Kevin Nolan faced a number of incredible midfielders during his career, but one stands out above the rest.
The West Ham midfielder turned Hammers first-team coach played in the Premier League and the Championship between 1999 and 2015.
Nolan saw first hand just how good the Premier League’s iconic midfielders could beGetty
Playing alongside and against some of the best talents in football will no doubt be helpful now he’s bringing through the next generation of talent at the London Stadium.
But for Nolan, amongst all of the English top flight’s legends, three fellow former midfield stars stand out as being the best the Premier League has seen.
The former Bolton and Newcastle star joined Andy Goldstein and former striker Darren Bent on Drive on Thursday’s show and was tasked with naming his best Premier League XI.
As well as picking his midfield, Nolan also revealed the one star he believes stands head and shoulders above the rest.
“Roy Keane, [Paul] Scholes,” he said, as he began to reel off his three-Man midfield.
After telling Bent and Goldstein how witty the latter, former Man United star was and how ‘good of a lad’ he is, the Liverpool-born coach went on to name his third and final midfielder.
“Them two and then, obviously, none other than Steven Gerrard who I think was the best.”
When asked by Goldstein if he means Gerrard – who scored 186 goals for Liverpool in 710 senior appearances – is the best midfielder we’ll ever see in the Premier League, he replied: “Yeah, for me.
Nolan made 401 Premier League appearancestalkSPORT
Nolan says Liverpool legend Gerrard was the best opponent he facedAFP
“I just think he could do anything, he had everything, you know the holding one, you could play him out on the right, he could be at right-back, he could be the attacking one.
“Playing against him was just so difficult. I mean look, we haven’t even mentioned [Frank] Lampard, [Patrick] Vieira and all these in this. But Steven had something which I don’t think any of the others [had].
“He had everything and I don’t think all the others had everything.”
Bent suggested Yaya Toure for his three in the middle, but Nolan says that while he thought the ex-Man City Man was a star, he preferred the type of battles he had against his top three.
“I sort of relish more a Roy Keane battle, if you like, than a Yaya,” he said. “I mean, Roy could run over you, don’t get me wrong, but he was like hard, tough, sort of that sitting one and I’d be that attacking one trying to get one over on him.
“Whereas Yaya and Steven, one minute they’re there the next minute I’m like ‘where’s he gone?!’”
Nolan will return to the dug out alongside David Moyes this weekend following the international break, as the Hammers take on Burnley at Turf Moor.
