Frank Lampard gives honest take on 'useless' Gerard-Lampard-Scholes debate

Frank Lampard has admitted he gets asked 'all the time' about who was the best player between Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes and himself.

The former Chelsea and Manchester City midfielder is widely regarded as one of the finest Premier League players of all time and starred alongside Liverpool legend Gerrard for England during the 'Golden Generation'.

As prominent, goalscoring, English midfielders, Gerrard and Lampard – as well as Manchester United legend Scholes – were regularly compared and contrasted during their time as England teammates and Premier League rivals throughout the noughties – though there is little question about who was better from a Liverpool fan's perspective.

Asked about the age old debate on Mikel John Obi's Obi One podcast, Lampard admitted he 'would agree' with anyone who insisted Gerrard was the better player – but claimed the debate is 'useless'.

'It's a debate that I get when I get in a cab in London," he said. “I get it all the time ... Listen, I am going to sit on the fence here. It's not a debate that's worthy of anything.

“I played with and against both with England. They were incredible players and we had different attributes and were in different circumstances.

“I have the upmost respect for those players.

“If someone went to me, 'Frank, here is the debate. I think Stevie [Gerrard] is better than you'. He was amazing, and I'll agree with you.

“It's no big deal, and I am pleased to be in debate of that level with players. I know what my strengths were and I respect what they did, and I think it's a useless debate.”

Lampard was also asked about England's infamous failure to find a system that could successfully accommodate the talents of Gerrard, Lampard and Scholes.

On why the trio never really clicked together at international level, he said: "I broke into the team in 2004 for the Euros. Stevie had broken in before me. Scholesy was already well established by then.

"There was a problem getting us all in the team in that tournament. Did we end up playing a diamond?

"And then Scholesy retired from English football, which was a big miss.

"It's a shame because Scholesy was just evolving into this deep lying playmaker at Man United, where he was amazing.

"If Scholesy had stayed in the game that might've found itself a little bit and we never found it because we were always playing two in midfield and it didn't work."