1. Paul Scholes
Mike Egerton/EMPICS Sport
Club: Manchester United When two of the greatest midfielders in recent times give their backing to a player like Paul Scholes, its hard to argue that anybody else should be top of this list. In 2010, French World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane described Paul Scholes as the complete player, whilst lamenting the fact that he never had the chance to play alongside him in his career. Likewise, Spanish World Cup winner Xavi said this in 2011:
In the last 15 to 20 years the best central midfielder that I have seen the most complete is Scholes. He is a spectacular player who has everything. He can play the final pass, he can score, he is strong, he never gets knocked off the ball and he doesnt give possession away. If he had been Spanish then maybe he would have been valued more.
So what else can be said that Xavi has not already highlighted? Not only can Scholes play the final pass but, like Alonso and Gerrard who featured earlier in this list, his long-range passing ability is exquisite second to none, in fact. His capacity to control a game is unparalleled too, when Scholes is at his best you dont get near him, it doesnt matter who you are. Actually, like Gerrard, it was only later in the former Manchester United players career that he began to drop so deep to control games before that he would just control games from all over the pitch except then he had a significant goal threat too, scoring a remarkable 107 Premier League goals during his career. Manchester United have never truly replaced Scholes since he retired, Michael Carrick has generally done a superb job of attempting to fill the void, but hes no Paul Scholes, who is? Such was the extent which United were missing his dominating presence that Sir Alex Ferguson had to persuade him to come out of retirement in 2012, although perhaps that said more about Man Utds lack of quality in central midfield at that time. Then again, how many times have England managers tried to convince the fiery-headed playmaker to come out of international retirement too? This was despite Scholes never quite reproducing his best club form for his country, although maybe that had something to do with him being stuck out on the left to accommodate Gerrard and Lampard at times. Nobody is perfect though, and Scholes did have one flaw, quite an obvious one in fact, his tackling. He became renowned for his infamous mistimed, typical Paul Scholes tackle, often flying into challenges and picking up yellow cards not such a typical Spanish midfielder after all, right Xavi? But he can be more than forgiven for the occasional misdemeanour given that were talking about one of the greatest English players of the modern generation, and surely the greatest central midfielder in Premier League history. Which other Premier League midfielders do you think belong on this list? Share your picks below in the comments thread.