Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher don’t often see eye-to-eye and that was apparent as the pair named their greatest Premier League midfielders.
Carragher sparked the debate on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football when he named his top 10, with fellow Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard topping his list ahead of Manchester United icon Roy Keane and Manchester City great Kevin De Bruyne.
Patrick Vieira (fourth), Frank Lampard (fifth), N’Golo Kante (sixth) and Paul Scholes (seventh) all made the cut, with Yaya Toure (eighth), Rodri (ninth) and Cesc Fabregas (10th) rounding out his picks.
Asked for his selection in response to Carragher’s list, it was unsurprising to see Neville disagree with his Sky Sports colleague.
Instead of picking his top ten, the Manchester United legend chose a top five with his order completely different to ‘biased’ Carragher’s – with two of the latter’s selections not included.
In at No 5, Neville chose Carragher’s No 9 selection – Rodri – citing the ‘influence and impact’ the Manchester City midfielder has on games.
‘He’s an outstanding player who plays that position wonderfully,’ he said on the Gary Neville Podcast. He’s been the best in the world, that’s why he won the Ballon d’Or, and was until he had that unfortunate knee injury. He was the best in the world for two, three, four years and miles ahead of anybody.
‘When he first came to the Premier League, I wasn’t actually that convinced in that first season then all of a sudden he turned into a very special midfield player at the heart of a treble-winning team. He’s been in the Premier League for roughly five years and if he had been in here for 10-12 years then he’d be challenging for the players that I’m going to name in one, two and three.’
At No 4, the 51-year-old selected the man Carragher chose at No 1: Gerrard.
Explaining the disparity between the two rankings, Neville said: ‘One, because he didn’t always play in central midfield. The best Liverpool team that I played was when he was a No 10, driving forward and ahead of [Javier] Mascherano and [Xabi] Alonso.
‘Then towards the end he played in a 4-3-3 formation with Brendan [Rodgers] went very deep and wasn’t a central midfielder in a two.
‘He’s a monumental player but played in different positions.’
Scholes comes in at No 3 on the list with Neville hailing him as the ‘best player that I ever played with at Manchester United’.
‘He was the most beautiful football player, who controlled every single game for us,’ Neville enthused. However, like Gerrard he wasn’t as higher on the list due to his flexibility within a team set-up.
‘He also had periods in his career where he played off the front in a sort of three or he played as a No 10.
‘When he finally went back into central midfield and played there for six, seven, eight years at the end of his career he was so special.
‘The reason I dropped him down in this list behind sort of the two I’m going to name next is because he didn’t play there all his career. He sort of played there for most of the back end of his career and then he’s formed into a brilliant player. He was just so special. He’s different.’
Neville played at the height of the Manchester United-Arsenal rivalry led by their respective captains at the time Keane and Vieira.
And it’s no surprise that the duo are sitting at No 1 and No 2, but in what order?
Well, at No 2, Neville chose the Gunners legend Vieira.
‘He was a great tackler, runner, quick, couldn’t get the ball past him, couldn’t take him on one-on-one, would get across to anything. So when you come up against a player like Patrick Vieira, you need somebody in your team who can stand up to him in that respect.’
And Neville’s words bring us to No 1… Keane.
‘I don’t think there’s ever been a more influential football player in the Premier League. Full stop. In fact, I’m absolutely convinced there’s not,’ Neville began in his praise of his former skipper and Sky Sports colleague.
‘I’ve never seen anybody drive a team forward with the standards that he had. An incredible attacking player, similar traits to Vieira but I think a level up when it comes to goalscoring. He’s a good header of the ball in both boxes.
‘He’s a good tackler, a great runner and quick, absolutely lightning quick but with power, a good fullback, a good one-on-one defender, a good man marker in the box, someone who had the ability to compose himself in the final third, someone who could wrap passes through the lines into players like Dwight Yorke or Eric Cantona or Paul Scholes or Wayne Rooney in the pockets in the No 10 positions and a great captain.
‘I think if Jamie Carragher is selecting the No 1 central midfield player in Premier League history you can’t choose anybody else but Roy Keane really and I don’t think many would.’
A naturally subjective list, Neville did acknowledge there are multiple wonderful midfielders who have missed out.
‘Paul Ince was an unbelievable midfield player and I sort of find it hard to leave him out of the top five because of the influence that he had.
‘Xabi Alonso when he was at Liverpool but he wasn’t there long enough. I left Frank Lampard out because if you ask me who is the biggest goalscoring influence from midfield then he comes into it, but he was very much part of a [midfield] three and I was looking for more of players who played in a two.
‘If you’re talking about the likes of De Bruyne, Lampard and David Silva, you’re talking to me about attacking players. I’m going for a different type, players who played mainly in a two. I know Rodri has sometimes played in a three but he’s always played in central midfield.
‘So, I’ve just thought of it more traditionally in the five that I’ve selected. Gerard makes it because he did play in there at times, but the reason he’s not probably further up is because he did move around and flirt with the right side of midfield, No 10 and different positions.
‘I’m unequivocal and emphatic that it’s Keane and Vieira [at the top] when you talk about influence.
‘It doesn’t take away from the fact that the most talented player that I ever played with at United was Paul Scholes. But when you talk about the Premier League and wider influence of Premier League storytelling and narrative, I think Keane and Vieira – you can’t really move away from them. And I would always just have Roy above Patrick Vieira. That may be because I played with Roy – and if you’re an Arsenal fan, some would it is. I don’t think so. I just think he was just a little bit ahead of of Patrick. They’re the [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Lionel] Messi of Premier League midfielders, there’s no bad here.’
And as he signed off, Neville couldn’t resist a little light-hearted dig about his list: ‘I’m not as biased as Jamie Carragher!’
