TOW MIDFIELDERS. OVER 1,100 Premier League appearances. Two-hundred-and-ninety-five goals. And at 5pm on Sunday, their careers in the English game will be over.
Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard have entertained supporters in the top flight for over 1,497 hours since the former made his debut for West Ham in 1996, but with age catching up and spells in the MLS awaiting them, the pair will run out for the final time at the weekend knowing there is a very real chance they will never play a competitive match on British soil again.
Legends of the English game are generally regarded as those who reserved their best displays for when representing the Three Lions. Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore and David Beckham’s finest moments invariably feature countless images from their time with the national team.
But for Gerrard and Lampard – whose inability to get the best out of each other on the international stage remains one of the more infuriating conundrums for modern-day England supporters – it is at club level where they have cultivated their legend status.
For one-club man Gerrard, it is with Liverpool where the defining moments of his 17-year career have been forged. Olympiakos. Istanbul. West Ham in the FA Cup final. Though all three of those performances came in a single 18-month period, there are countless other displays that allow Gerrard to stand above the rest.
And while Lampard plied his trade for West Ham and Manchester City at either end of his career, he too is synonymous with one club. In his time at Chelsea he became the club’s leading goalscorer despite playing as a midfielder, and he was the on-field figurehead as the Stamford Bridge club were taken to previously unimaginable heights during his 13-year association with the Blues.
Between them, the pair have won 20 major trophies, including a Champions League title each, while their individual performance levels mean they have featured in the PFA Team of the Year on a combined 13 occasions.
Their influence on the modern English game will likely be felt for decades to come. Though current tactics mean defensive and attacking midfielders have been more clearly defined than when Lampard and Gerrard began their careers in 4-4-2 systems, there remains an air of excitement when a player is able to provide goals with regularity from a deeper role. Comparisons with the departing duo are likely to follow any prospective England midfielder for the next 20-30 years.
There is no doubt that they will be missed for all they have done for the English game. But whose impact has been greater?
Lampard’s raw numbers are certainly more impressive than Gerrard’s, though he is certainly helped by being two years older and having come through the ranks at a club without the pressures of those who arrive from the academies at the top five or six clubs in the country.
The 36-year-old heads into Manchester City’s match with Southampton having scored 176 goals in 608 Premier League appearances. He has also contributed 102 assists, meaning he has played a part in a goal every 2.2 matches he has appeared in.
Gerrard, in comparison, has 119 goals in 503 appearances, with a further 92 assists to his name. At 2.3, his goals and assist ratio is as equally impressive as Lampard’s, with neither player likely to go three matches without having a role in their team finding the back of the net.
Neither goal ratio is particularly swayed by set-pieces, given both players scored their fair share of penalties and free kicks, thus making it difficult to separate them on their respective abilities to provide in an attacking sense.
Despite both being deployed slightly deeper in the twilights of their career, neither is particularly defensively minded, though Gerrard’s eagerness to win the ball back from opposition players means his disciplinary record is considerably worse than Lampard’s.
It is perhaps noteworthy, then, that despite playing in a team that finished further down the table than Lampard and Chelsea, Gerrard holds the record for appearing in the PFA’s Team of the Season. He has been selected by his peers on eight occasions compared to Lampard’s five, and though his standing as captain means his influence can sometimes be exaggerated, it goes without saying that Liverpool would not have had the same, albeit limited, successes without him.
It is, of course, a huge testimony to Lampard that he remained such an important figure for Chelsea until he left in 2014 despite the number of high-profile signings made under Roman Abramovich. Only he and, in the main, John Terry were able to hold down regular berths in the team while around them personnel changed on an almost yearly basis.
But for many Gerrard always carried that little bit extra. Zinedine Zidane commented in 2009 that, despite Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo beginning their rise to superstardom, Gerrard was his pick as the world’s best player.
“Is he the best in the world? He might not get the attention of Messi and Ronaldo but yes, I think he just might be,” the 1998 World Cup winner said. “He has great passing ability, can tackle and scores goals, but most importantly he gives the players around him confidence and belief. You can’t learn that – players like him are just born with that presence.”
Lampard’s plaudits are richly deserved – with Thierry Henry commenting last weekend that rather than talent, his career “is all down to work” – but it seems Gerrard was always that one step ahead of his compatriot. In 2008, even Mourinho selected Gerrard in his fantasy Premier League XI for the Daily Telegraph over Lampard. If the Portuguese had had his way, he may well have been able to bring the pair together at Stamford Bridge during the mid-2000s.
But the days of these two being compared with those in the running for the Balon d’Or are gone. Instead, at both the Etihad Stadium and the Britannia Stadium on Sunday, they will make low-key exits.
Neither has been able to lift their respective sides to their primary targets for the campaign, with Lampard spending much of the season sat on the City bench while Gerrard has struggled with injuries, form and – since January – the expectation on him to lift Liverpool one last time into the top four before he departs.
Though the kind words continue to flow from all angles as they prepare to leave the English game, it would be remiss to not acknowledge that they are both jumping before becoming passengers in a game that has moved on to celebrate tricky wingers rather than bustling midfield players.
The slow pace of the MLS is likely to suit both much more compared to the high-tempo Premier League. For all their talent, it is sad that the pair are unable to finish their careers in the country to which they have given so much.
But it is not for this term that they should be remembered. Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard have been cornerstones of the Premier League for the best part of two decades. What they have brought to the English game is almost unrivalled in the modern era.
The next generation of English midfielders have a lot to live up to.
- Tom Maston
