Rank your side/wing-backs ever to played for Utd

Red Comet

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The discussion over Dalot and wingbacks in Amorim thread got me thinking - how do everyone rank the side/wing-backs ever to played for Utd since EPL started?

My Left-backs:
1. Irwin
2. Evra
3. Shaw
4. Silvestre
5. O’Shea
5. Blind
6. P.Neville
7. Heinze
8. Dalot
8. Rojo
9. Fabio
10. Malacia
11. Büttner (nearly forgot about this guy)

I’m not rating Dorgu yet because it is still early days.

My right-backs:
1. G.Neville
2. Wes Brown
3. Valencia
4. Rafael
5. Parker
6. Dalot
7. AWB
8. Darmian

Did I miss out anyone at RB?
 
Feel you've done this just to kick Dalot :lol:

It's really hard to know how any of these guys would fare in what is essentially a mid table team. If we agree Neville was great however, we've really had quite average RBs for a club of our stature outside of him. Even Brown, is he really an RB? He had one season where he was regularly playing RB.

I'd put Dalot in my top 3 to be honest, says as much about how poor our RBs have been as anything.

RB: GNev, Valencia, Dalot
LB: Irwin, Evra, Shaw
 
You missed Ashley Young for left back. He actually did pretty well there at times, including absolutely bossing Mo Salah in one game at OT.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
Feel you've done this just to kick Dalot :lol:

It's really hard to know how any of these guys would fare in what is essentially a mid table team. If we agree Neville was great however, we've really had quite average RBs for a club of our stature outside of him. Even Brown, is he really an RB? He had one season where he was regularly playing RB.

I'd put Dalot in my top 3 to be honest, says as much about how poor our RBs have been as anything.

RB: GNev, Valencia, Dalot
LB: Irwin, Evra, Shaw
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I’d have Rafa over Dalot in third, but agree with the rest of your names.

Fabio in 2011 was it, was outstanding at RB too but can’t count just one season.
 
LB:
1. Evra
2. Irwin
3. O'Shea
4. Heinze
5. Silvestre
6. Shaw
7. Phil Neville
8. Fabio
9. Rojo
10. Malacia
11. Büttner

RB:
1. Neville
2. Brown
3. Valencia
4. Rafael
5. Parker
6. Dalot
7. Wan Bissacka
8. Darmian
 
It's funny because our fullback history is actually pretty poor compared to every other part of the squad. It's basically Neville and Irwin (both very good for long periods of time but I wouldn't call either a world class player), and then a whole bunch of options ranging from streaky to downright terrible.
 
Irwin99 said:
You missed Ashley Young for left back. He actually did pretty well there at times, including absolutely bossing Mo Salah in one game at OT.
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If only we could add a prime Ashley Young at LWB and a prime Antonio Valencia at RBW right now.
 
1. Denis Irwin
2. Patrice Evra
3. Gary Neville
4. Paul Parker
5. Luke Shaw

All-time

1. Denis Irwin
2. Patrice Evra
3. Gary Neville
4. Jackie Carey
5. Roger Byrne
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
It's funny because our fullback history is actually pretty poor compared to every other part of the squad. It's basically Neville and Irwin (both very good for long periods of time but I wouldn't call either a world class player), and then a whole bunch of options ranging from streaky to downright terrible.
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Evra wants to have a word with you...
 
Bardsley, BoJack, and Fosu-Mensah. The holy moly trinity.

I seem to remember thinking Phil Bardsley was good for about 5 minutes and being very very wrong.
 
LWB Evra and RWB Valencia and you can close the thread :)
 
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There is one I would include although a car crash finished his career at a very early age, he only managed 31 senior games, though he was a regular in the 1967 title winning side. His name was Bobby Noble, a Stockport lad and came up through the youth team.
 
harms said:
Evra wants to have a word with you...
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As does Roy Keane, he'll be knocking on his door for suggesting Irwin wasn't world class.

Evra and Neville clearly where too, albeit Neville in an era back where fullbacks were a far more limited role than they are now.
 
SoCross said:
I’d have Rafa over Dalot in third, but agree with the rest of your names.

