Different eras, that barca side wouldn't of coped in the 90's they would of been compleatly dominated physically, kicked off the park if you like in an era when the refs wouldn't give a foul everytime you fall on the floor. No doubting they were outstanding but one of there biggest strengths was convincing refs they had been fouled anytime they lost the ball. That and the scourge of tactical fouling.
Roy Keane's United all-time XI
- Thread starter Fortitude
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Different eras, that barca side wouldn't of coped in the 90's they would of been compleatly dominated physically, kicked off the park if you like in an era when the refs wouldn't give a foul everytime you fall on the floor. No doubting they were outstanding but one of there biggest strengths was convincing refs they had been fouled anytime they lost the ball. That and the scourge of tactical fouling.
Roy Keane picked Dennis Irwin at left back? I for one, am shocked
Keane and Sky know how to get people talking. No doubt Keane will do another one of these a year from now and Scholes will be in it. Carragher should've asked him why he left out Nev, Giggs and Scholes from the team he did on in that Viera documentary.
I mean, they're still better because of cohesion and they have their own Maradona, but it'd be a cracking game if you throw Maradona in there.
Possible XI:
Ronaldo-Best
Maradona
Charlton-Beckham(opted for him over Scholes, because of his sheer work-rate and for his crossing, but you could throw Robson in there)
Keane
Irwin-Stam-Rio-Neville
Schmeichel
There's no focal point, but Maradona can play behind with Best and Ronaldo occupying the half-spaces. It matches up fairly well to be honest.
Even without Maradona, put Rooney in there and the front 3 arguably becomes a bit more balanced while getting worse in possession.
Roy has obviously picked certain players who he has a good personal relationship with and not necessarily the absolute best 11 in terms of ability.
Its nice that he doesn't hate Schmeichel that much though.
No cantona 
Has respect for those who held their own against him; loved that Rooney had the nerve to challenge him.
Ah I’m not sure about that, United midfield that night was Valencia Carrick Giggs Park, the only all timer there is Giggs, who was 37 at the time and well past his best. It wasn’t a fair fight. Peak Scholes, Keane or Robson for a start and give us a chance. Fabio played right back and Hernandez up front too, give us Gary Neville and Van Nistelrooy/Cantona/Law or even Maradona as you said (which would definitely tip the scales).
For me the modern all time xi should mostly be a mixture of the 99 and 08 team. Cant leave out Cantona though
——————Schmeichel—————-
Neville———Rio——-Stam———Evra
Giggs———-Keane——Scholes—Ronaldo
————————-Cantona————————
—————————Rooney———————-
——————Schmeichel—————-
Neville———Rio——-Stam———Evra
Giggs———-Keane——Scholes—Ronaldo
————————-Cantona————————
—————————Rooney———————-
Try telling that to great RM teams of that era
Exactly. It's the fact they had great players and were perfectly suited to a possession-based system that means we'd still have been dominated. Of course we'd win sometimes against them, but they'd always be favourites because it would require the perfect game and a dose of luck on our part to win.
I still don't think they'd have let us have the ball
Schmeichel
Irwin-yes better than Neville at right back, and by some distance.
Rio
Stam-intrigued by the extra mobility compared to Vida
Evra
Keane
Robson
Scholes- You could play these 3 in so many different ways
Ronaldo
Rooney
Giggs
Love the fluidity of that front 3, think back to the 4-2 at Arsenal, showed the way forward in the post RVN era.
Irwin-yes better than Neville at right back, and by some distance.
Rio
Stam-intrigued by the extra mobility compared to Vida
Evra
Keane
Robson
Scholes- You could play these 3 in so many different ways
Ronaldo
Rooney
Giggs
Love the fluidity of that front 3, think back to the 4-2 at Arsenal, showed the way forward in the post RVN era.
