Combined Man Utd Liverpool 11

[Dir Wangem]

You can't base the team solely on half a season's worth of football. You need to go back a bit further as well. Because of that:

-------------------- DDG ---------------
Valencia - Smalling - Bailly - Milner
----------------- Carrick ---------------
---------- Lallana - Pogba -----------
------- Micky - Zlatan - Firmino -----


- Coutinho is not there because Pogba is a better AM and Firmino is more useful on the wing.
- I chose Micky over Mane because he was Bundesliga POTY last season and is currently doing very well(Mane is currently doing a little better, but Micky was way better last season).
- Smalling makes the cut because he was our best outfield player in 2015-16. Also, Liverpool's defense is incredibly shit. It would be a sin to have more than 1 Pool defender in there.

Regardless of how you twist and turn it, United will have at least 6 players in the starting XI, unless you're ridiculously biased towards Pool. People might whine because I put Micky over Mane, but I also put Firmino over Martial, who had a much better season last year.

Klopp is definitely overperforming with his current set of players, which isn't surprising seeing as he's great at inspiring underdogs and making them perform 110%.

 

[RobinLFC]

You can't base the team solely on half a season's worth of football. You need to go back a bit further as well. Because of that:

-------------------- DDG ---------------
Valencia - Smalling - Bailly - Milner
----------------- Carrick ---------------
---------- Lallana - Pogba -----------
------- Micky - Zlatan - Firmino -----


- Coutinho is not there because Pogba is a better AM and Firmino is more useful on the wing.
- I chose Micky over Mane because he was Bundesliga POTY last season and is currently doing very well(Mane is currently doing a little better, but Micky was way better last season).
- Smalling makes the cut because he was our best outfield player in 2015-16. Also, Liverpool's defense is incredibly shit. It would be a sin to have more than 1 Pool defender in there.

Regardless of how you twist and turn it, United will have at least 6 players in the starting XI, unless you're ridiculously biased towards Pool. People might whine because I put Micky over Mane, but I also put Firmino over Martial, who had a much better season last year.

Klopp is definitely overperforming with his current set of players, which isn't surprising seeing as he's great at inspiring underdogs and making them perform 110%.

Have you seen him play this last few weeks? He's totally useless as a winger or wide forward.

It's also weird that you're going a bit further back, yet include Lallana (who's had a slow start at Liverpool and only came good under Klopp and especially this season) over Coutinho, who has been one of our best players and main difference maker for over two seasons.

Coutinho instead of Firmino and I could agree with your team though

 

[Celestiale]

If fit 100%:

De Gea
Valencia Bailly Jones Shaw
Carrick Henderson Pogba
Micky Zlatan Martial

I love Coutinho, and i think he is a better player then most of our players, but he is not better then Pogba (not much worse though!), and i can't think of a system where both would work out in our team.

Those teams with Clyne, Lovren or Lallana (LOL, in a 4-3-3 in midfield??) are hilarious. And people are talking about Schneiderlin not being "Manchester United quality". Wonder when some people last watched the Prem. In 2014?

 

[RobinLFC]

If fit 100%:

De Gea
Valencia Bailly Jones Shaw
Carrick Henderson Pogba
Micky Zlatan Martial

I love Coutinho, and i think he is a better player then most of our players, but he is not better then Pogba (not much worse though!), and i can't think of a system where both would work out in our team.

Those teams with Clyne, Lovren or Lallana (LOL, in a 4-3-3 in midfield??) are hilarious. And people are talking about Schneiderlin not being "Manchester United quality". Wonder when some people last watched the Prem. In 2014?

Coutinho plays LW so just stick him in instead of Martial then? Don't know why you're comparing him to Pogba.

FYI, Lallana plays in a 4-3-3 midfield for Liverpool so don't know what's funny about that. And I don't think anyone mentioned Lovren (at least I hope not)

 

[paulscholes18]

DDG
Valencia Bailly Smalling Blind
Lallana Carrick Pogba
Mkhitaryan Zlatan Firmino

Bench
Romero
Rojo
Shaw
Henderson
Coutinho
Martial
Herrera

 

[hellohello]

No trophies handed out for being 2nd after 20 games.

Good thing we're not handing out trophies then, but creating a current best 11 from the two teams based on real performances in the league.

