Frank Lampard reveals the three England stars blamed for the Three Lions' 2006 World Cup exit

Frank Lampard revealed the three players who were blamed for England’s World Cup exit in 2006.

England went into the 2006 World Cup boasting some of the most talented players in world football and naturally, eased through their group with wins over Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago and a draw with Sweden.

Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side subsequently edged past Ecuador in the Round of 16 to set up a quarter-final clash with Portugal.

But that game saw England’s tournament abruptly come to an end, with the Three Lions infamously losing on penalties.

While Wayne Rooney received widespread criticism after being sent off for a stamp on Ricardo Carvalho during the game, Lampard has insisted that it was himself, John Terry and Ashley Cole who took the blame after the tournament.

He told the Stick to Football podcast: "We must take responsibility – that is the test of international football, to be able to go and be adaptable and understand.

"We got told for about six months after we got knocked out of the World Cup [in 2006] - everywhere we went, me, John [Terry] and Ashley [Cole] were getting pelters letting us know it was our fault!"

In the same interview, Lampard argued against that England team being labelled the Golden Generation.

It has long been a point of contention that a side that boasted the likes of Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard, Rooney, Michael Owen, Sol Campbell, Cole and Rio Ferdinand, never won an international trophy.

But Lampard said: "The Golden Generation tag was nonsense anyway – no one proclaimed us as a Golden Generation, there are some good players in that squad but so did Italy and France, who had Andrea Pirlo and Zinedine Zidane.

Lampard claimed it was the Chelsea trio that received the most blame (Getty)

"International football is always a challenge to win, and that’s an old story now.

"Of course, it’s always nice to rehash the story – I don’t want to cry too much here, because every manager has a tough run.

"Every manager will be top of the tree after a few wins and then a threat of getting the sack, whether you are part of the Golden Generation, just an English manager or a foreign manager.

"I would say probably in the recent period, there’s not really been a young British manager that has come and been a standard bearer for it.

"With foreign managers, probably starting with Arséne Wenger, and then Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp, they have made a massive difference to the tactical nature of the game in 20 years. Not an English manager in that list."