Frank Lampard Chooses His ULTIMATE Premier League Goal!

At any moment did you think about passing it to Riccardo Cavalli? No. There are so many screamers. Which one's better out of those two? I think Drogba. Did you mean this? Thanks for asking that question. This is so tough. It is tough, but I've made my decision. Frank Lampard, welcome to Ultimate. Thank you. How are you? All good? All good, thanks. You have had a legendary career. Three Premier Leagues, four FA Cups, and of course the Champions League and Europa League as well. 609 appearances. There's only 38 games in a season, so that's wild to me. From a midfielder. 177 goals. Chelsea's all-time record goalscorer. And 102 assists. It's phenomenal. I'm very proud of it, I suppose. Particularly as I've finished playing. I set out to be a young midfielder trying to get into West Ham's first team. And then I went to Chelsea, and can I establish myself here? And all these things. And then when you look back, you kind of go, yeah, I'm happy with that. Because I always wanted to be a goalscoring midfielder. I grew up with that. Paul Gascoigne was my hero. So to come at the end of my career and see those numbers, I'm pretty pleased and proud of them. So, we've got eight goals, and we're going to ask you to reminisce on those goals. Give us a bit of insight on how you were able to score them. But we're trying to get to your ultimate Premier League goal. Okay, let's kick off here. First versus last. August 1997, away against Barnsley. I grew up with a dream of playing for West Ham. I was a West Ham fan. And the first dream was to get in the team, so that was amazing. But to score a goal, like, as I say, a wannabe goalscoring midfield player, it was like everything had come at once. You know, like the excitement of it. I used to watch Frank McIverney and Tony Cotty in a West Ham shirt scoring goals, and then I'd get there and score a goal. It was by no means a beautiful goal. I remember that part of it. I sort of scuffed it in with my left foot, I think, and it kind of bubbled in the corner. Correct. The sense of adulation of it as a young man scoring for the team you grew up supporting was incredible. That goes up against your final game in the Premier League and your final goal at the Etihad for Manchester City against Southampton. Your movement for that goal is constant. I like that goal, too, for that. I mean, I liked signing out scoring in my last game in the Premier League. I knew it would be. I like the fact that it is a bit of a, say, trademark, but a sort of goal that I really enjoy scoring. And we'll talk about long ranges, I'm sure, in a bit. And they're obviously showstoppers. I love also, with as much love, goals where I arrive and find space in the box. And so that goal was pretty good because I managed to run in towards the box, which moved the defender back, and then I kind of checked and made space, which is something that I had sort of learnt even more as I went through my career and got a bit more experience about movement and what defenders didn't want to do and what I wanted to do. So that was a nice technical goal in that sense. OK. So, I mean, I guess both point and goals when you look back on them. Which one are you going to go for? City. I'm going to go for my last one. So this is for you. Yes, if you write down City. Manchester City for all other cities out there, just to be clear. So we move on to screamers down here. And there are so many screamers. Likes it from this sort of range. Oh, he loves it from that sort of... Let's kick off with December 2006 Everton against Chelsea. It's been a great game of football to watch the cut and thrust. Now Lampard... He scored against them in both league games last year and he's got them out of jail again today. This is the goal that I score. It's scored... Drogba scores one a little bit later. Which one's better out of those two? I think Drogba. Oh, right. No, I think Didier, because Didier was amazing. He was further out. It was just an incredible goal. It's definitely one of my better long range ones. I used to practice those sort of shots so much that they become very instinctive. And I developed by that point a technique of hitting the ball under my feet and making the ball move. You know, I'd worked a lot on that. So I never really went, I must hit that top corner. It was like, I know I can strike balls with pace. I know I can get them to different moves. So if they're on target, you know, I've got a great chance here. Keep the struggle with it. And I just, and it's, you know, it just happened. They often flied in, they really did. That goal against Everton goes up against another away day at Newcastle United in February 2013. This goal meant that you'd scored at least 10 goals in 10 consecutive seasons. In terms of that consistency, that goal scoring mindset, is that something that you feel set you apart from others? I think maybe it did. If you're looking back, because most people would want to score goals, but I wanted it more, I would say, than the regular midfield player, at least. And I know that because I sensed how people