Lampard mastered the art of being a goalscoring midfielder and became Chelsea's all-time top goalscorer during his time at Stamford Bridge. Gerrard isn't too far behind but Scholes is bottom by a distance due to playing much deeper for most of his career. Scholes' best qualities were his passing but the thread explains that he is 'really behind in the creative measures'.
Defensive stats are also compared and it's Gerrard who leads the way, as expected given his battling performances as Liverpool captain. It's decided that Gerrard leads the way in terms of all around play, while Lampard dominates the scoring charts. Lampard was undoubtedly highly technical and hardworking, and definitely edges it from a offensive awareness and positioning perspective. Likewise, Gerrard was quite well rounded in all aspects, and was probably the more defensive of the three.
However, Scholes has to take this round. His ability to never lose the ball, dribble out of tight spaces, recycle possession, find players from deep and also contribute defensively and offensively was second to none, in my opinion. His overall understanding of the game allowed him to dictate the pace of each match in a way that is still yet to be matched in the Premier League.
Both Lampard and Scholes have been appointed as captains for Chelsea and United, in the past. However, this was almost always on a temporary basis. With the reasons being that the actual captain of their clubs, could not play due to injury or some other factor. Steven Gerrard is the only player amongst these three that was ever the official captain of their team.
And there was good reason for this. Gerrard had the ability to not only be a vocal presence on the field, but also to truly lead by example. The best examples of this in action are the Champions league final and the FA cup final.
In both cases, Liverpool were trailing the opposition at one point and he was able to act as the driving force for his team and motivate them to win. Both games ended up being , with Liverpool winning on both on penalties in both occasions, and Gerrard scoring vey important goals in both matches.
He obviously did not accomplish these victories single handedly, but his influence cannot be understated here. Something else to consider is that while Lampard and Scholes were both leaders in their own right, they were almost always surrounded by several other world class players and leaders. No disrespect to Liverpool, but Gerrard was never surrounded by the caliber of players that the other two had. This amplifies his achievements in his incredible career even more.
Now onto individual achievements. Having watched him in his prime, all I remember is this guy outscoring strikers left, right and centre from the midfield. I mean, I knew that Gerrard was quite prolific in terms of awards too, but I must admit that I was surprised at how close their personal trophy hauls are. However, I feel that there has to be a winner in each category. Safe to say was a good year for English Football. Regardless of who you think the best player amongst these three is, I think we can all agree that the fact that Scholes never received a single vote is a bit odd.
Moving onto team awards, and there was only ever going to be one winner here. While all three players played for highly successful teams. Scholes played for the most successful team in the country for two decades. However, as a member of the team, they are entitled to take some responsibility for the achievements. As previously stated, this is a measure of who was able to adapt better over the course of their career.
Its common knowledge that younger players have less wear and tear and are thus able to output a much high work rate on the pitch. However, they also gain experience and in game intelligence, this allows them to conserve their energy for when it is needed and still remain effective.
Generally, what this looks like for midfielders is that they slowly tend to be positioned deeper and deeper in the field. This is so they can be positioned outside of the more congested areas of the pitch, have a wider view of the game and are thus able to better choose how they spend their energy.
Now bringing the focus of this thought back to Scholes, Gerrard and Lampard. All of these players were deployed as box to box midfielders, dynamic number 8s, attacking midfielders and much much more at varying points in their careers. Subsequently, all three were understandably also moved deeper and deeper towards the end of their careers.
While all three possessed great experience and game intelligence in their later years, Scholes was undoubtedly, the one that managed to stay effective for the longest.
He was the box-to-box player, he could be on his right or left, shooting from the outside of his boot. He was a machine. But I think in the last generation, those three were the three best ones, and for me Scholes was best. The former England striker would have Gerrard as the first name on his teamsheet ahead of Scholes and Lampard. If I'm saying tomorrow rewind the clock, you're going into battle now, you're playing in the Champions League final, who's your first pick? I'd have Steven Gerrard as my first pick out of anyone.
The Brazilian revealed his preference for Liverpool legend Gerrard in an interview earlier this year. Arguably the greatest player of the Premier League era, Thierry Henry went head-to-head against all three midfielders on numerous occasions.
Every time we were playing them we needed to find a way to stop him. Deco played alongside Lampard for Chelsea but the former Portugal international was a huge fan of Scholes. Kieron Dyer trained and played with the three midfielders at international level, but one stood out above the rest in his eyes.
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