Lampard – Only Messi could replace Ronaldo!

The Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard believes that Man Utd will be a completely different team this season without the irreplaceable Ronaldo, and the United team will need to regroup if they are going to stay in the race for the Premiership title.

“It is very difficult to replace Ronaldo,” Lampard said. “I saw Alex Ferguson say that himself and I don’t think he will look to replace him. He will look to make the team strong as a whole by not having him. That is the only thing they can do.

“Messi is probably the only player you could replace Ronaldo with. The amount of times I flicked on the telly and saw Ronaldo had scored and they had won one or two-nil.”

Lampard also thinks that the Premiership is getting harder to win every year, and the fact that both Liverpool and Man Utd have already lost one game each is a terrific boost to the Blues this early in the season.

“The league is probably closer now, which has been a bit of a natural thing over the past few years,” he said. “Through good management, other teams are harder to beat. Hull were big and powerful and have looked at a different way and a different route of staying up.

“In United’s case, you don’t want to draw the promoted teams so early in the season. They come out of the blocks to try and get some points. It [the defeat to Burnley] wasn’t completely unexpected. I thought it might be a difficult game for them. We have now got a little bit of a lead over them and Liverpool. It is nice to get your noses in front.”