Did he? I thought he said RB
I'm peeved that Kanchelskis didn't even get on the bench
1. Why would I want to in a thread reminiscing about great Man Utd players?
2. You mean the Real Madrid side that in 2011 finished only 4 points behind Barca in the league, beat them in the Copa Del Rey final, and lost narrowly to them in the CL? And then went on to beat Barca to the La Liga title in 2012? Does bringing them up really help your already irrelevant point?
Aha, I see - well, that's different then.
It's a bit unconventional (for the United context) - but like I said above, it's an interesting concept and I think it would probably work rather well in real life (parts of it have been proven to work, even).
Unpopular opinion time. I think Gary Neville only really got to the level Utd needed in the last 2-3 years(pre-injury) of his career. Massively improved his game over the years, credit to him, especially his attacking play but in the early part of his career he was quite limited and often a bit of a weak link defensively, had a horrible habit of dropping deeper than the offside line wrecking the defensive shape.
Those prime years he was a top class full back but not enough of them for me to include him among the best in the position in the last 20 years.
The 99 team never getting past the QF of the CL again was due in large part to the defense not being up to it. Stam was the only world class element of it at the time, replacing Schmeichel and Irwin was a huge problem, Gary Neville was a work in progress and Phil never quite lived up to his potential, Silvestre was erratic, Johnsen injury prone, Berg, decent league player but not much more.
Those prime years he was a top class full back but not enough of them for me to include him among the best in the position in the last 20 years.
The 99 team never getting past the QF of the CL again was due in large part to the defense not being up to it. Stam was the only world class element of it at the time, replacing Schmeichel and Irwin was a huge problem, Gary Neville was a work in progress and Phil never quite lived up to his potential, Silvestre was erratic, Johnsen injury prone, Berg, decent league player but not much more.
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These sort of things get boring after a bit. You ask Keane to name his best 11 in a few years, and it will be different again.
if you want to the know the real Roy Keane, read his first autobiography. After that it all became too dramatised!
if you want to the know the real Roy Keane, read his first autobiography. After that it all became too dramatised!
I'm puzzled by people using laughing smilies about Pallister and Ince, who were both world class, and querying Parker being rightly in these discussions.
Lot of recency bias. Kanchelskis could destroy teams single-handedly, but short tenure and competing against Ronaldo and Beckham means he never even gets near these teamsheets.
(Peak) Rooney / Cantona
Ronaldo - Keane - Scholes - Beckham
Irwin - Vidic - Rio - Neville
Schmikes
Bench: Ince, Ruud, Giggs, Staam, Evra, Kanchelskis, Carrick, Van Der sarr
Would be mine. I'd have Cantona over Ruud just for the flair, but Ruud would score more goals. Evra Irwin is close, and i'd take vidic over staam based on vidic being here longer and i can't seperate him from rio! Nani just misses out on my bench.I prefer Becks to Giggs because Beckham could do stuff that no one else on that team could in terms of crossing.
Ronaldo - Keane - Scholes - Beckham
Irwin - Vidic - Rio - Neville
Schmikes
Bench: Ince, Ruud, Giggs, Staam, Evra, Kanchelskis, Carrick, Van Der sarr
Would be mine. I'd have Cantona over Ruud just for the flair, but Ruud would score more goals. Evra Irwin is close, and i'd take vidic over staam based on vidic being here longer and i can't seperate him from rio! Nani just misses out on my bench.I prefer Becks to Giggs because Beckham could do stuff that no one else on that team could in terms of crossing.
I mean if they got beat by Inter Milan you would think a United all time 11 plus Maradona has a chance
Not even a mention for AK but Darren Fletcher was on the list. Nuts.
Nah, Neville was RB
Though if he could I'm sure he would have Irwin at RB and LB... man bloody loves him.
Lost count how many times Keane mentioned to word Character…he loves a good character for sure
Left the biggest character out. Eric Cantona
They didn't let him pick Irwin 10 times?
