Steven Gerrard knows a thing or two about debates regarding the best of his generation - and has now weighed in on the most fierce.
For what felt like the entirety of the Liverpool legend’s playing career, he was compared to the likes of Frank Lampard and Paul Scholes, with hours of arguments playing out up and down the country. Similarly, discussions surrounding Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have raged for years, with neither camp willing to cede an inch in the row.
Battle lines have been drawn since the two established themselves as the best in the world and the argument has evolved from the greatest current player to which one is the best of all time. Gerrard lined up against Ronaldo several times during the Portuguese’s first stint at Manchester United, but believes it’s Messi that just about shades the contest.
Asked by Gary Neville on his Overlap YouTube channel, Gerrard picked the Aregntinian icon, before adding: “But I’m someone who would never have a derogatory word to say about Ronaldo, because he is phenomenal,” Gerrard explained.
“They are the two in my era that were just…the numbers - when you’re a footballer and you’ve done it yourself - I’m not sure who’s going to ever do that again.”
Gerrard was reiterating a stance he previously expressed. Speaking on the Robbie Savage Podcast last year, he said: "They're very different for me.
"I think they're both operating on a different planet to every footballer that's ever lived, probably besides your Peles and your Maradonas. But Messi, for me, is more of a team player. If he's in on goal, he'll look for a pass as well as obviously posting really, really good numbers individually as well."
And asked to adjudicate another debate, Gerrard was asked to pick which one of his former team-mates out of Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez he thought was better. “I get asked this question all the time…they were both phenomenal, but I’d say Suarez,” he said. He had everything, how long have you got for me to describe him?” Asked if the Uruguayan was the best player he had played with for Liverpool, he replied quick as a flash with a yes.
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“I’ve played with some top players, your [Xabi] Alonsos of this world, [Javier] Mascheranos, Torres…but Suarez was just different. You just had a feeling, no matter who you were playing, that he was going to win you the game. Every game, it didn’t matter who it was.”
Pressed on how quickly he knew Suarez was the real deal, Gerrard recalled: “Straight away, first session, second session. It was like he trained how he played. I remember walking off one of the main sessions we did with Carra and me and him were like: ‘Oh my god! This fella has got bundles, plenty’. I remember Carra saying to me, ‘I don’t want to play against him everyday in training!’
“He was that intense in training and he could embarrass you, even embarrass you with stuff that I don’t think he knew what he was doing. He was a ricochet merchant, he’d run over, he’d dominate you and bully you.”