would train around me, other midfield players. I would practice more than probably anyone I played with because I'd stay out and do extra. And I would try and recreate every goal. So every goal here pretty much, barring these two, which we'll come to, were things that I'd repeated a thousand times in training. So in that point, you get to a point where it's very instinctive. You think, when I've got a shot, I've got a yard, to get a shot from distance, I'll take the shot on. I can't say that enough in terms of young, wannabe midfield players who like to shoot. Just practice, practice, practice, and then it's instinctive. And then it actually becomes quite hard to explain the minute detail because it's like learning to drive a car or cooking a nice meal. There are certain things that you just start to instinctively go, I just know how to do this because I've done it before. And that was what I worked on with that. So which goal do you want to go for, Everton? I'm going to go with Everton, so I'll put Everton there. Okay, very important goals now, milestones. Let's start off with the goal that secured Chelsea their first Premier League title in 50 years. And actually for both of these games, you scored two in both games. That's what you do. Maybe that's what you do. Good-Johnson. McAlealy, two in the centre. And Rumbolton. And Lampard can secure the championship here. Frank Lampard, round the keeper, into the back of the net. Who can deny Chelsea now? Probably because it was our first Premier League title win as a group. Chelsea's first for 50 years. That goal is definitely my goosebump moment. If I watch that back more than probably any other goal, it's the one that gets me now, even years later. At any moment, did you think about passing it to Karnick and Vardy? No, who would pass it to him in that position? If it was Drogba, I wouldn't go on it. I think the good thing was probably, looking back, was to manage to stay cool, because more time is not always a good thing. It's like, what am I going to do? There's too many decisions to make and it can run away from you or something. So I knew I wasn't an absolute speed merchant. So when you're there, it's almost like keep getting your touches out of your feet and keep moving as quick as you can. That was my first thought, as I remember it. And then the next thought was, I would be led by the keeper's decisions once you start to approach him. So the keeper's coming out at speed, it's like he put me in a position to make the decisions to go around him, which wouldn't have always been my go-to. I would generally go, I want to get close enough to find an angle on him on the bottom corner, but where he came out to me quickly, it forced my decisions to go around him. An incredible season, obviously, that 2004 campaign. The campaign, the catalyst that we went on to achieve. We had a really strong group. We were all friends. We were all around mid-20s. We hadn't won. Jose came in and kind of lit the fire or whatever between us. So you have a really good... And there was a point in that season, I remember it well, where we didn't concede hardly any, 15 goals over that season, I think. And this doesn't happen much, but we didn't think we could be beaten most weeks. You go into expecting to win, particularly at Stamford Bridge, and that's the beautiful feeling. It's not always like that. It's normally not that at all. But that feeling as a group, I was like, if I don't score, will Didier score? If we're going to concede, Pete will save? Or if JT will make a tackle? You had so many players around you, it was such a strength. That goes up against your second goal, against Aston Villa in May 2013. Here's Matip. Lampard. Hazard. Lampard makes the run inside. Cole with the return. Danger here. Lampard! Chelsea's history maker! You've beaten and surpassed Bobby Tamblyn's record, which had been standing for well over 40 years. It's a long time coming, like you said, to get to that number, obviously. So as I moved up the ranks, went ahead of Peter Osgood, you know, the king of the bridge almost, and all these players, I was like, wow, I'm going through. This is amazing. It's surreal at the time. But I remember the close running when I started getting close to Bobby, because I was getting older. At the time, I wasn't playing. I hadn't signed a contract. I wasn't sure I was going to get one. I was like, the clock was ticking on me a little bit. But I started to score relatively regularly and got towards it. And then I got a little bit stuck, as I remember, just before this game. And season end was coming. And I managed to score. All the fans and my teammates were desperate for me to break it. And that's why I think we used to see the big celebrations after the goal. This is so tough. I mean, they all are. It is tough, but I've made my decision. And I think in terms of it being a collective feeling that I speak about for this goal, that was an individual feeling. That was collective, which stands out ahead. So the goose bumps won. The goose bumps win. Yeah. OK. I also get goose bumps for that one. Yeah, I can understand