Who is the best opponent Frank Lampard ever faced? | MNF Q&A

Let's get to your questions tonight, mainly for you Frank. Any chance of a lone move back to the Premier League? No, not as it stands. I think I've had quite a long season and a half almost. I didn't get much break this year. Before that I was at the World Cup. Didn't play so much, but I played a lot of football. It's very important for me now, particularly at this stage of my career, to have a bit of rest here and be nice to have a bit of family time over Christmas and have a good pre-season. Because I missed when I arrived at New York, I didn't have a good pre-season behind me. I had to try to rush it and got injured. Next year it's important to do that. The follow-up question to this is this one. Will you finish your career in New York? I would think so. I think once you go past 30, I've always taken it year on year. You see how you feel, you see how your body feels, how you're playing, whether you're enjoying it. I'm certainly enjoying it at the minute, but I would never go on to the next year at this point. I'm looking forward to next year. I'll evaluate that one as I go and whether I feel that I can keep contributing. The last thing I want to do is carry on playing when I feel like my level is not where I want it to be. That's the day that I would say I've had enough. Coming at you here. Which was better of these two? Champions League 2012 or breaking the Chelsea goal-scoring record? The Champions League, without a doubt. I think Carey will tell you. We both won it once, and I'm sort of happy in a way it was that way because it was so special and I'm sure it was for you. He won it as well. You won it more than once, or not? No, one and a half. For me, it's such an elite competition. When we won it, it had been so many years where we'd tried and failed. I personally thought that if it didn't happen that year, I found it getting harder every year. The standard of Barcelona and Real Madrid was improving. If we didn't win it that year, I don't think we would have won it in my era there. It was a special, special night. But that goal-scoring record as well. The 211 is something which you were very proud of. That was a massive personal thing for me. I didn't realise until I did it how happy I was with it. It is clichéd, but team wins are better, and particularly the Champions League. It was something the club had never won. We were in Munich against Munich. It was a lot of special moments in the run-up to the final. It was the best night of my footballing career by some distance. A club you know well, West Ham. How do you feel about their move to the Olympic Stadium? Shall we just go all the way? Carry on, Frank. The menace will come in at some point. I know, I know, I'm waiting. I think it's a good thing. The stadium is sitting there, what are you going to do with it? I think for West Ham, it's local in the area to them. It's a very West Ham fan-based area. It just remains to be seen whether it suits them as a team and as a club. Moving to a new stadium sounds great. We all know the atmosphere at Upton Park at times will help the team massively with how close quarters it is. Whether they lose a bit of something there and suffer with that, I don't know. That remains to be seen. But I think it's a stadium. Something has to be done with the stadium and it suits West Ham there. At the start of the season, people were saying they'd taken a huge risk with Slavon Bilic, particularly with the move to the stadium coming up. I know they lost this weekend, but has it surprised you so far? No risk for me. I know Slavon pretty well. I played with him for a couple of years there. Not kept in contact, but we've crossed paths since in our football worlds and very smart bloke. Huge charisma. A perfect fit for the club. He played there. There's an affiliation with the fans there. I really like Slavon personally. I wasn't surprised. I expect him to do well there when he's showing that. He's certainly doing that at the moment. That is for sure. Right then. You might get involved with these two in this one. Best player you played against? Messi. Country mile by the sound of it. Ronaldo and Messi are the standouts. It's not a difficult answer for those two, but I think Messi, for his individual ability, when he was at the top, you can't get near him when he's at his best. Special player. For me, he's the best of all time. He's certainly the best I've played against. What about in this country directly in midfield? Steven Gerrard. Well done. He's looking at you there. Stevie G. Roy Keane. Scholes in there? Scholes. Stop putting words in his mouth. Is this a suggestion? Patrick Vieira. I was young when I played Patrick and Roy Keane and they bossed me. I was a young boy. I remember Patrick kept knocking it over my head and I couldn't get it the other side all the time. He had those long legs and I really admired them coming through. But I think over the period of my career playing against Stevie in those big games at Liverpool, when he was on top of his game, you knew when Stevie was on top of his game that he was a force. We had great battles. I had a lot of respect for him as a player. Even though we had those sort of rivalries, I think as you get older, it's much easier to have a view on it rather than that view when you're playing each other and you're real rivals. I think Stevie I have to give complete respect for as an midfield player. What about playing with who you've enjoyed most? You've played with some big characters, the Didier Drogba's of this world. Didier and John Terry. I think they're a complete symbol of Chelsea. John particularly for the captain role that he plays. I think he's huge for the club and I hope he stays beyond this year. I think he still has a huge role. We're all talking about him now but I think John is so big and he will be a big point of them turning this corner because he'll be the one in the dressing room we talked about personalities earlier and he's had that throughout his career there. How long can he go on do you think? I still think he's got two or three years in mind. The thing with John is five months ago we all decided that he's the best centre-half in the country by a way. Now people are starting to ask questions. It's not easy with John. I know Carol will tell you when you get to an older stage of your career and you don't play all the time it's quite difficult coming back in the team and everyone analyses every move you make. So I think