It's the reason we have been shit for last 10 years. It's quite shocking to be honest how bad it has been.
The best United Eleven post Ferguson
- Thread starter devips
- Start date
De Gea
Valencia Varane Martinez Shaw
Herrera Pogba Casemiro
Di Maria Martial (19/20 version) Rashford
Went for the most balanced team that makes sense. Di Maria was a cnut that fell out with LVG but people forget how brilliant he was before that. Martial that season is the best striker we’ve had post SAF. Valencia is the best of a meh bunch but I prefer him to anyone else. Pogba and Casemiro is a fantastic combo and Herrera adds the extra legs and bite.
Valencia Varane Martinez Shaw
Herrera Pogba Casemiro
Di Maria Martial (19/20 version) Rashford
Went for the most balanced team that makes sense. Di Maria was a cnut that fell out with LVG but people forget how brilliant he was before that. Martial that season is the best striker we’ve had post SAF. Valencia is the best of a meh bunch but I prefer him to anyone else. Pogba and Casemiro is a fantastic combo and Herrera adds the extra legs and bite.
Assuming perfect fitness and their post-SAF best form:
The right side has always been a problem, hasn't it.
DDG
Valencia - Varane - Martinez - Shaw
Casemiro - Pogba
Bruno
Greenwood - Zlatan - Rashford
Valencia - Varane - Martinez - Shaw
Casemiro - Pogba
Bruno
Greenwood - Zlatan - Rashford
The right side has always been a problem, hasn't it.
To be fair we've had some exceptionally talented players at the club, it just hasn't been put together properly. Players like Pogba, Casemiro, Varane, Di Maria, Zlatan, and Mata were top class players when we signed them.
Zlatan, Casemiro and Varane were past their prime when we signed them.
Di Maria was by far the best player we signed in post Ferguson era. He was one of the biggest reasons Madrid won CL the previous season and was one of the best wingers in the world. We fecked it up completely. He still showed his class here during his only season though.
And if we were to only include players who joined United - or made the first team - after Fergie's retirement, it gets even worse.
de Gea
Valencia Smalling Blind Shaw
Carrick
Herrera Pogba
Greenwood Martial Rashford
Valencia Smalling Blind Shaw
Carrick
Herrera Pogba
Greenwood Martial Rashford
Same for Casemiro. Two incredibly overrated players who get by on their prior reputation. So many horrendous performances from both that have been overlooked because Real Madrid.
Funny how many positions are selected by default - DDG, Shaw, Rashford. I'd be tempted to pick young ahead of shaw regardless to be honest.
I think matic and hererra are the only midfielders we've had at the club up till last season so probably get in by default too. I guess Fred counts. I'd take bruno ahead of pogba and take mata on the right wing. Valencia right back. Smalling at cb, i guess i'd have Martinez next to him even though hes only been here 5 minutes. Striker doesn't matter, some were good for about 6 months but not so good i can be bothered remembering them.
I think matic and hererra are the only midfielders we've had at the club up till last season so probably get in by default too. I guess Fred counts. I'd take bruno ahead of pogba and take mata on the right wing. Valencia right back. Smalling at cb, i guess i'd have Martinez next to him even though hes only been here 5 minutes. Striker doesn't matter, some were good for about 6 months but not so good i can be bothered remembering them.
