Take any one player at his peak from our past and put him in this team, who do you choose?

Well...

  • Total voters
    437
Those who think a late 90's Keane could just walk in the dressing room and change the entire culture haven't thought about it enough. I wouldn't have Keane under any manager that isn't Sir Alex or Bryan Clough, the current managers don't set the culture the same way, they are too lenient, for instance Antony gets chance after chance despite the shite he serves and I imagine things would go similar to his management spells or he'd have a bust up.

I'd pick Scholes, he'd quietly get on with things and control games for us.
 
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Very tough question but in the end I actually went for Rooney, which I was even a bit surprised about myself. The key for me is we really need someone who can reliably score goals. As great as Keane and other midfielders on the list are, they aren't solving the goalscoring issue. From that perspective I was tempted to pick Ruud or RVP, but then this team is flawed enough that we would really benefit from some of the other creative and workrate qualities that prime Rooney brings to the table.

I think as an overall package he is the one. Ronaldo was immense but he would be too frustrated in this team and I doubt it would work out. Cantona would be another good choice, but I just think in this day and age, the added workrate is more important than the individual flair (unfortunately), so Rooney edges it. He just ticks the most boxes IMO.

The likes of Charlton, Edwards and Best could all be the correct choice but unfortunately picking them would be based on reputation and not on what I have actually seen.
 
M16Red said:
Not just that, he was a captain and would bollock anyone for not passing forward if it was on.

Right now Keane for me.
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Oh Yeah, that too.

Just his general attitude towards mediocrity would be welcomed.

Or he'd end up like Ronaldo, realise it was a waste of time, getting fed up and pissed off and looking for the quickest route out the door.
 
The Brown Bull said:
Anyone voting Ronaldo is clueless.
This team needs a character like Keane or Robson to make them work. Ronaldo would walk off after 20 minutes waving his arms and moaning.
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I've never understood why people resort to ad hominem arguments.

If you think it is Keane, then that is your prerogative. It belittles your argument by casting those who think otherwise as "clueless".
 
Shakesy said:
Keane wouldn't just dominate the most important area of the pitch, though. He'd improve every other position as well. He's the kind of leader our dressing room calls out for
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He's not the tooth fairy. Keane was a fantastic player, but the hyperbole when describing him is getting out of hand. The current squad needs goals and Keane or anyone else yelling at underperformers wouldn't mean a thing.
 
I didn't choose Roy Keane as he couldn't handle being surrounded by lesser players...which we have at the moment. That's why for me there was only one choice - Bryan Robson could lift a whole team with his performances...could play in any position and got more out of weaker team mates.
 
MackRobinson said:
He's not the tooth fairy. Keane was a fantastic player, but the hyperbole when describing him is getting out of hand. The current squad needs goals and Keane or anyone else yelling at underperformers wouldn't mean a thing.
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I'm not overrating his influence at all. I'm saying he would improve all positions, on top of providing stability in midfield. How would he do the former? It would take a special breed of character to stand up to his bollocking. Everyone would try a little harder to escape Keane's fury.

And yes, we need goals. Games are won in midfield though. Obviously we need more than just one player, but Keane's drive is, according to me, invaluable.

So if you want to address the Keane-hyperbole, tag someone who uses it
 
Shakesy said:
I'm not overrating his influence at all. I'm saying he would improve all positions, on top of providing stability in midfield. How would he do the former? It would take a special breed of character to stand up to his bollocking. Everyone would try a little harder to escape Keane's fury.

And yes, we need goals. Games are won in midfield though. Obviously we need more than just one player, but Keane's drive is, according to me, invaluable.

So if you want to address the Keane-hyperbole, tag someone who uses it
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This is the hyperbole I'm talking about. Great leaders don't inspire by fear and notion he would scare players into playing well is an overstatement.

There is no question a player like Keane would help the squad immensely, but the attack is in much worse shape. Look at the midfield Liverpool trotted out for the league and CL trophies. None of them were even half the player he was but they had goal scorers.
 
