best, but if not certainly one of the best two, goalkeepers ever to play for England. Even Beckham, for whom style so overwhelmed substance that, having initially hidden his defects, it ended up disguising his qualities as well, was for eight years a key part of the dominant English team. But Gerrard? Gerrard inspired a memorable comeback in perhaps the greatest Champions League final there has ever been and almost single-handedly won a Cup final, but otherwise has fought desperately and increasingly vainly against the fading of Liverpool's light. He has never won a league title (although neither did Moore) and it's hard to think of him, from an England point of view, without a twinge of disappointment. It may not be his fault, but his incompatibility with Frank Lampard as a midfield pairing,