Jamie Carragher has named his former Liverpool team-mate Steven Gerrard as the greatest midfielder in Premier League history.
Carragher was conducting the rankings live on Sky Sports after Man United’s 2-1 defeat by Leeds on Monday night where he was joined by Roy Keane.
After being handed a longlist of 28 players, the former defender cut the list down to just 10 as he announced each player in turn.
Former Chelsea and Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas was ranked in 10th, with Man City icons Rodri and Yaya Toure coming ninth and eighth respectively.
Keane’s former United team-mate Paul Scholes took seventh spot, with the Irishman describing him as a ‘brilliant player and team-mate’ who ‘brought that X factor’.
N’Golo Kante and Frank Lampard were placed sixth and fifth by Carragher before he put Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira, who represented Man City towards the end of his career, in fourth.
Vieira and Keane enjoyed a memorable rivalry over the years and the latter described the Frenchman as ‘my greatest opponent’.
The tension rose as Carragher whittled down his top three, and it was a fourth player from the Etihad in Kevin De Bruyne who came third.
Explaining his pick, Carragher said: ‘He was probably similar to Steven Gerrard in terms of a midfielder, but different to Roy and Patrick.
‘There’s no doubt he wandered to the right and attacking midfield, but I think he is the best ever passer of the ball in the Premier League.
‘Some of the assists he used to have for Man City… and I think that Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool team should’ve won a lot more given how good they were, but Liverpool didn’t have that (De Bruyne) type of player in midfield.
‘He was the difference. I go back to the game when Aston Villa were 2-0 up at Man City on the last game of the season (in 2022) and Liverpool went ahead.
‘Kevin De Bruyne just turned it on and Man City won the league title – he is Man City’s greatest player of all time.’
Keane agreed with Carragher, but went even further in his praise.
He added: ‘It’s about opinions but he’s the first that springs to mind for me if I’m thinking about the greatest Premier League midfielder.
‘An amazing player, (and he added) goals and assists. I used to be jealous of players like that. I used to say “oh my God” – he was an amazing player.’
Attention then turned to Keane, with the Irishman ranked in second place, although he looked a little awkward when his fellow pundit lavished praise on him.
Carragher explained: ‘I loved Roy Keane as a player even though I was playing for his biggest rivals.
‘The thing that annoyed me though was that Roy Keane was put in this box as someone who ‘put his foot in and got in the box to get a goal’, but he was the best passer of a ball in the Premier League.
‘I don’t think anybody on that list was better than Roy Keane at finding his No 10 and playing the ball between the lines. There’s lots of different players on that list but I don’t think anyone ran a game where everything went through them like Roy Keane.
‘You were the boss in midfield, no matter who you played with and you ran games at the highest level of European football.’
Carragher added that Keane would be his ‘captain of central midfield players’, before the Man United legend responded as he said: ‘I did keep the game simple and got good messages from managers back in Ireland when I was younger, and from Brian Clough and Sir Alex Ferguson.
‘The key is I was about bringing players into the game, but I did try and keep the game simple.
‘When I was fit and in my prime I felt like I could compete with any of them on that list. Technically they would be a lot better than me, but in terms of personality and encouraging my team to get on to them I would do that.’
Carragher’s choice for No 1 could perhaps be seen as controversial given he spent most of his career at Liverpool with him, but it was Steven Gerrard who took first place.
‘I knew his name and had heard he was a good player but I didn’t know much about him,’ Carragher said.
‘But as soon as he came in you’re thinking wow – it was his pace and energy – he came in and took Paul Ince’s place.
‘The strength about Stevie was he didn’t have a weakness, he could tick every box. When you think of the three roles in terms of a six, eight and a ten – he could play all those roles. Not many players on that list could play all three at very high level.’
When questioned on Gerrard’s failure to win a Premier League title, Carragher pointed to the eight times the former midfielder was voted into the PFA Team of the Year, the most of any player in history.
He said: ‘The way I flip that is he’s been the best player in league. It says a lot when players you play against pick you in that team.
‘Another way of looking at it too is we didn’t win the league, we’d have loved to but with the other players on the list, I don’t think if we put them in for Steven Gerrard that we would’ve won the league.
‘They wouldn’t have had the same impact as him and the two games that stand out – big games define a lot of these players – are the FA Cup final (in 2006) and Champions League final (in 2005).’