It’s a tough one considering how abysmal we are across the pitch, but if I had to pick one, has to be Wazza. The absolute single minded determination to win, the energy/rallying effect on the team and the crowd, the selflessness and so much more. He would pop up everywhere and win you moments in the game that would just change the momentum of the game (5-3 Spurs anyone?).

Also, his ability to gel well with players on the pitch, he would literally complement different players with different styles. A manager’s delight and quite possibly one of the greatest team players to ever grace the game. A peak Rooney will change us overnight.
 
MackRobinson said:
This is the hyperbole I'm talking about. Great leaders don't inspire by fear and notion he would scare players into playing well is an overstatement.

There is no question a player like Keane would help the squad immensely, but the attack is in much worse shape. Look at the midfield Liverpool trotted out for the league and CL trophies. None of them were even half the player he was but they had goal scorers.
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Are you saying my expectation that Keane would get everyone to play a little better is a hyperbole? It isn't. Saying he would transform every player into a feckin marvel is a hyperbole. My statement is just a bland fact.

Whether Keane is the best option to strengthen our team is obviously just opinions vs opinions. You say no. I say yes.
 
Great topic!

It’s a very close call between Robson, Ronaldo and Rooney. We desperately lack a midfielder and as much as Keane would be the first name on my all time United XI I have no doubt he would lose his mind with this squad, so the midfielder would have to be Robbo. But then again we have been ridiculously poor on goal for years and as much as I like Hojlund he’s a season away from tearing up the PL, so a goal scorer would instantly have us up the table a few spots — see the dire finishing v Spurs and Arsenal, both matches we had under control but for dire finishing.
 
I've gone with Rooney, he's got previous for being a one man attacking machine at his peak, nobody could simply walk into this team and elevate it to their previous standard but I would happily watch a bit of a "you're all fecking shit, I'll do it myself" approach. Roy kean isn't shouting this current team into anything, if only it was that simple.
 
mu4c_20le said:
To where? 6th to 5th?

Of course there is a debate. He can't do it on his own.
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Some these players just need direction, I'm convinced most would improve and be top players if they were at a club not in such a downward spiral.

Keane would weed out idiots and call them out. He'd make the managers job easier.
 
Was talking at the weekend about how good that Euros 2004 Rooney was. Just having a player like that who gets bums off seats would be enough for me given how unexciting we are these days.
 
All of them! But seriously, Scholes or Van der Sar. VDS was the best goalkeeper I've seen for United, he controlled things and never looked silly. He wasn't eccentric and didn't make headlines too often, but he left every defender feeling very confident in front of him, he commanded the box and was so excellently capable of catching a ball rather than punching it. Scholes, I don't even really need to go into detail, do I? Opted with VDS though for the poll and not surprised to see it being his lone vote, but happy he has one.

For all those going with Keane, he'd be sent off more often than Casemiro and McTominay combined, and his attitude won't fly with the players he plays with - whether we like that or not. We're only picking one player, not a whole team of people who will gel with them, so I'd prefer someone like VDS or Scholes who will get on with things and adapt appropriately.

Peak Ronaldo or Rooney tempting, though. It'd be nice to have a player who can reliably run at and beat the opposition.
 
MackRobinson said:
He's not the tooth fairy. Keane was a fantastic player, but the hyperbole when describing him is getting out of hand. The current squad needs goals and Keane or anyone else yelling at underperformers wouldn't mean a thing.
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Yeah this is exactly why I didn't choose Keane. Our number 1 issue at the moment is how toothless we are in the final third. Keane would be brilliant and his leadership would help but bottom line is we'd still be starting Antony on the right or something.

I think Ronaldo or Rooney has to be the answer for me. Both versatile enough to play across the line, Rooney offers more in terms of a team dynamic but sticking Ronaldo in the Antony spot and we instantly look miles more dangerous going forward.
 
Big Jaap.

---------------------Onana-------------------
AWB ---- Stam ----- Licha ---- Shaw

Has a nice balance to it. I feel like you could add in Rooney and we'd score a few more but it wouldn't address the porous issue we have leaking goals. Stam is a leader, rapid, strong, good on the ball and that back 5 is at least something to build off.
 