If fit 100%:

De Gea
Valencia Bailly Jones Shaw
Carrick Henderson Pogba
Micky Zlatan Martial

I love Coutinho, and i think he is a better player then most of our players, but he is not better then Pogba (not much worse though!), and i can't think of a system where both would work out in our team.

Those teams with Clyne, Lovren or Lallana (LOL, in a 4-3-3 in midfield??) are hilarious. And people are talking about Schneiderlin not being "Manchester United quality". Wonder when some people last watched the Prem. In 2014?

Sure, if we live in an alternate universe where Shaw actually plays football.

And I'm not sure how you can ignore Liverpool's front players this season in favour of one inconsistent talent and a player who have 5 PL appearances, there's a reason Liverpool are sitting second in the table, and it's not because of their back 5.

 

[GimmeAKitKat]

How does Souness keep getting jobs as a Pundit.

He's the most bias scouse pundit there's ever been. If it weren't for Mike Summerbee, he'd be the most bias of any team.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

On form:

De Gea
Valencia Jones Matip Milner
Carrick
Henderson Pogba
Mane Ibrahimovic Coutinho​

 

[M4YON]

------------------------ DDG --------------------------
Valencia - Bailey - Smalling - Milner

----------------------- Carrick ----------------------

---------- Coutinho ---------- Pogba ----------

Mane -------------- Zlatan -------------- Mkhi

If both Clyne and Shaw were at top of there game I'd choose them but neither of them are at the moment. Lallana is playing well but no way near better than Coutinho or Pogba and Carrick over Henderson any day. Martial is better than Mane but his form has been poor whilst Mane has been brilliant for Liverpool. Zlatan over Firmino obviously and Mkhitaryan gets the final spot.

 

[Celestiale]

And I'm not sure how you can ignore Liverpool's front players this season in favour of one inconsistent talent and a player who have 5 PL appearances, there's a reason Liverpool are sitting second in the table, and it's not because of their back 5.

Same reason i would ignore the players from the Champion in a PL best 11

Coutinho plays LW so just stick him in instead of Martial then? Don't know why you're comparing him to Pogba.

FYI, Lallana plays in a 4-3-3 midfield for Liverpool so don't know what's funny about that. And I don't think anyone mentioned Lovren (at least I hope not)

No real winger, but i guess i could do that. Always hard to make a "best 11", you also have to look at the opponent. If you wanna break teams down, i'd take Coutinho over Martial. If you play Real Madrid (which means counter) i'd take Martial.
Lallana plays a free role in front of 2 workhorse midfielders. You could absolutely not fit him in our team let alone midfield, not even with Pogba out. If you want to replace Carrick, you need a holding deep lying playmaker, if you want to replace Herrera you need a fighting ballchasing midfielder, and no - please forbid - fair weather footballer like Lallana.

 

[VanGaalEra]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[Glanville95]

I'm not going to name a combined eleven, but what I will say is Liverpool are very much a Jurgen Klopp side now that make up more than the sum of its parts. That's not to say they don't have excellent individuals, of which they do, but their squad depth is very, very lacking IMO and arguably the weakest out of the top six - perhaps better than Spurs'.

Not like it's a huge necessity as they don't have European football to contend with, but we've seen their recent struggles with a more congested fixture list. United have a very strong squad, comfortably superior to Liverpool's but aren't as polished as a team like Liverpool. We're starting to flourish more now Mourinho knows his best team and I think that indicates our recent form isn't simply a purple patch.

De Gea, Matip, Milner, Pogba, Coutinho and Ibrahimovic would be sure-fire starters for me.

 

[Grunge]

Would normally only take Mane. With Bailly being away I supposed I'd take Matip as well.

Doh ... isn't Mane away too Now who do you take, just Matip?

 

[Grunge]

Coutino is the only player I'd find room for. I don't think Milner is any better than Darmian or Blind ... different maybe, but not really better.
Matip has had a slightly longer run in their team so has bedded-in but theirs is a leakier defense overall than ours so I can't pick him ahead of any of our four.
LLanana is having his best season ever because he's scored a few goals for a change. I don't rate him that highly for 'Pool or Ingerland for that matter so no, he's not in either.

