Michael Owen's emphatic answer to Gerrard vs Lampard vs Scholes debate

Who was a better footballer, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard or Paul Scholes?

It’s a question pretty much everyone who loves football has been asked multiple times and it’s a debate that is the definition of ‘never-ending’.

The English trio are undoubtedly three of the greatest midfielders in history and are bona fide legends at Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United.

Deciding who is the best is incredibly difficult, as they were all very different players. Gerrard was a jack of all trades in midfield, Lampard scored more goals than most top-class strikers and Scholes’ passing range is almost unrivalled to this very day.

It’s virtually impossible to pick a clear winner, although it certainly helps when you’ve played alongside all three – like Michael Owen did during his illustrious career.

So when the 2001 Ballon d’Or winner gave an emphatic answer to the question rather than praise all three of his former teammates in near enough equal measure, it was quite unexpected.

And who did he pick as the man who was on “a different level” to anyone else he played with? None other than Gerrard.

Owen said on The Greatest Game with Jamie Carragher podcast: “If you watch Scholesy in training, your tongue is hanging out.

“He can give you the eyes, you can think he’s heading it that way and he’ll almost do a reverse spinner off the other side of his head. He can drop a ball on a sixpence. He is just total and utter genius.

“But there’s that and there’s the actual practicalities of playing on a big pitch where you need size, strength, substance, running ability, all these things.

“And if you play one v one, you against you, Stevie against any of the names that you’ve played, I think he would eat them for dinner.

“Someone like Scholesy