Rank these midfielders in an order.

Xavi
Iniesta
Modric
Scholes
Pirlo
Kroos
Gerrard
Lampard

No real thought involved, just started listing them.
 
Xavi

Pirlo Iniesta Modric

Gerard Lampard Scholes Kroos

The order of the players in the same group is interchangeable. Despite winning Ballon D’Or, I felt that Modric was not as good as Xavi and arguably not as good as Inesta and Pirlo. However based on his achievement, he deserves to be higher than the others in the group below.

I think that Xavi is by far the most dominant midfielder I have seen.
 
Xavi
Iniesta
Pirlo
Scholes
Modric
Gerrard
Lampard
Kroos
 
Scholes
Gerrard
Lampard

Only ones I watched regularly.
 
I can't rank them all, but Iniesta is probably the best in that group players.

I'm a bit biased though, as he might be my favorite non-United player.
 
Joga Bonito said:
Xavi
Iniesta
Modric
Pirlo
Scholes
Kroos
Gerrard
Lampard
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Yeah that would probably be more accurate removing United-tinted glasses. Especially given ‘achievement’ is a criterion and Pirlo has won everything possible bar a Euros (where he came runner up). He’s even got an Olympic medal.
 
Iniesta
Xavi
Modric
Scholes
Kroos
Lampard
Gerrard
Pirlo

Pirlo might be the most over rated player of all time, all because of the beard.
 
Xavi/iniesta: Difficult to separate them. One a better passer, the other more skillfull and scorer of big goals.

Pirlo: See England vs Italy 2012; they couldn't get near him.

Modric/kroos: key players for both Madrid and the national teams' success

Scholes: The closest English midfielder to great continental counterparts.

Gerrard/Lampard
 
Xavi
Iniesta

Scholes
Modrić
Pirlo

Kroos
Lampard
Gerrard

Most of those are quite close — there’s not much between Xavi & Iniesta (I prefer the latter personally but you can’t argue with Xavi’s influence), then there’s a group of three players of roughly similar ability (went with Scholes first due to my obvious bias), then I put Kroos — wonderful player, but for me he is slightly below the above-mentioned players — it may be weird to say that about a player who had won everything bar the Euros, but I always felt like he could’ve pushed himself more and achieved even better individual level of performances...

At the bottom there are Lampard & Gerrard who look out of place in that list not based on their ability (they’re not far off the rest of the players aside from the top 2), but because they’ve played in completely different roles. Neither were true playmakers, even though both were very good passers. Lampard ahead of Gerrard as I feel like it today — I’d take his adaptability & consistency over Gerrard’s Roy of the Rovers style, even though the latter was more talented out of the two.
 
  1. Xavi
  2. Iniesta
  3. Modric
  4. Pirlo
  5. Kroos
  6. Scholes
  7. Gerrard
  8. Lampard
Kroos and Scholes very interchangeable, but hard to argue with Kroos' trophy cabinet both internationally and domestically. Xavi and Iniesta also very interchangeable.
 
There's a pretty big gap between the first four (Xavi Iniesta Modric and Pirlo) and the second four for me
 
harms said:
Xavi
Iniesta

Scholes
Modrić
Pirlo

Kroos
Lampard
Gerrard

Most of those are quite close — there’s not much between Xavi & Iniesta (I prefer the latter personally but you can’t argue with Xavi’s influence), then there’s a group of three players of roughly similar ability (went with Scholes first due to my obvious bias), then I put Kroos — wonderful player, but for me he is slightly below the above-mentioned players — it may be weird to say that about a player who had won everything bar the Euros, but I always felt like he could’ve pushed himself more and achieved even better individual level of performances...

At the bottom there are Lampard & Gerrard who look out of place in that list not based on their ability (they’re not far off the rest of the players aside from the top 2), but because they’ve played in completely different roles. Neither were true playmakers, even though both were very good passers. Lampard ahead of Gerrard as I feel like it today — I’d take his adaptability & consistency over Gerrard’s Roy of the Rovers style, even though the latter was more talented out of the two.
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Good post but Gerrard is far more adaptable than Lampard. In fact Gerrard has had PFA team of the year seasons as a DM CM and AM. Before Lampard even came onto the fold it was Gerrard as a DM winning PFA young player of the year and having performances like the one for England against Germany, it was actually Lampard who upset the balance of a young Gerrard/Scholes partnership which was pretty decent.
 
Gerrard
Modric
Pirlo
Lampard
Iniesta

Scholes
Xavi
Kroos
 
Anyone ranking Scholes lower than 3rd in this list are dead to me
 
GlasgowCeltic said:
There's a pretty big gap between the first four (Xavi Iniesta Modric and Pirlo) and the second four for me
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Agree. With the only caveat that if it wasn’t for WC2018, Modric wouldn’t have been in the first tier.