he's huge for the club and him and Didier were the best for me. I want to ask you about that because I think over the last couple of years because of the immediacy now and managers coming in and not managing older but you've obviously been in and out of teams Stevie, you sit with William Rooney at United at the moment pressure coming on him you've got Yaya Torre who played last week in the Capital One Cup and you think why? Obviously because I played at United obviously a unique manager but Scholes and Giggs played until they were 38 and 40 because they were managed in the 30s. John Terry now obviously isn't playing that well or Wayne Rooney's not playing that well but they've still got a big part to play if managed correctly. What did you find when you were coming to the end of your career from going from being a certain starter to accepting that there's a change? I didn't like it at first and I think we all have that first reaction you don't understand it you probably don't agree with it whether you're right or wrong and then I think you have to take a decision here and say where's the benefits of it and I'm part of a great club which I was fortunate to be same with Carragher I think and the same with Scholes and Giggs obviously they know they're going to be part of a successful thing and for me it wasn't a problem the most important thing for me was managing myself so if I wasn't playing I had to train at the right level I had to train a bit less as you get older as a fact you get injured you get tired more easily so I think it's the intelligence of the player to adapt the way they play but also what they do in between but I do think you need to play pretty regularly if you come out of the team for a long time it's very difficult to come back in Were you communicated to? Did the manager say to you look I'm leaving out this week but I'll play you next just in case you're not playing today Some do and some don't certain ones I had later in my career didn't I know people like Ancelotti I was younger when he was at Chelsea but I know he dealt with a lot of older players he would be the type that would speak to you and look forward to games Jose Mourinho did with me in the year when he came back and would give you a bit more of an insight which is nice because no matter whether you have played 500 games for a club or 10 you want to be told maybe now and again when the manager doesn't want to play you just a little nudge in the week at training don't worry, I'm thinking of that or this is what I want you to do differently I can't think how it could ever be right for a player in their 30s who's obviously been at the club for a long time not to be spoken to before he's left that I can't think of a situation where it could ever be right Yeah, I agree with you completely and I think it's a personality the manager has a personality to be able to deal with players and say that and maybe some don't want to especially when managers come into clubs and players are there maybe they don't want to front that conversation up so they don't take it on but I agree with you, I think you have to say it Another question for you Frank you've sort of answered this the best midfielder you've played alongside and how much have you enjoyed playing alongside Pirlo? I've really enjoyed it I mean I had such an admiration for him from afar I think his ability on the ball I've played games against him he was at Juventus a few times England, Italy and I think he's a class act he's passing, his appreciation he's second to none his quality, his free kicks he's a pleasure to train with and he's a really nice fellow very humble does his little thing off the pitch and a huge name everywhere we go in America everyone will stand outside with the Italian shirts and the rest of us get ignored and feel like it's all a lie Frank, you mentioned about Stevie in the Premier League now there was always that talk with England can Stevie and Frank play together what was your take on it? should only one of you have played or could you have maybe changed it differently or a manager done something differently over the two years? I think there were times when he could have done something different I certainly will take personal responsibility if ever I don't reach levels and certainly at times of World Cups I think England games it's difficult, it's high level and sometimes I'll be honest enough to say personally I don't want to talk for Stevie but I think there were definitely times when I think that we could have been managed better there could have been a way to get the best out of us when we were both in our prime playing very regularly for Liverpool and Chelsea in the Champions League scoring goals, being involved heavily we went away with England sometimes and you're playing a 4-4-2 Stevie's asked to sit Stevie's on the left do you think a lot of it was formation wise? I think a little bit I played with Capello for two or three years in the holding role as such as a two so a little bit of a chance to go forward and I wasn't planning that for Chelsea ever so I think there was an element of that but it was always a team thing and you know because you were there and Gaz knows from playing for England for as long a time as we did but there was something missing that I felt when I look back at my England career I don't know what it is maybe we play against each other every week there's little groups Man United, Liverpool, Chelsea and probably when you're Argentinian and they're all playing all over the world they come home and there's a big family and there's a different spirit and I'm not sure we always managed to get that together When you look back now and you think obviously Stevie and Frank both liked to run forward at the time both charging forward Stevie in the right channel more often not Frank in the left channel and you think Scholes was pushed out to the left you think if Scholes had just sat behind them like a Pelot or that type of player you see Schweinsteiger's been moved from a winger Pelot's been moved from a number 10 and Scholes had that control to play there you'd like to see that now in the peak you think that could have worked but it was never ever experimented with it was never explored it was never seen and you think what a shame that could have been we're always shoehorning players out onto the left hand side whether it be Stevie, Scholes and you just think there must have been a way to fit them in somewhere I thought you helped Schwein pick the team