I don't think Keane is being overstated and he'd easily be my choice- disregarding the hardman image Keane was a very dominant player in the build up phase, always demanding the ball and dictating the tempo and launching a lot of our attacks. Our team also lacks physicality and leadership which is obviously two things that Keane was synonymous with but he was very important in the way we dominated games.

In my opinion we struggle in possession and build up and Keane was a player that had the most touches and passes of the ball and consistently averaged 88% passing accuracy in every season he was here since opta records began. As someone stated in the Casemiro thread, Casemiro doesn't really recycle the ball the way Keane used to and is too wasteful, and the rest of our midfielders except for Eriksen are kind of crappy at that too. Keane would fix that pretty easily and would help us get control of games.
 
Shakesy said:
Are you saying my expectation that Keane would get everyone to play a little better is a hyperbole? It isn't. Saying he would transform every player into a feckin marvel is a hyperbole. My statement is just a bland fact.

Whether Keane is the best option to strengthen our team is obviously just opinions vs opinions. You say no. I say yes.
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Hyperbole was probably the wrong word, but I don't think it's a fact. I think he's a great leader for a great team. This team isn't.
 
Keane by a mile for me - would help us in every phase of the game and bring a level of control and composure to midfield that we’ve not had in years.

Agree with the comments that he’d also be worth his weight in gold as a leader and standard-setter in the dressing room.
 
Wouldn’t be my first choice in normal circumstances but in this team it has to be Ronaldo. Goals goals goals. It changes the entire attack in a second. You put anyone other than him in this team and it wouldn’t move the needle that much. With Ronaldo it does massively.
 
Scholes

Although any of the goalscorers on that list are a more than fair shout. I'm just not convinced we'd get the ball to them enough for it to matter.

Keane also a fair shout but I don't think him and modern football culture are entirely compatible. Peak Scholes could improve pretty much any team at any point in time unless they already had an equivalent, which is an extremely short list of players. You could put any of our midfielders next to him and it would work because the opposition would either have to drop off or risk him carving them open every time he touched the ball. Whoever was next to him would juat be there to plug gaps and give him the ball..
 
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Voted ronaldo, he was just that good at his peak.

Other notable shoutouts: Keane due to his leadership and his sheer presence covered 2 roles in midfield essentially. Rio as we’re missing a RCB.
 
Roy Keane is the obvious one but to be honest he admits himself that he benefitted from coming into an established side with already high standards. If he was parachuted into the current sh&tshow it would just end up like Saipan mark2. I voted for Bryan Robson as he was used to being an outstanding player surrounded by bluffers and would probably be more adept at dealing with the current situation.
 
I get the idea behind picking Keane given how often people talk about him raising the standards and so on (plus obviously being a brilliant midfielder in his own right), but the reality is that he was operating within an environment that allowed him to do that and surrounded by other excellent players who would themselves prove to be serial winners. I don't think you can at all assume he would have anything like the same impact if he was parachuted into our curent dressing room. Plus dressing rooms may well have changed enough in the near 20 years since he left the club that his very harsh approach wouldn't have the same impact anyway.

To my mind the most reliable way to improve the team would be adding goals. It's what we're obviously crying out for and there are players in that list who have the capacity to score both in a fully functioning top class team and in a team that's struggling. It's just a matter of which goalscorer you pick.
 
Keane. For his influence and attitude mostly. Half of this squad would be running home crying after most training sessions with Roy's bluntness around Carrington.

Rooney an honourable second.
 
If we were able to build a team around a Rooney entering his prime, we would have a very good time as fans
 
Was thinking about this question just now and wondering if Yorke and Cole have been done a disservice by not being options? Should they be added?
 
I’m actually thinking Beckham. We have a good striker in Hojilund who can score goals but he’s not getting any service from those idiots we have on the wings. Put Becks there and Hojilund gets a ton more chances to score.
 
Peak Rooney because he’s like a Roy Keane lite but with more goals. Would give Højlund more time to develop and be rotated.

Garnacho—Rooney—Anthony
Eriksen—Bruno—Casemiro
Shaw—Martinez—Varane—AWB
—Onana—

I see Rooney connecting well with everyone around.
 
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