I hate it when people ask the question “if you had to choose your all-time starting XI, who would they be?” Whenever you watch videos of people asking football stars that, you can usually see, or at least imagine, the same reaction – a sharp intake of breath, a teeth-gnashing ‘I don’t know’, and a worried sigh. Likewise when you ask a fan. After we watched Peter Schmeichel choose his first eleven, my friend asked me, and prompted an intense flurry of pen on paper, arrows poking around formations, and a dozen different tabs all in some variation of “Manchester United best eleven”. As a one-club supporter I already had too many answers to be considered; I can’t imagine what it’s like for someone who follows multiple clubs across multiple eras.
It’s a ridiculous question because there are always different things to consider. First of all, obviously, you have talent – something already questionable in and of itself. Secondly, you’ve got to factor in how they play together in a team. There are things like a player’s personality, how they’d do against different teams, players across eras and styles of play (how do you reconcile Matt Busby’s five-forward system with present-day formations?). And, of course, choosing from one team like United is bad enough – choosing if you’ve got more than one team must be an absolute nightmare.
I’ve spent a long time thinking about it and I’ve come up with six formations based on different things – believe me, I spent much more time doing this than I should’ve had, and twenty tabs of “Manchester United’s best XI” is evidence of that – and I just thought it’d be an interesting study to think of what my favourite starting elevens are. And also that it’d be pretty damn useful in case anyone ever asks me this question again.
1. Talent
As I said, talent is such a subjective term: you just have to consider the endless Ronaldo-Messi debate. But I suppose these are the players who strike me as the most talented and at the top of their game when they were playing. Look at Schmeichel – an absolute beast in the goal, the sort of player you’d have in your five-a-side because he’s almost an outfield player. No one can argue with Roger Byrne and Duncan Edwards, widely considered to be two of the best English talents anyone had ever seen, until the tragic events of Munich. Stam must be the only player Alex Ferguson regrets selling, which means he must be kind of decent, mustn’t he? I wouldn’t say Gary Neville is the most talented, but he’s the best right-back I can think of. Bobby Charlton is an absolutely amazing icon and Paul Scholes is his favourite player. No one can argue with the magic that Ryan Giggs, George Best and Cristiano Ronaldo bring to the fore, and Cantona of course was simply alarming and astounding.
2. Partnerships
The thing about football is that it’s not an individual game, but a team one, and some teams are made because of the connection that different players have with each other. There’s no way you can split up Yorke and Cole, who were the most fearsome strike force in their day. Vidic and Ferdinand are of course obvious choices (their partnership cuts Bruce’s and Pallister’s to shreds, surprisingly). Roy Keane and Paul Scholes worked in perfect tandem, yin and yang, while David Beckham and Gary Neville forged a wonderful overlapping-run partnership. Although there’s no real ‘connection’ the way the others work, Irwin and Giggs I feel could probably play with everyone, as could van der Sar.
For a pre-Premier League XI, it’s difficult not to include a lot of the Busby Babes. The statue of Best, Law and Charlton that stands in front of Old Trafford speaks more than enough for their claim to fame. Edwards was simply phenomenal, and I think I would have liked Byrne a lot had I had the chance to get to know him. Both Stepney and Foulkes also came out from Munich stronger and better than ever. I’ve heard Buchan was really solid, as were Crerand and Stiles, although there’s always Whiteside and Colman. Cafu played for ages for Brazil, and that’s top notch.
Of course the Premier League XI sees familiar names – I’ll skim over the new trinity of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville because they feature in pretty much all of my dream teams – but a side like this I think would be amazing, packing punch with consistency, solidity with finesse, and even a flash of the flamboyant in Cantona. Just hope that he doesn’t go around kicking people.
*SHAMELESS FAVOURITISM* The first thing you’ll probably notice is that all 6 of the class of ’92 feature here, something I will not apologise for. This is after all my biased players list. I love every single character that’s on this pitch, from the nervous Nevilles to the unstoppable Beckham, the happy go lucky Butty, Giggsy of course amazing, Scholesy one of my two most favourites; I’ve been lucky enough to meet Schmeichel and Pallister, and they were both really nice. O’Shea also strikes me as an excellent person, plus he played goalie once! Solskjaer, of course, is sunshine. And while I’ve had problems with Rooney, I believe he is a wonderful character and I think he is someone I would like to believe in.
So what do you have at the end of it? I tried to think of all of these things and put them together into one XI, and this is it. Most of it will be pretty self explanatory, considering what a lineup this is; the three Invincibles, and I’ve switched Ronaldo out because I feel Becks and Gaz line up much better together. While Vidic and Ferdinand are great, one can’t help but remember how Vidic left while Ferdinand was always a bit of a twat (who I love, but twatty nevertheless!). I absolutely love Denis Irwin and I’m so chuffed I’m going to get to see him play the legends game. And finally, replacing Keane with Robson because I am – well – not the fondest of Roy Keane, given his…difficult personality. I feel Robson embodied all the ideals Keane did, but did it with much better attitude and character.
So there you have it – six answers to the age old question. I’ll probably change my mind in the next few years as players like Mata and Herrera settle down and become properly good, but we’ll see. For now, let this serve as a fun mind exercise / vanity project / procrastination tool.
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