I think he was never mentioned in the same pedestal as Xavi and Pirlo (Iniesta is a different type of player but probably the same level as those two) until that World Cup. And after that, again he was just another great midfielder instead of Xavi/Pirlo that are historical types of player. In that aspect, I think his career is closer to Scholes and Kroos rather than Xavi and Pirlo. But when you consider the Ballon D’Or and the World Cup, hard to disagree with putting him in the first tier.
 
Righteous Steps said:
Good post but Gerrard is far more adaptable than Lampard. In fact Gerrard has had PFA team of the year seasons as a DM CM and AM. Before Lampard even came onto the fold it was Gerrard as a DM winning PFA young player of the year and having performances like the one for England against Germany, it was actually Lampard who upset the balance of a young Gerrard/Scholes partnership which was pretty decent.
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Gerrard was versatile, but not adaptable — a paradox very similar to the one presented by Arrigo Sacchi (In situations like that, I just have to say, Gerrard's a great footballer, but perhaps not a great player). In every role he required the team to be built around him — hence why he was shoved around to the right wing or to the AM spot at his very best. Him performing as a DM later on was also a very questionable idea — he provided lot of creativity, but Liverpool really suffered through the middle. It's unfair to judge his whole season by that performance, but the infamous slip highlighted the biggest issue that he had when playing in that role.

Lampard, on the other hand, only ever played as a CM or as an AM, I think, but he was always someone who complimented the team rather than someone who required the system to be built around him.
 
1. Xavi
2. Iniesta
3. Modric
4. Pirlo
5. Kroos
6. Scholes
7. Gerrard
8. Lampard
 
Xavi
---
Iniesta
Modric
Scholes
Lampard
Kroos
Gerrard
Pirlo
 
Scholes
Xavi
Modric
Iniesta
Kroos
Lampard
Gerrard
Pirlo

Scholes being my favorite player of all time, would never put him below anyone. :lol:
 
harms said:
Gerrard was versatile, but not adaptable — a paradox very similar to the one presented by Arrigo Sacchi (In situations like that, I just have to say, Gerrard's a great footballer, but perhaps not a great player). In every role he required the team to be built around him — hence why he was shoved around to the right wing or to the AM spot at his very best. Him performing as a DM later on was also a very questionable idea — he provided lot of creativity, but Liverpool really suffered through the middle. It's unfair to judge his whole season by that performance, but the infamous slip highlighted the biggest issue that he had when playing in that role.

Lampard, on the other hand, only ever played as a CM or as an AM, I think, but he was always someone who complimented the team rather than someone who required the system to be built around him.
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The sacchi quote has been come a bit of a red herring, it’s one great mans opinion but we don’t have to agree with every decision or opinion made by great managers otherwise maybe we would have to rate the likes of Baggio less?

The truth is it’s not really that he required the team to be built around him, it reallys that he was simply Liverpool’s best player in every position. He had a world class season as a RM, CM AM and DM so why should his versatility be used against him?

Alonso had two at most good seasons at Liverpool, because he was a specialist midfielder who could literally only play one position to a top level shouldn’t be used against Gerrard who could play to a top level in many. Funny you bring it up but The infamous slip was a small part of a great season that had Gerrard finish in the team of the year and easily one of the best midfielders in the league at 34 as a deep lying playmaker, yet the slip sums up the season for him more than the numerous class performances he put in to help his team actually be in a title challenge? Yet that one moment defines everything?
 
Overrating of Pirlo and underraring of Gerrard are inevitable
 
The Scholes quotes will inevitably be rolled out at some point, so interesting to remember on the other side that Scholes himself said he modelled his game on Kroos at the end of his career, don't think you can pay a much higher compliment than that.
 
1. Iniesta
2. Pirlo
3. Xavi
4. Scholes
5. Kroos
6. Modric
7. Gerrard
8. Lampard
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
The Scholes quotes will inevitably be rolled out at some point, so interesting to remember on the other side that Scholes himself said he modelled his game on Kroos at the end of his career, don't think you can pay a much higher compliment than that.
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Is this even true though? Scholes adapted to a deeper role around 2007 ish. Kroos was 17 and didn't even make his first team debut for Bayern until then.
 
Xavi
Iniesta

Scholes
Modrić
Pirlo

Gerrard
Kroos
Lampard

Sounds about right to me. Yes, Modric won a ballon-dor by default that year, but I still rate Scholes as a better midfielder than him. Xavi & Iniesta are untouchable at the top.
 
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