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Rio Ferdinand explains why he would pick Lampard over Scholes

Teammates of both at club and international level, Rio Ferdinand has explained why he would selec...



Rio Ferdinand explains why he...
Soccer

Rio Ferdinand explains why he would pick Lampard over Scholes

Teammates of both at club and international level, Rio Ferdinand has explained why he would select Frank Lampard over Paul Scholes if picking a team. 

A product of the same West Ham United academy as Lampard, Ferdinand played alongside the Chelsea legend while on international duty with England also.

In Paul Scholes, Ferdinand had another former international teammate who he went on to achieve all there is to win in club football with Manchester United.

As he set about deciding between Lampard, Scholes and Liverpool's Steven Gerrard on his Rio Ferdinand Presents Five YouTube channel, it was the recently sacked Chelsea boss Lampard who came out on top.

Rio Ferdinand

"If I'm a manager, I take Frank because he's going to get me 20 (goals) a year," he reasoned. "As a manager I want them to define matches, he's going to get me 20 and probably double-figures in assists."

Nevertheless, keeping all sides happy, Ferdinand did concede that Paul Scholes had been his favourite player to share a football pitch with.

"Scholesy was a joke to play with man," he said. "I played with him when he played just in front of me and he just conducted the game.

"When I first went to United when he played off Ruud van Nistelrooy and he was unplayable, I think he scored 20 odd goals that season. An unbelievable talent, all round.

"Scholesy is hard to keep out, he's probably my favourite player I played with. I used to thank him for letting me be on the same pitch as him - he used to think I was mad, for sure.

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In the end though, pragmatism won out for Rio Ferdinand as he picked his hypothetical team.

"He didn't score as much as Frank, Frank's the most potent out of all of them in terms of goals - none of them can get near Frank. Goals and assists, Frank dwarfs everybody and he was cold as ice in the box."

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Chelsea England Frank Lampard Liverpool Manchester United Paul Scholes Rio Ferdinand Steven Gerrard West Ham United