'The difference': Manager who coached them both shares who was really better - Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard
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Rewind 20 years and the debate raged virtually non-stop around Liverpool, Manchester and west London: who was the best English midfielder around?
The candidates were three of the finest footballers produced in England up until that point, and each played for a different Premier League giant.
In the Liverpool corner was Steven Gerrard, an all-action ‘Roy of the Rovers’ style footballer who carried the Reds on his back for more than a decade.
For Man United, the answer was clearly Paul Scholes; one of the most decorated English players of all-time, Scholes was the elegant, metronomic passer in Sir Alex Ferguson’s all-conquering team.
At Chelsea, Frank Lampard took the vote.
A prolific midfielder, Lampard led Chelsea to four Premier League titles as a constant figure in an ever-changing team.
Three sublime footballers who bafflingly could not make it work when put together for the England national team.
According to former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez, however, the choice is simple.
Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images
Benitez is currently preparing to manage an ‘icons’ team during an exhibition match in South Korea as he continues to search for a way back into football management.
And while speaking to YouTube channel Shoot For Love ahead of this weekend’s game, Benitez was asked which of the names set to play for the two teams would he most like to have managed.
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“They were asking me so many times, especially when I was in Madrid, the best player that I have ever coached,” answered the 65-year-old.
People talk about Cristiano scoring goals, great, fantastic finisher, but Gerrard was a box-to-box midfielder, he could play as a right full-back, he could play on the left, on the right, behind the striker.
When he was fit he could do almost everything.”
“He was getting better because the English style was box-to-box and that’s it, but he was getting better as he was getting older because the understanding of the game and the tactics was getting much better.”
Asked to pick between Gerrard, Lampard and Scholes, Benitez explained why the only right answer is the Liverpool legend.
“I was coaching Lampard at Chelsea and we played against Scholes so many times,” he said.
“The difference between Gerrard and the others, he could score goals, he was good in the air, right foot, left foot, he could play simple passes, long passes, switch of play, he could defend, he could tackle – he liked to tackle – so, he was very complete.”
Rival supporters may accuse Benitez of bias here, but the Champions League-winning manager is famously pragmatic and logical.
He would not say Gerrard is the best if he did not firmly believe it to be the case.
It begs the question of if Lampard and Scholes could not match the Scouser’s quality, then could anybody of his generation?
Former teammate Michael Owen has claimed that Zinedine Zidane was better than Gerrard, but he did also say that he’d likely pick the Liverpool academy graduate over Zidane for the biggest game of his life.
Other midfielders from the 2000s and 2010s such as Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Andrea Pirlo and Michael Ballack can certainly lay claim to Gerrard’s throne, but Lampard and Scholes sit half a level below.