Lost count how many times Keane mentioned to word Character…he loves a good character for sure
Must be an Irish thing, since it’s a Brendan Rodgers meme.
Not bad at all, but if Cantona is in the side it has to come at the expense of Rooney. For the pure finisher that this XI needs, you can't look past Ruud.
No Irwin ??? one of the most consistent United players ever and vastly underrated.
Yeah could easily include him, same with Nistelrooy. I have to substitute him with Evra though as he played most games at LB, and Evra was also a class fullback. Maybe i could put him at RB as he played there as well and was probably better than Neville. That however is a hard choice as he only played 28 games there ?? (according to transfermarkt)
For me Irwin was a better player than Neville period, he would be first name on my best 11.
The rest of the team, no argument's with any of them.
Sky Sports are really struggling for content when they are getting Keane to wheel out his best United 11.
So we can take it that Sky Sports' demographic is 40-65 year old men who just want to talk about the 90s? Especially 40-65 year old United supporters. Just to put that into perspective, that would be the same as Sky Sports in the 90s launching the Premier League and having experts on talking about how players had more character in the 60s.
That's how far Sky Sports has come as a football broadcaster. And BT is probably even worse.
So we can take it that Sky Sports' demographic is 40-65 year old men who just want to talk about the 90s? Especially 40-65 year old United supporters. Just to put that into perspective, that would be the same as Sky Sports in the 90s launching the Premier League and having experts on talking about how players had more character in the 60s.
That's how far Sky Sports has come as a football broadcaster. And BT is probably even worse.
I just saw it as a bit of fun for the panel to engage in after the game? It's not like it was a standalone program or anything.
Am surprised how many people seem to have gotten annoyed by it.
He did it based on his personal experiences with players which we can't really comment on. And respect his choices.
But looking at it as an outsider/fan objectively that isn't the best united team.
But looking at it as an outsider/fan objectively that isn't the best united team.
He probably changes his mind about Best United XI more times than he changes his undies.
When he picked his dream XI for the show for ITV that he did with Patrick Vieira, he had Van Nilstelooy and Cantona as the front two.
When he picked his dream XI for the show for ITV that he did with Patrick Vieira, he had Van Nilstelooy and Cantona as the front two.
For as interesting as Keane the person is, Keane the football mind seems quite hollow. He was anything but as a player especially as he got older but his thoughts on football seem to be limited to if someone works hard, has good character and is a good lad. You could see Carra trying to get more out of him on why he chose these players but he stuck with the same answers pretty much.
Normally when players do these types of things, you get more of an insight on what it feels like to play with world class players. Keane didn't tell us anything we couldn't have figured out from watching the games on TV.
I'm not surprised his management and coaching career has fizzled out.
Normally when players do these types of things, you get more of an insight on what it feels like to play with world class players. Keane didn't tell us anything we couldn't have figured out from watching the games on TV.
I'm not surprised his management and coaching career has fizzled out.
It makes me think that Keane had a naturally smart footballing brain but isn’t the best at expressing it, same with Scholes. They would do stuff on the pitch that a modern coach would call x, y or z and they’d probably just shrug and call it good midfield play.
I agree, Id switch Scholes for Ince and Cantona for Rooney, the rest I go along with. As for Ferdinand, he was a legend in his own lunch time and not a patch on Staam. Ruud was a great goal scorer, but Ronaldo is so much more.
Ince was one of the top centre-midfielders in Europe from around 1992 to 1996. He was world class, people seem to (or want to) forget this.
That 92-93 season everyone talks about Eric all the time and overlook Ince's contribution. Ince held that midfield together. He really matured that season, proved what a top player he was, went on to have a couple more great seasons with us before his move to Inter Milan where he also did well
That 92-93 season everyone talks about Eric all the time and overlook Ince's contribution. Ince held that midfield together. He really matured that season, proved what a top player he was, went on to have a couple more great seasons with us before his move to Inter Milan where he also did well
Toes. It changes a man.