Souness: Stevie is No.1
Former Liverpool captain and manager Graeme Souness has labelled Steven Gerrard as England's best player of the last decade.
The inspirational Liverpool skipper is set to lead out the Three Lions on his 100th cap for his country in Sweden tonight, and Souness insists there has been no-one better than the Kop icon over the past 10 years.
"I'm trying to think over the last 10 years... I'd have him as number one," said Souness.
"Frank Lampard is a great midfield player and scorer of goals but I think Steven has the edge on him - then you start to compare him with strikers.
"John Terry has been a great player for England but you can't compare a midfield player and a centre-back.
"You say best but I think the question you have to ask is 'Biggest influence on the team'?
"I'd say that Steven Gerrard has had the biggest influence on the England team in the last 10 years."
Souness played in - and captained - some of the greatest teams to grace the Anfield turf, but he insists he would always have a place for Gerrard in any XI.
He added: "He would get in any team that Liverpool have had that I know of.
"He certainly would have got in the team when we played, when we were dominating the game.
"For the best part of 10 years, he has been Mr Liverpool, he has carried a team through some sticky points.
"From a European Cup final in Istanbul to games where they have been drifting, where the game has maybe been going away from them, he has done something magical, scored a goal or created something.
"He has been the outstanding performer at Liverpool in the last 10 years by a country mile.
"I look at him this year and I think he has modified his game. I think he is less explosive and he's more of a proper central midfield player now.
"It's not to say he has gone backwards as a player but when you get a bit older you haven't got those same energy levels and he has adapted his game.
"Because he's such a wonderful passer of the ball I feel a newer role would help him and providing he can avoid injury, he could play like that for another three years, no problem."
As to who he would pick out of Gerrard or his former teammfriend and good friend Kenny Dalglish as the club's greatest ever player, Souness was reluctant to select one over the other.
He said: "It's not a comparison I could make.
"Kenny would be the first to tell you he played in a better team than Steven Gerrard has ever played in at Liverpool and Kenny was surrounded by better players than Steven Gerrard has been surrounded by in his time at Liverpool."