Yeah Gerrard and Lampard never worked together. You'd lose a bit of width with Stevie Me out wide, but I seem to remember he did have one of his most productive seasons out there.
Lucky bugger! Albeit I those years were us tussling with Arsenal right? They were the “invincibles” a year later2001-2003 were my first few years as proper United supporters i still remember those years just like yesterday
Yeah Gerrard at 10 with Scholes at 8 and a DM behind him was probably the way to go.
Yes Hargreaves’s or carrick with one of gerrard/lampard or scholes on the bench. It’s more a crying shame that carrick got less of a look in than what to do with those 3 I always felt.
All-action midfielders like Gerrard, Lampard, and (now) Bellingham are always more popular to average supporters and pundits because they're pleasant to watch but make no mistake Real Madrid recent success came on the back of Modric and Kroos, 2 midfield generals who are more similar to Scholes than Gerrard or Lampard, let's wait if Bellingham can replicate even half of their success. KDB isnt much similar to Gerrard, he was more like Iniesta. KDB can operate deep in his own half dictating the game.
Oh boy that rivalvy with arsenal was something else, so intense on and off the pitch with no fake courtesy between SAF and Wenger either. I still remember what SAF said about Arsene at that time, "He speaks 5 languages? i have a kid from Africa who can speak 5 languages!" Then Arsene came back with petty remark, "everyone think they have the prettiest wife at home", both of them would get slaughtered by media today
He was sometimes shunted out left during the Keane-Veron days and sometimes put in amazing performances on the wing, drifting inside frequently. He also played an advanced AM role when Beckham and Giggs were fit on the wings, but sometimes Solskjaer on a wing in 2002-03 when they went more 4-2-3-1 style. There were plenty of tactical changes when Veron arrived, trying to fit him into a set style and midfield quintet (including Butt).
Yeah those were absolutely immense. Nothing in this day compares . Pity wenger sort of dropped off a little in the latter years as SAF started having to contend with abramovich money and later, city.Oh boy that rivalvy with arsenal was something else, so intense on and off the pitch with no fake courtesy between SAF and Wenger either. I still remember what SAF said about Arsene at that time, "He speaks 5 languages? i have a kid from Africa who can speak 5 languages!" Then Arsene came back with petty remark, "everyone think they have the prettiest wife at home", both of them would get slaughtered by media today
Thanks for that detailed post bud. Good post and my oh my, the nostalgia from watching those older matches
I think most football fans can recognise a good player when you’re at that level. Fabregas at 17 broke through at Arsenal and the media went crazy about his performances and he was a Xavi like midfielder back then.
I reckon Scholes and Lampard could have co-existed in an England midfield, with a third player in there as DM. Gerrard had no positional discipline and when he tried to play with any he looked hamstrung. You either have him a free role and no Lampard or Scholes as you needed other more defensively diligent players, or use him as an impact sub IMO.
Gerrard was rated highly outside England what you on about? so was Lampard. for them to get nominated for Balon D'or and World player of the year, these are voted by foreign coaches and captains etc.
Don’t know how this contradicts anything I said. I didn’t say they weren’t rated in England or abroad. Just that Scholes was rated already in the early 00s even more highly abroad and the others more highly in England. Also Beckham for example came 2nd in World Player of the year twice and was in the top 10 five seasons in a row, whereas Scholes wasn’t. Still you will find a lot of quotes from those days from top players and football people calling Scholes the best English player. That doesn’t mean that they didn’t rate Beckham or other English players. And Balon D’or isn’t voted by every (top) player, just by captain and coach. So while it definitely reflects how certain seasons of individual players went, it’s not the be all end all of discussions and can also be very focused on a couple of memorable goals or moments.
The issue is that Gerrard spent most of his career basically trying to play as a 'dictating midfielder' as you put it, and being very inconsistent at it. It was obvious he should have been getting played like Bellingham is at Real but for most of the time he wasn't. It's what makes it quite hard to rate him. In terms of his actual performances on a consistent level he's significantly behind both Scholes and Lampard, but at his best he's right up there and a fairly strong argument could be had that he could have been the best.
Scholes a #10?
Also Sir Alex Ferguson
Yeah Fergie was one of the biggest WUMs ever.
He was right though. Remember Italy playing England in 2012 and Pirlo absolutely ran that midfield, Gerrard couldn't get near him.
I am just generally commenting that half of the stuff Fergie said people shouldn’t take seriously. He himself didn’t.
In the same book Fergie also said he tried to sign Gerrard and never understood why Liverpool didn't play him there more often...
It'd be the other way around. Scholes was far better from deep than Gerrard, and Gerrard had far more athletic ability to get about the pitch.
some of those quotes called Gerrard best ever English player, best in the world and compared him to Messi/Ronaldo so his peak must have been higher than Scholes since they putting him up there with the best in the world
he was player hating. Have you seen his United World Class list? Its cap
He was annoying for me in the sense you thought you had him marked out of the game and he could be fairly anonymous-especially compared to Scholes dictating the play or Gerrard's sheer power- and then he'd score or assist out of nothing. His ghosting into the box and being in the right place at the right time was infuriating (CL final goal for instance, the good fortune of that goal or the assist for Drogba in the FA cup final of 2007
). Great player, terrific workrate too. Late Scholes yeah. But Gerrard was a better box-to-box player. I'd play him deeper personally