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First of all Paul Pogba is probably the worst thing that happened to this club after the Glazers. Now that I said my piece with the exception of DDG Im not going to mention any Fergie signings (its sort of a 3 5 2 variation since we didnt have a single decent cb in a long time)
Ddg
AWB Varane Shaw
Casemiro Matic
Bruno
Rashford Greenwood Di Maria (he was a prick too but actually world class unlike pogba)
Zlatan ( the negative threads about this guy who single handedly fought our mediocrity is ridicilous)
Cr7 could come in the last 30 mins instead of Zlatan (before any Cr7 fan boys go mental Im talking about the post Fergie signings not the players in general and Zlatan did more for us, even with everything CR7 was still a professional and could contribute aldo in real life it could not work since they both have massive egos)
Herrera could do a job instead of Matic or Casemiro as well but as much as I liked the guy he really isnt on their level
Ddg
AWB Varane Shaw
Casemiro Matic
Bruno
Rashford Greenwood Di Maria (he was a prick too but actually world class unlike pogba)
Zlatan ( the negative threads about this guy who single handedly fought our mediocrity is ridicilous)
Cr7 could come in the last 30 mins instead of Zlatan (before any Cr7 fan boys go mental Im talking about the post Fergie signings not the players in general and Zlatan did more for us, even with everything CR7 was still a professional and could contribute aldo in real life it could not work since they both have massive egos)
Herrera could do a job instead of Matic or Casemiro as well but as much as I liked the guy he really isnt on their level
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Let’s spice it up by putting the best season of the selected player? For me:
Carrick (14/15) - Pogba (18/19)
Bruno (20/21)
Rashford (19/20) Zlatan (16/17) Martial (19/20)
The balance of the team is poor but it’s just a bunch of individuals rather than a cohesive unit.
De Gea (2017/18)
Valencia (16/17) Smalling (14/15) Licha (22/23) Shaw (20/21)
Carrick (14/15) - Pogba (18/19)
Bruno (20/21)
Rashford (19/20) Zlatan (16/17) Martial (19/20)
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To be fair, they are getting in due to their competitors being pretty much the same level. Varane, Martinez and Blind are basically fighting it out for the spot next to Smalling, and there are arguments for and against all of them. I guess Smalling himself shouldn't be a certainty either, but for me the length of time where he was consistently our best gets him the nod. Casemiro and Matic were pretty much the same level as well, unless you want to bring in a past-it Carrick (who probably was still the best but I think most are trying to stay away from Fergie's core players who only lasted a couple more years).
Why? Just because the media and Mourinho made him the face of our issues; but his actual performances before the injuries destroyed were actually better and more consistent than the vast majority of the players we've had in the last decade. He was just held to a much higher standard than anyone else which was quite unfair.
The dross on these pages. Laugh or I'll cry. We're miles off our next title, aren't we?
Pogba in some of these teams is hilarious. The guys absolutely dog shit, and had occasional purple patches and one big game where he actually showed up. Maybe it speaks to how poor our midfield has been for a decade that he is even considered.
It's not hilarious for the single reason that you yourself has underlined at the very end. His purple patches were, alongside Casemiro, the best midfield* performances that we've seen post-Fergie and we've only had Ander Herrera as a consistently above-average midfield performer in the entire decade (maybe Carrick too? but he was quite poor compared to his own peak performances). We were that bad.
* central midfield that is, otherwise that would be Bruno, who, for all his deficiencies, gets into this team by default.
You can’t seriously argue that Varane and Casemiro were horrendous last season.
This season has been a disaster for both and everyone else. But it’s still a very young season.
These posts would be more constructive if you suggested alternatives, instead of jumping straight to saying everyone putting them in the team is doing it because Real Madrid.
Both these guys (and Martinez) are automatic picks for me because last season's team was the second-best one we've put together in the entire decade, and I think they were more central to our strong* defence than any of their competition.
Did we have better defensive records with other players and managers? Yes. Do I think any of our other CBs could have performed to the level of Varane/Martinez last season in a team that actually won more than 50% of league games over the season, picked up more than 70 points, and beat every other team in the "big" six? Not a chance. I wouldn't pick Smalling, Blind, or any other defender under Van Gaal, because we were a shockingly bad negative team that kept clean sheets because we spent entire games parked on the halfway line doing nothing (and even then, De Gea ended up Player of the Season both years, didn't he).
Same goes for Mourinho's first season, which I'm pretty sure is still our best in terms of goals conceded - because we were extremely conservative after getting smashed by Chelsea early on. The only real competition is Maguire/Lindelof in 20/21 and Smalling/Bailly/Jones in 17/18 (but this was famously the season where De Gea was superhuman in goal - I think our defence was way better overall last season, where he picked up more clean sheets despite being well past his best).
