Players like Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar aren’t for sure, because defending should also be in the conversation. The Camavinga memes had me thinking, is there a player who was/is actually really good at everything, or at least most things inside the pitch?
Gullit, Yaya Toure, Matthaus and in general box2box players could do anything from defending to scoring. Pogba when he was world class is a good example. Defenders who scored regurarly like Ramos, Hierro or Koeman, even fullbacks like Marcelo or Dani Alves are exceptional on many things.
Another fun pick would be Jorge Campos, the goalkeeper who also played as an attacker sometimes.
Unpopular view but NOT Gerrard. As a deep lying player he was very unreliable in his tracking, marking, concentration and his touch was not consistently excellent like Xavi, Scholes or Pirlo.
There’s a reason why Lampard and Gerrard could not string 2 passes together for England. They weren’t really about building attacks from deep.
Now that’s not to say Gerrard wasn’t brilliant. I’d even describe him in his prime as a striker. Remember Liverpool had Alonso and Macherano behind him and very hard working wide players that tracked back.
His prime years he was more or less up front with Torres but would track back and tackle which helped make Liverpool such a solid counter attacking side.
I would agree with James Miner. Though that’s not to say he’s as good as Gerrard of course!
Gerrard was at his best when he could rampage all over the pitch without having to worry about tactical discipline. In theory he could play pretty much anywhere but in reality defensive roles didn’t play to his strengths