meanwhile over on red cafe

[Craig_H]

Players better than gerrard (who is undeniably a good player):

Without Question:
1. Ronaldo
2. Messi
3. Kaka

In his position:
4. Xavi
5. Scholes

Similar Position:
6. Giggs

In terms of pure ability, players that are currently amongst the very best:
7. Ribery
8. Wayne Rooney (in my opinion a top 5 without question)
9. Torres

Bollocks.

[Ballykissdevil]

Gerrard himself mentions Xavi, Iniesta and Messi as all being 'better than him' and I'd go along with that.

Anyone else mentioned? Nah.

[kev776]

Gerrard himself mentions Xavi, Iniesta and Messi as all being 'better than him' and I'd go along with that.

Anyone else mentioned? Nah.

Messi is the better attacker and scores more, but Gerrard is the current world's best "All round footballer". He is head and shoulders above the rest for all round ability and influence on the game. He has no obvious weaknesses, his ability, stamina, crossing, passing, heading, reading of the game are all top drawer.

[Rich]

IMO Messi is the greatest attacking talent on the planet, however he isn't a better all round footballer than Gerrard. You couldn't swap either of them. Barca wouldn't swap Messi for Gerrard and I wouldn't swap Gerrard for Messi.

[The_weatherman]

IMO Messi is the greatest attacking talent on the planet, however he isn't a better all round footballer than Gerrard. You couldn't swap either of them. Barca wouldn't swap Messi for Gerrard and I wouldn't swap Gerrard for Messi.

I would give it a thought to be honest.

[cannotmakeit]

Well Messi is younger, but no i won't swap.

[Tee]

Greatest all round footballer has to be Gerrard - no one else even in his league IMO for attacking, defending and just inspiring a team the way he does.

Messi is undoubtedly the best attacking player in the world but as an all round footballer he can do little else and is ridiculously 1 footed from what I have seen.

[PTP]

i agree with tee - as an all round player Gerrard is the best - for me there is noone else in the world who could play and be as effective as gerrard in a number of positions - I have seen gerrard play Right back, centre mid, left mid, right, attacking mid and as a forward for both or either club and country and been the best player on the park - i'd even go as far to say if he had to do he could also do a job at centre back!

No matter how good Ronaldo, Kaka, Messi or whoever else there is are......could you honestly say the same of them.

for me my top five players in the world would be

1) Messi - a joy to watch every single time i see him play
2) gerrard - no need to say more
3) ronaldo - a cunt of the highest order but he is good
4) kaka - a class player but seems to have dissapeared of the radar in a way - i think he needs to get out of italy and play in spain or england to challenge himself and re-establish him as top
5) torres - his performances for both club and country last season/summer were the best of any striker in the world sadly i feel that he literally ran himself into the ground and as a result suffered a bit with his fitness this season, but i fully believe when fit he is unplayable and hopefully with a summer break due he will be unstoppable next year.


For me the above are the top five in the world, and all though people might have different ideas on the order i don't think anyone could disagree that right now they are top 5 stand out players

to complete a top 10 for gets more difficult - once you look past those top five there is so many very very good players all with good arguements to be included in the 6th to 10th positions

ie, people could argue that say casillas/essien are in the top 10.