*Yes, we got smashed by Liverpool with all three on the pitch, and shipped 6 to City with Varane and Martinez starting. And sure, they've all had plenty of horrendous performances in their time here. Hardly surprising - we've been a mediocre team for most of the decade. Literally every player in every XI in this thread will have their own highlight reel!
. De Gea is in everyone's team and Rashford is in 90% - they both went through entire seasons looking like Championship players.The fact it's basically a toss up between Mata or Greenwood for the RW is hilarious, we've not signed a single, decent RW in 10 years. Has any club ever had such a poor record for a certain position before?
Outrageous, isn't it? The last time we signed a player whose strongest position was the right wing, used him primarily on the right wing, and actually got top-level performances out of him, was Antonio Valencia in 2009.
And he was a fullback by 2015.
It really is something else, never seen anything like it
people take the piss out of Chelsea for ruining strikers but even they've had a few pretty damn good ones over the years.DDG
AWB Smalling Martinez Shaw
Herrera Carrick
Antony Bruno Rashford
Martial
AWB Smalling Martinez Shaw
Herrera Carrick
Antony Bruno Rashford
Martial
I don't understand how Di Maria is in anyone's team. He was garbage for us. Great player but not with us, and if that's the barometer, then the likes of Schweinsteiger, Zlatan and Falcao should also be in the team.
I think you make an argument for putting Mata at RW. I don't think that was his best position but he played a fair amount there and chipped in with a fair number of goals and assists.
Looking at everyone’s team and you know what the funny part is. Even with every player this last decade we still don’t have a particularly good first 11 on paper
Our attackers have been so poor. The fact some are putting greenwood and martial anywhere near a best 11 shows a reminder of our level in this time.
We haven’t even had a proper RW! It’s a shame Di Maria didn’t work out.
In that first game when we used him properly he was insanely good! Should have lit up the premier league given his obvious ability before and after.
He looked like a nailed on great signing so hard to blame the club for that one.
Our attackers have been so poor. The fact some are putting greenwood and martial anywhere near a best 11 shows a reminder of our level in this time.
We haven’t even had a proper RW! It’s a shame Di Maria didn’t work out.
In that first game when we used him properly he was insanely good! Should have lit up the premier league given his obvious ability before and after.
He looked like a nailed on great signing so hard to blame the club for that one.
Di Maria et al. Puke.
True, then Ferguson himself always had rather unspectacular players in his sides who just seemed to be able to go up a level under his guidance. That’s not me saying he’d have gotten a tune out of teams of the last decade, but he’d have certainly gotten more.
Mata definitely wouldn't get into my side. Mata never replicated his Chelsea form at Utd. I was very disappointed with his performances
DDG
AWB-Varane-Martinez-Shaw
Carrick-Herrera
Mata-Bruno-Rashford
Ibrahimovic
AWB-Varane-Martinez-Shaw
Carrick-Herrera
Mata-Bruno-Rashford
Ibrahimovic
Zlatan
Rashford - Bruno - (Nobody)
Casemiro (1 season) - Hererra
Shaw - Vidic - Varane - Valencia
De Gea
We've been screaming out for the club to get a good defensive midfielder and a right winger for a decade, and all we have to show for it is a single season with Casemiro Rashford - Bruno - (Nobody)
Casemiro (1 season) - Hererra
Shaw - Vidic - Varane - Valencia
De Gea
We are very good at not getting the balance right and going for players far, far too late. Varane and Casemiro would have done wonders for our team in 2017, now they are very good players who are declining in a very average team. Our squad building has been shocking. We consistently recruit players who don't fit well together and who often play in a way which emphasise each other's weaknesses rather than complement their strenghts.
I agree but then the same could be same about pretty much all of our big signings post-Fergie, especially the likes of Di Maria, who a number of posters have included. Mata was underwhelming but he still offered from that position than just about anybody else during the time-frame, even more than Bruno, who has been equally unconvincing when played out there (Greenwood obviously hinted at vast potential, but sadly we won't get to see it.)