Chelsea star lacks “style” needed to be number one in his position claims Paul Scholes | OneFootball

Gary Neville caused quite a stir on the Chelsea internet this week when he named Moises Caicedo as the best midfielder in the league.

Following the Blues’ win over Liverpool on Saturday evening, which saw a stunning goal from the Ecuador star, the former Man U defender sang Caicedo’s praises, calling him “the best midfield player in the league at this moment in time.”

The only competition he could come up with was Ryan Gravenberch from last season, and Rodri and Declan Rice from recent years.

Scholes fights back against Caicedo claims

Moises Caicedo celebrates his goal. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

But on Neville’s “The Overlap” show, his old colleague Paul Scholes was a little harsher in his judgement:

“I still don’t class Caicedo as an all-round midfield player. Okay, I know he’s got a great goal and was brilliant. I just prefer the controlling type of midfield players, who play with a bit more style and can score goals probably a little bit more often than Caicedo does,” Scholes explained.

“I think he’s one of the very best at what he does, which is breaking the play up. I love [Sandro] Tonali at Newcastle, I was trying to think of a player as good as Tonali especially. I think he’s been brilliant, [Bruno] Guimaraes as well.”

Midfielder’s ball skills underrated

There’s no doubt that Caicedo’s strengths are in breaking up play, and that there are better players in terms of playmaking from deep. But it also feels like Scholes is underrating Caicedo’s ability on the ball too. We saw him play so many good passes in that game, including a first time, over the shoulder lay off which set up the winning goal.

If anything, it feels like his exceptional ball winning ability is causing the rest of his game to be underrated as people assume he’s just a destroyer.