 

[DWelbz19]

De Gea
Valencia - Smalling - Matip - Milner
Carrick
Lallana - Pogba
Mane - Ibrahimovic - Coutinho
​

Mkhitaryan only really misses out due to the freeze out period. His last 7 or 8 matches since he's been pushed back into the side probably put him on par with either wing options. Mata probably isn't that far behind either. Lallana beats Ander due to his freak form of direct goal contributions this season.

 

[IrishRedDevil]

De Gea
Valencia - Smalling - Matip - Milner
Carrick
Lallana - Pogba
Mane - Ibrahimovic - Coutinho
​

Mkhitaryan only really misses out due to the freeze out period. His last 7 or 8 matches since he's been pushed back into the side probably put him on par with either wing options. Mata probably isn't that far behind either. Lallana beats Ander due to his freak form of direct goal contributions this season.

I'd go for this team but Bailly instead of Matip.

Coin toss between Mkhitaryan and Mane as both have been equally impressive.

Quite sickening seeing Milner at LB also. Let's hope Shaw gets a good run of games soon as he can easily dominate that position with his talent.

 

[Pexbo]

De Gea
Valencia - Bailly - Rojo - Shaw
Carrick
Herrera - Pogba
Mkhitaryan - Zlatan - Martial
​

Subs: Romero, Jones, Smalling, Blind, Mata, Lingard, Rashford

Reserves: Darmian, Fosu-Mensah, Young

Unlucky to miss out: Schweinsteiger, Mane

 

[RobinLFC]

I'd go for this team but Bailly instead of Matip.

Coin toss between Mkhitaryan and Mane as both have been equally impressive.

Quite sickening seeing Milner at LB also. Let's hope Shaw gets a good run of games soon as he can easily dominate that position with his talent.

Yeah, no. Not even close.

Mkhitaryan will probably edge it on overall quality, but he's miles apart from Mane based on this season. You're talking about a player who's been one of the best forwards in the league, and a player who barely played in his first three months in England. Sure, he's shown flashes of his brilliance when he was playing, but equally impressive? Nah.

 

[arthurka]

De Gea
Rojo
Jones
Bailly
Valencia
Carrick
Herrera
Pogba
Martial
Zlatan
Mhiki

Romero
Blind
Mata
Smalling
Rashford
Shaw
Fellaini

 

[kr0nix]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[Isotope]

Karius
Darmian - Klavan - Lovren - Moreno
Lucas
Can - Fellaini
Lingard - Sturridge - Young

"Even Sir Alex would struggle with that team" ©
Nah. SAF would at least have them challenging for Top 4.

 

[Wooly Red]

It would just be silly to combine the teams. Both play a completely different style.

/endthread

Not a lot to be said, really. It'll depend on the system being played too. Only a few places are certain, like goalkeeper and the centrebacks, mostly because there's not a lot of choices there!

 

[Infordin]

Romero

Romero

Romero

Romero

Out of curiousity, why Romero as a sub over Karius or Mignolet?

I mean Romero's club career is absolutely average. I understand that he's got 85 caps for Argentina, but that tells you more about the state of goalkeepers from that country than anything else. If Bauzza was not so conservative, Romero would have already been dropped for Rulli.

Karius obviously gets ridiculed on here (understandably), but his 2015/16 season with Mainz is orders of magnitude better than anything Romero has ever managed at club level. Mignolet has also had a better club career than Romero.

Romero will be remembered for those penalty saves against Holland to take Argentina to their first World Cup final in 24 years. I don't think anyone will remember anything about his club career. There's nothing wrong with that of course, there are other players like that (eg. Klose).

 

[Bwuk]

Out of curiousity, why Romero as a sub over Karius or Mignolet?

I mean Romero's club career is absolutely average. I understand that he's got 85 caps for Argentina, but that tells you more about the state of goalkeepers from that country than anything else. If Bauzza was not so conservative, Romero would have already been dropped for Rulli.

Karius obviously gets ridiculed on here (understandably), but his 2015/16 season with Mainz is orders of magnitude better than anything Romero has ever managed at club level. Mignolet has also had a better club career than Romero.

Romero will be remembered for those penalty saves against Holland to take Argentina to their first World Cup final in 24 years. I don't think anyone will remember anything about his club career. There's nothing wrong with that of course, there are other players like that (eg. Klose).

Romero plays well when he has games here. Both Karius and Mignolegend are bombscares.

