Paul Scholes

[Batman]

seems to have gone a little under the radar that he has retired.

Easily the best English player in the last 20 years

 

unbelievable.

 

the biggest crime committed by National team managers was NOT building the team around him and trying to shoe horn in lampard/gerrard at his expense

 

any other national team worth their salt would have made scholes the main man

 

 

what a player

[skintsaint]

Thing is these days most managers would probably have played all three instead of 442 all the time.

 

Class player.

[Tokyo-Saint]

Exactly, we used to moan about getting out numbered in the middle of the pitch and not being able to keep hold of the ball, when we actually had 3 of the best centre midfielders in the world in our squad.

[Smirking_Saint]

Exactly really, Lampard, Scholes and Gerrard all wasted by line after line of inept managers.

 

Scholes was exceptional on the ball in the way he saw a pass and what he coukd do with the ball, nothing over complicated either.

[Smirking_Saint]

Lampard and Gerrard have never been great CMs. Great in front of 2 CMs yes, with more emphasis on attack, but whenever playing CM, their teams don't do as well. Lampard adjusted a bit, but Gerrard is an awful CM, always leaving his team overrun because he plays a free role and massive gaps.

 

I would actually say the complete opposite, Gerrard always was the complete CM but Liverpool reorganised under houlier and benitez and started pushing Gerrard up the pitch and making him play the free role, this sort of made him into what he is today.

 

Lampard was always pretty much just a shadowstriker, he looked good as chelsea played 2 DMs and Drogba in front of him, as he has got older he has added a lot more steel to his game.

 

Gerrard was the better of the two, I dont care that he occasionally lacked discipline, he was our best player. You dont see Portugal or Argentina trying to cut the teeth of their own star players do you ?

[Sour Mash]

seems to have gone a little under the radar that he has retired.

Easily the best English player in the last 20 years

 

unbelievable.

 

the biggest crime committed by National team managers was NOT building the team around him and trying to shoe horn in lampard/gerrard at his expense

 

any other national team worth their salt would have made scholes the main man

 

 

what a player

Obviously a very, very good player, but I think some of the hype about him has been over the top. I'd have taken Gerrard or Lampard ahead of him personally.

[KelvinsRightGlove]

Obviously a very, very good player, but I think some of the hype about him has been over the top. I'd have taken Gerrard or Lampard ahead of him personally.

 

 

But what do any of them guys know?

 

Scholes is streets ahead of Lampard & Gerrard for me.

[Hatch]

That poster and those quotes from those individuals is pretty bloody amazing.

 

Incredible in fact,

[KelvinsRightGlove]

That poster and those quotes from those individuals is pretty bloody amazing.

 

Incredible in fact,

 

Hard to disagree with that many players, of such high quality.

[Batman]

gerrard and lampard stood out in teams generally not as good as united

scholes is was the best and regarded as one of the greatest ever players in one of the greatest teams this country has produced

 

had he played for liverpool, I have no doubt he would have stood out more than gerrard

[Sour Mash]

gerrard and lampard stood out in teams generally not as good as united

scholes is was the best and regarded as one of the greatest ever players in one of the greatest teams this country has produced

 

had he played for liverpool, I have no doubt he would have stood out more than gerrard

On the basis that Lampard and Gerrard played in teams not as good as Scholes, you'd expect their stats to for goals, assists and tackles to be a lot worse than Scholes?

[Crab Lungs]

Scholes was absolutely exceptional in his prime and even in his advancing years, his fleeting appearances oozed class (but perhaps not always the goals, which is understandable).

 

Though we're talking about England, a nation which gave 70 odd caps to Heskey. Dreadful, and that about shows us for what we are as a national team.

[Wade Garrett]

Didn't Scholes quit England because he was fed up with it being another vehicle for the 'brand Beckham'?

 

Pretty good judge of character as well as an amazingly gifted footballer.

[Super_Uwe]

A class act. No wonder he retired playing for England after Euro 2004 after being plonked out on the left - what a waste of talent.

 

Mustn't forget that he was prone to making some poor tackles, but certainly not enough to overlook his other achievements. United have been so lucky to have SAF, Giggs and Scholes for such a long time.