that. Next up, we've got two goals. One, precision. The other, timing. Lampard in towards Malouda. And back in again. And into the net. What a finish by Frank Lampard. Be honest with me, Frank. This is a Premier League mystery that we need to solve here. Did you mean this one? Yeah, absolutely. And thanks for asking that question. I mean, I did mean it. What I will say is that both of these goals are just instinctive. So when I say I meant it, I probably meant it in the final second of the execution. Sorry. Because as I remember, I was involved in build and it kind of broke down and it just came back to me quickly. So I didn't have much time to think about it. So there wasn't a brilliant moment. I just didn't want to chip it in that far putt. You just do it as an instinct. So I definitely meant it. Whether I could recreate it or do it again, you'd probably do it a thousand times and not score because it was my weaker foot and I didn't have much to work with to get it up and down. And I think I shocked the keeper. Again, I always put these things down to practice. I remember arriving at Chelsea and training with John Terry and Jodie Morris and we would hit balls after training with a weak foot and I was embarrassed because of my left foot. So I started practising and practising and then years later, I'm chipping one in against a hole in my left foot. Is it a chip? Is it a dink? Is it a lob? We've made sure it's not a cross. So what are we calling that? A chip, dink or a lob? I'm going to call it a chip. Okay. And that goal goes up against this one against Stoke City in April 2010. That's a great cross. Great cross. What a finish as well by Frank Lampard. What a beauty. The timing of your runs. Was it all instinct or did you have any kind of rules when it came to you making your way into the box? I think those are the things that you can't work so much on the training pitch. You can't recreate. You can recreate individually. I can hit a thousand shots but it's to recreate the moments and what the defenders look like, what the box looks like, who's crossing it. They're all things that you have to take into account. The biggest thing for me as a midfield player was to run at the right moment, to pick up speed at the right moment to make sure you're in there and also to not be attached to defenders. I love the fact that most midfield players, and I was one so I know, don't like running that way that much. I'll run that way but they don't like to run that. So if I could time my run and I know when I want to run, I can get that yard. I remain unattached to anybody and then obviously you rely on the cross being a good one. I wouldn't want to be in there too early. I wouldn't want a man, someone just saying, I've got you. I want to arrive and I want to arrive where I can make my move and lose my defender or just be not attached and then you get the chance. Which one are you going to go for out of this? I'm going to go for Hull. This game, that Stoke goal, I think we were 6-0 up or something. It was 7-0. 7-0. So the finish was me being a bit like, I'm just going to forget about that side. So I think that goal, I know it was early in the game but I like that because it was weak foot and the chip. I'm going to say Hull. Right, we are at the semi-final stage. We're going to come back to these two here. Of course you've got your final goal for Manchester City and then you've got the rocket against Everton. So difficult. Obviously different kinds of goals mean different things. Which one would you want to go for? I think we have to have a rocket in the final. So I think that was a nice goal for me personally to finish well but I think that one in the eye is one that I caught hold of and it's nice to look back on. I'm going to go for Everton. You've got to have a wobbly rocket in there. A wobbly rocket. And then on this other side, of course we've got the milestones. That second goal against Bolton and then we spoke about the dink or lob against Hull. I think I know where you're going to go here. I think you know where I'm going to go. This is probably my best technical goal in the Premier League. I would say one of, right up there as we've discussed. But I think for emotions and feeling and goals and football is about feeling and celebration and fans, etc. Trying to win things. OK, so the goal against Bolton gets into the final and here we are. So, your ultimate Premier League goal. The rocket against Everton against the run through going round Jaskolainen to secure the title for Chelsea. Which goal do you want to go for? So, this is a game of technique and strikes against, as I keep saying, emotion of culmination. Scoring important goals in important moments which are the best ones. And I also like the technique of this because, as I say, going round the goalkeeper was not my thing but it happened. But it happened. So, I'm going to go for Bolton as my ultimate Premier League goal. There is only one thing you have to do now, Frank, which is to lock it in. That is done by signing the board. Here we go. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Lovely.