 

[OohAahMartial]

Out of curiousity, why Romero as a sub over Karius or Mignolet?

I mean Romero's club career is absolutely average. I understand that he's got 85 caps for Argentina, but that tells you more about the state of goalkeepers from that country than anything else. If Bauzza was not so conservative, Romero would have already been dropped for Rulli.

Karius obviously gets ridiculed on here (understandably), but his 2015/16 season with Mainz is orders of magnitude better than anything Romero has ever managed at club level. Mignolet has also had a better club career than Romero.

Romero will be remembered for those penalty saves against Holland to take Argentina to their first World Cup final in 24 years. I don't think anyone will remember anything about his club career. There's nothing wrong with that of course, there are other players like that (eg. Klose).

Think Romero has kept a clean sheet almost every game for us for ages.

 

[PickledRed]

Henderson gets in nearly any combined XI in the league. Oddly disparaged regardless of how he plays - some will just never acknowledge his qualities. Is it because he's English, a Liverpool player, got a funny gait? He's been so good this season - from August and not just over the past month or so. He wins it back, covers acres, passes both short and long, assists goals, creates a platform for those in front and does everything quickly, his best asset.

As a DM there have been few close to his influence and consistent performance this year. But fill your boots if you want to keep calling him average.

As for a combined XI, the very notion kind of counters the 'Klopp approach'. He's not a Top Trumps manager. He builds teams differently to his contemporary counterparts. That's not a dig at other managers like Mourinho or Pep, it's just that Klopp appears keen to do it without excessive use of the chequebook. Yes he can spend big but he seems unusually reluctant to buy. Again, there's a lot to be said to not agree with this approach.

My point is that you're probably looking at the wrong things if you start to pick over the sum of the parts of his teams - calling out players for being 'average' and playing above themselves is possibly a total misunderstanding of how football works - Klopp's football anyway.

It's as if coaching has become a non-thing for some: Player X has a poor season or two; Player X is labelled average; Player X then gets coached and developed; Player X becomes an impressive and consistent performer; Player X is still labelled average. Odd.

 

[Lawman]

Based on this season form?

De Gea
Valencia Matip Rojo Milner
Carrick
Pogba Lallana
Mata Ibra Coutinho

Based on actual ability?

De Gea
Clyne Bailly Rojo Blind
Pogba Herrera
Mkhitaryan Mata Martial
Ibra

Blind should be nowhere near that line up plus Valencia is better than Clyne. Clyne could go to left back though.

 

[IrishRedDevil]

Yeah, no. Not even close.

Mkhitaryan will probably edge it on overall quality, but he's miles apart from Mane based on this season. You're talking about a player who's been one of the best forwards in the league, and a player who barely played in his first three months in England. Sure, he's shown flashes of his brilliance when he was playing, but equally impressive? Nah.

Mane has been impressive and indeed an important cog in a very good system but anytime I watch him he does seem to give the ball away a lot and his dribbling leaves a lot to be desired. No doubting his pace and his goal return so far though, I just think Mkhitaryan has a lot more quality. Fair enough he hasn't played as much as he should have this season (for whatever reason) but he is a starting player for United now and he gets my pick based on what I've seen from him recently and with Dortmund.

 

[FujiVice]

To be fair, this is sort of why Greame Souness hasnt been offered a job picking a team in a decade. I'm sure Liverpool fans wouldnt trust his judgement on what a good starting 11 is.

 

[AndyJ1985]

Mane is the only player I'd want from Liverpool to go in to our first team. Martial and Mane on the wings with Mkhitaruan behind Zlatan. Nice. Our midfield and defence is better than theirs, and as for the 'keepers...

 

[PickledRed]

It's a fascinating read this thread. Either there's acute bias at play or Klopp is the best manager out there - how else could he get such average plodders to compete?

 

[IrishRedDevil]

It's a fascinating read this thread. Either there's acute bias at play or Klopp is the best manager out there - how else could he get such average plodders to compete?

Klopp is a good manager who has had an additional year to get his team playing the way he wants them to play. Liverpool are playing well in his system. Players like Lallana aren't world class but are in great form so credit where it's due, however their is obvious weaknesses in the Liverpool starting 11 (without even talking about subs and squad depth) particularly in defence, so for Souness to select 4 Liverpool defenders is laughable - or bias as you mentioned.

