Liverpool are still yet to find a midfielder quite like iconic former captain Steven Gerrard.
Gerrard put the Reds on his back across 17 years in the Liverpool first-team. He was just about the complete player.
In a slightly inglorious period in the club’s history, Gerrard dragged his boyhood club towards the games biggest prizes.
There will perhaps forever be a debate about who is Liverpool’s greatest ever player. Sir Kenny Dalglish certainly takes some beating, but Stevie G is surely his closest competitor.
With that in mind, the Scouser is often compared favourably with other greats of his era. And former Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas has now measured Gerrard up against Spanish World Cup winner Andres Iniesta.
Cesc Fabregas chooses between Steven Gerrard and Andres Iniesta
Gerrard remains the yardstick for box-to-box midfielders to be measured against. Jude Bellingham has recently earned comparisons with the 43-year-old, for example.
And although Iniesta was a very different type of player, the Barcelona legend is certainly in the mix when talking about the greatest players of his generation.
As another who comes into that conversation, Fabregas was asked to pick between a bunch of iconic midfielders for GOAL on TikTok.
Engaged in a ‘winner stays on battle’ where he had to choose between two players at any one time, Iniesta ultimately stays on point for the whole game.
Fabregas dismisses challenges from the likes of Luka Modric, Andrea Pirlo, Paul Scholes, Xabi Alonso and Kevin De Bruyne, with Iniesta winning every time.
When it comes to Gerrard though, Fabregas is a little more conflicted. Despite his obvious love for Iniesta and his game, the World Cup winner has to think about it.
“Tough, but Iniesta,” Fabregas answers. Wrong choice, Cesc!
Who was really better, Gerrard or Iniesta?
This is a little bit of a difficult question to answer in a way. Gerrard and Iniesta were very different players.
Stevie was more of a blood and thunder type midfielder. Capable of ridiculous long range passes, phenomenal strikes from distance and gut-busting bursts forward, he was the type to grab a game by the scruff of the neck.
As Gary Lineker recently said, Gerrard might just be the most ‘complete’ player of all-time.
We lost count of the times the No.8 won games singlehandedly. He rose to the occasion on the biggest of games, too. There’s good reason he’s revered around Anfield.
Iniesta was more of a nuanced player. The Barca youth graduate was the type to unlock a defence with a pass that no one else. A silent killer.
Now, we’re obviously biased, but we’d take Gerrard any day of the week. Plenty of players can replicate what Iniesta did, albeit to a lesser degree. But show us another Stevie G. There just isn’t one.
Sorry Cesc, but you’re wrong.