Fabio in 2011 was it, was outstanding at RB too but can’t count just one season.
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Yh that's fair, I can see either being 3rd. I had Rafael originally but forgot how little he consistently played, he only really played one season where he had over 20 PL apps which is kind of crazy when he has 170 apps in total.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
Feel you've done this just to kick Dalot :lol:

It's really hard to know how any of these guys would fare in what is essentially a mid table team. If we agree Neville was great however, we've really had quite average RBs for a club of our stature outside of him. Even Brown, is he really an RB? He had one season where he was regularly playing RB.

I'd put Dalot in my top 3 to be honest, says as much about how poor our RBs have been as anything.

RB: GNev, Valencia, Dalot
LB: Irwin, Evra, Shaw
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Come on bro.
We are where are because of the players on the pitch and Dalot plays every game… can’t seriously be ranking him in our top 3 ever right backs?
He’s been one of our worst players this season, in one of our worst ever seasons…

Brown’s one year at right back where he played more games than anyone else as we won the league and CL is better than Dalot’s 3 seasons… Parker and Rafael far better than him too.
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
It's funny because our fullback history is actually pretty poor compared to every other part of the squad. It's basically Neville and Irwin (both very good for long periods of time but I wouldn't call either a world class player), and then a whole bunch of options ranging from streaky to downright terrible.
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You wouldn’t call Irwin a world class player? That’s a good one.
 
Irwin
Evra
Shaw
Heinze
Silvestre
O'Shea
Blind (because hes better CB)

Neville
Rafael
Valencia - a shame we didnt use him RB years earlier
AWB
Brown
Parker
Dalot
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
It's funny because our fullback history is actually pretty poor compared to every other part of the squad. It's basically Neville and Irwin (both very good for long periods of time but I wouldn't call either a world class player), and then a whole bunch of options ranging from streaky to downright terrible.
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Irwin, Not world class? Have a day off.
Neville was world class for his era and Patrice (07-11) was arguably the best left back in the world.
 
I think Ashley Young is being overlooked a bit. He definitely stayed too long and struggled in his last two (?) seasons, but he had some good seasons at leftback before that happened. Obviously a long way from Irwin, Evra or even Shaw (his two or three best seasons easily put him in third behind the main two), but Young is comfortably ahead of some of the other players mentioned.

In fact, leftback is bloody hard to rank after those three players. Phil and O'Shea probably had a better consistency, but the likes of Silvestre, Heinze and Young all had a season or two where they reached a higher level (but also had seasons where they were poor). Although that may be doing O'Shea's debut season a disservice as I remember he looked extremely good that season, but unfortunately he never really kicked on the way we hoped.
 
MadDogg said:
I think Ashley Young is being overlooked a bit. He definitely stayed too long and struggled in his last two (?) seasons, but he had some good seasons at leftback before that happened. Obviously a long way from Irwin, Evra or even Shaw (his two or three best seasons easily put him in third behind the main two), but Young is comfortably ahead of some of the other players mentioned.

In fact, leftback is bloody hard to rank after those three players. Phil and O'Shea probably had a better consistency, but the likes of Silvestre, Heinze and Young all had a season or two where they reached a higher level (but also had seasons where they were poor). Although that may be doing O'Shea's debut season a disservice as I remember he looked extremely good that season, but unfortunately he never really kicked on the way we hoped.
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Nah, he was versatile, he kept his mouth shut and played in whatever position his manager(s) wanted, plus just stayed at the club long enough (too long, one may argue) to be thought of as a "great servant". I'd argue the opposite, he never really "passed the grade" in his time here (either as a winger or a fullback), but had periods within a few seasons where he was in form and looked the part. He was always a bad defender as a fullback and, in the final third, he either lumped crosses in the box without raising his head (on the right) or killed any momentum (on the left) for a first-time ball in the box because he needed to turn around and cross with his right foot. He's similar to Dalot (or several others who have played or still play for us in other positions) in the sense that the first-team regressed so much during his time here to the point where United dropped to his level - instead of the opposite - and made him look "good enough".
 
