Frank Lampard backs Chelsea sensation Billy Gilmour to emulate legendary Man United duo Paul Scholes and Roy Keane
Asked about Keane’s comments, Lampard told Sky Sports: "I had to put my cup of tea down to hear Roy say something nice! I’m only joking.
"Roy Keane was a fantastic midfield player and he probably won’t give credit unless it’s due – and it certainly was due. And he’s right, I heard the statements he made about Billy and I think he’s spot on.
"Billy should be happy with that and if he can go and follow the ideas that someone like Roy Keane says when it comes to midfield play he won’t go far wrong."
Lampard recalls how Keane's contemporary at United, Paul Scholes, converted himself from an attacking midfielder to a deep-lying playmaker later in his career, and while he refuses to get drawn into any unnecessary comparisons, the manager feels that Gilmour has the potential to emulate his former England teammate.
"I agree, you touch on Paul Scholes there, Paul Scholes is obviously one of the greatest midfield players I’ve played against in the Premier League," continued the Blues boss.
"It was interesting to play against Scholesy, in the early parts of his career he was a goal-getter and an arriver in the box.
"Just as you said there, he’d play it around the corner but not even that he would then arrive in the box and then he would have the ability and the feet and the nous to score goals and make assists regularly.
"And then to see him change his career. I know we think it’s probably easier – the cutthroat part of the pitch is the top-end where it becomes much tighter and quicker – in midfield it can be easier because you have more time in those deeper areas, but if you’re a player who’s not top quality like Scholesy, more time can sometimes be a problem for you.
"So he would always pick the right pass, he had incredible range. Again if you did try and jump from midfield and get to him and get close to him he’d just play it around the corner because he knew you were coming. And Billy has shown early signs of that kind of ability.
"I’m not comparing him to Scholesy, no way at all, but in terms of those basics that you mentioned, then Billy certainly has them and that’s a great platform to build hopefully a fantastic career."
Gilmour earned global applause for his man-of-the-match display in Chelsea's 2-0 win over Liverpool in the 5th Round of the FA Cup last month before following it up with another dominant performance as the Blues demolished Everton 4-0 before the postponement of the campaign.
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