Jose has had a shorter period of time with his team but he has started to make an impact on the players recently after inheritating a squad that played zombie football and were scared to attack. United have conceded less, look more solid at the back (conceded a few late goals frustratingly which needs to be improved) and have a much better midfield in my opinion. Liverpool are a good attacking unit and have scored plenty of goals, hence many selecting Coutinho and Mane, but all other areas of the pitch are certainly debatable.

This will be a more interesting discussion after Jose has had a full season with his squad.

 

[arthurka]

Out of curiousity, why Romero as a sub over Karius or Mignolet?

I mean Romero's club career is absolutely average. I understand that he's got 85 caps for Argentina, but that tells you more about the state of goalkeepers from that country than anything else. If Bauzza was not so conservative, Romero would have already been dropped for Rulli.

Karius obviously gets ridiculed on here (understandably), but his 2015/16 season with Mainz is orders of magnitude better than anything Romero has ever managed at club level. Mignolet has also had a better club career than Romero.

Romero will be remembered for those penalty saves against Holland to take Argentina to their first World Cup final in 24 years. I don't think anyone will remember anything about his club career. There's nothing wrong with that of course, there are other players like that (eg. Klose).

Both of Pool's keepers aren't top class.. They aren't even internationals so...

 

[RobinLFC]

Both of Pool's keepers aren't top class.. They aren't even internationals so...

I'm not a big fan of his but Mignolet has been an international for six years, since he was 23. Not his fault that we also have one of the best in the world playing for us.

I still think he's better than Romero, mind, who also has the occasional brainfart in him. And I know Karius hasn't really back up this claim yet this season but I'm still confident he'll prove to be a much better goalkeeper than Romero in the long run.

 

[The Brown Bull]

Good thing we're not handing out trophies then, but creating a current best 11 from the two teams based on real performances in the league.



Sure, if we live in an alternate universe where Shaw actually plays football.

And I'm not sure how you can ignore Liverpool's front players this season in favour of one inconsistent talent and a player who have 5 PL appearances, there's a reason Liverpool are sitting second in the table, and it's not because of their back 5.

Why pick a team after half a league? As Eric says its only when the cattle market is over you count the cow dung.

 

[arthurka]

I'm not a big fan of his but Mignolet has been an international for six years, since he was 23. Not his fault that we also have one of the best in the world playing for us.

I still think he's better than Romero, mind, who also has the occasional brainfart in him. And I know Karius hasn't really back up this claim yet this season but I'm still confident he'll prove to be a much better goalkeeper than Romero in the long run.

Yeah that might be it.. Courtois is one of the 5 best in the world and Migde has little to do with not playing.. But Karius hasnt shown anything that tells me he is a good keeper.. Romero is solid and a proven international who has done well when given a shot he has 85 caps for Argentina and has made it to the wc finals with his country..

 

[m1y2]

not picking Valencia, Pogba or Herrera is just bullshit, they also had better attacking players bar Ibra and possibly LB one of the CBs and Hendo as a holding mid..

 

[Oneunited26]

Mane is the only player I'd want from Liverpool to go in to our first team. Martial and Mane on the wings with Mkhitaruan behind Zlatan. Nice. Our midfield and defence is better than theirs, and as for the 'keepers...

No again the reason why Pogba plays so well is because of 433, carrick and herrera playing with pogba is why pogba is so outstanding, he's got the freedom to linkup with zlaten, mkhi and who ever is on the left. So I would only take mane to fill on the left of a front 3 of mkhi and zlatan. The reason we look better is we not playing with a no10, but 1 DM, 2 CM supporting the front 3

Combined 11

DDG
valencia, jones, bailly, blind
carrick
herrera, pogba
mkhi, zlatan, mane

Yes liverpool are ahead of us, but if united did not give away those silly late equalizers we be in the title race

 

[Sigma]

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Yeah, no. Not even close.

Mkhitaryan will probably edge it on overall quality, but he's miles apart from Mane based on this season. You're talking about a player who's been one of the best forwards in the league, and a player who barely played in his first three months in England. Sure, he's shown flashes of his brilliance when he was playing, but equally impressive? Nah.

Gotta agree here. Tomorrow is different, always is, but I think you will seriously struggle without Mane during his ACON spell.