G97 said:
Come on bro.
We are where are because of the players on the pitch and Dalot plays every game… can’t seriously be ranking him in our top 3 ever right backs?
He’s been one of our worst players this season, in one of our worst ever seasons…

Brown’s one year at right back where he played more games than anyone else as we won the league and CL is better than Dalot’s 3 seasons… Parker and Rafael far better than him too.
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Yeah I have him as third.

Wes was a solid RB and a better CB - you can't be picking a guy whose career was CB and played one season properly as RB in my eyes. I didn't see much of Parker so can't judge and Rafael I can see being 3rd, but as explained above to a different poster my reasoning is simply that despite so many apps, he actually only had one season as consistent RB. Not his fault, from memory he kept getting injured not necessarily dropped, but Dalot has essentially been our starting RB for 3/4 seasons + we have won a trophy in the last two seasons, and people have short memories - last season he was generally seen as being really good.
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
It's funny because our fullback history is actually pretty poor compared to every other part of the squad. It's basically Neville and Irwin (both very good for long periods of time but I wouldn't call either a world class player), and then a whole bunch of options ranging from streaky to downright terrible.
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Irwin and Evra were definitely world class and what you're saying is simply nonsense. Gary Neville was world class as well. Evra was one of the 2 best full backs in the world in his prime along with Ashley Cole.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
1. Denis Irwin
2. Patrice Evra
3. Gary Neville
4. Paul Parker
5. Luke Shaw

All-time

1. Denis Irwin
2. Patrice Evra
3. Gary Neville
4. Jackie Carey
5. Roger Byrne
Click to expand...
you forgot Bobby Noble, injury ended his career early
 
Disgraceful omission of both Guillermo Varela and Donald Love from all of you. Thought you were United fans...
 
Gary Neville is the correct answer for right back.

It's so weird how he's underrated so much (even by himself).

He was first choice right back for a United side that won everything for 10 years and probably only had one period where he was off form (around 99/00).

Irwin is the best left back we've had in the Premier League era. Evra doesn't come close.
 
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
Gary Neville is the correct answer for right back.

It's so weird how he's underrated so much (even by himself).

He was first choice right back for a United side that won everything for 10 years and probably only had one period where he was off form (around 99/00).

Irwin is the best left back we've had in the Premier League era. Evra doesn't come close.
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You're overdoing it.
 
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
Gary Neville is the correct answer for right back.

It's so weird how he's underrated so much (even by himself).

He was first choice right back for a United side that won everything for 10 years and probably only had one period where he was off form (around 99/00).

Irwin is the best left back we've had in the Premier League era. Evra doesn't come close.
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To claim that that Evra isn't even close to Irwin is ridiculous. Let's not forget that Evra delivered in Monaco and Juventus as well. In his prime only Ashley Cole was a better fullback than him and in 2007-08 he was arguably the best LB in the world.
 
Rossa said:
Evra was a better player than Neville ever was.
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I know? That’s why I said Evra was the best left back in the world for 5 years?
But Neville was still a world class right back for his era, now he wouldn’t be. He was then. Patrice would still be the best left back in the world if he played now.
 
Rossa said:
Evra was a better player than Neville ever was.
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Different sides though, if Irwin or Evra had played RB G Nev would not be No1 as good as he was.

If the OP hadn't broken it down by sides I guess most people would go: Irwin, Evra, G Nev?
 
KingEric04 said:
Irwin and Evra were definitely world class and what you're saying is simply nonsense. Gary Neville was world class as well. Evra was one of the 2 best full backs in the world in his prime along with Ashley Cole.
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I literally said I forgot Evra in a later post
Rossa said:
Evra?
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The amount of you lot quoting me saying Evra :lol:
 
G97 said:
I know? That’s why I said Evra was the best left back in the world for 5 years?
But Neville was still a world class right back for his era, now he wouldn’t be. He was then. Patrice would still be the best left back in the world if he played now.
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Depends how you define world class I suppose. He was clearly a level below the best right-backs in the world at the time in Cafu, Zanetti and Thuram.
 
No Quinton Fortune on these lists
 
tomaldinho1 said:
Different sides though, if Irwin or Evra had played RB G Nev would not be No1 as good as he was.

If the OP hadn't broken it down by sides I guess most people would go: Irwin, Evra, G Nev?
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Only the sane ones.
 
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