Gerrard, Lampard, Vieira: Ranking every Premier League manager based on their playing career

Frank Lampard was appointed as Everton manager on Sunday evening as he makes his return to the dugout.

The former midfielder was sacked by Chelsea in January 2021 but will be returning to the Premier League in another managerial role at Goodison Park.

It gives England’s top-flight a real Football Manager feel when it comes to current bosses. Those who have played the popular video game will have seen former players become managers as you play through the seasons.

That’s certainly the case in real life with the likes of Mikel Arteta, Steven Gerrard, Patrick Viera and Lampard all hanging up their boots and becoming coaches in recent years.

While everyone is aware how good the four aforementioned managers were during their playing days, what about the other 16 Premier League bosses?

Well, we’ve turned to trusty Tiermaker and cast our opinions on all 20 Premier League managers based on their playing careers.

Now, all 20 were better than we’ll ever be - even if some of them failed to make it in the professional game. So when we say they were ‘awful’ it’s relative compared to the manager considered to be ‘the best.’

So, without further ado, we’ve ranked all 20 Premier League managers from ‘awful’ to ‘the best’.

Premier League managers quiz: Can you name these coaches who were gone in an instant?

Thomas Frank (Brentford)Bruno Lage (Wolves)

Frank failed to play professionally with the Dane entering coaching in his mid-20s. By 31, he was coaching Denmark’s youth sides and has gone on to be something of a revolutionary figure at Brentford.

Lage was as young as 21 when he started looking towards coaching at the Portuguese side Vitoria de Setubal. He spent eight years managing Benfica’s youth sides before working his way up to first