Our worst Prem player(s) who would a) start for us and b) be our star player

[paulscholes18]

Give SAF this XI and I would back it to beat our current side.

Barthez
Beardsley May Blackett CBJ
Gibson O'Shea
Park Cruyff Blomqvist
Sheringham

To Answer the question
A) Phil Beardsley
B) Blomqvist

 

[DarnleyDevil7]

Starter.... Ronnie Johnson. Would definitely be in contention for a starting place with the current squad.

Best Player.... Nicky Butt. He would easily be our captain too.

Great post but just another way to realise the state our club is in at the moment

 

[united_99]

There’s no place or any point bringing up players like fecking Anderson (who I liked a lot by the way) or Cleverley or Fabio who played in Fergie teams and comparing them with the current squad.
Fergie’s biggest strength was making bang average players look very good, still to this day I will never know how we walked the league in 2013 with Carrick and Cleverley in midfield, and without a functional winger.

You put some of these players in the current team and they wouldn’t look any better than what we have now, they might look worse.

Of course players like peak Nani, or Sheringham or the good version of Valencia would improve us (heck, I think Valencia the right back was underrated, better than AWB or Dalot for me).


We would get relegated with him in goal.

Definitely. It’s easy to call players lazy, they don’t care, etc. Or that they are not good enough.
But put hardworking players like Park or Welbeck in a non-functioning team going nowhere. They may show a proper work ethic for a while but once they realise that just them working hard isn’t going to achieve anything they will also slowly stop.

Or put Park in our current midfield without a player like Scholes or Carrick next to him and he will probably look as useless as the current lot, etc.

 

[KirkDuyt]

Memphis

Seriously though, he's great as the star man of an above average team as he showed at Lyon (and our national team).

 

[MUFC OK]

As others have said, Nani and Valencia were underrated and better than what we have.

Quite humbling when you compare Nani to, say £72m Jadon Sancho.

For a) Darron Gibson/Cleverley were better than McTominay is.

 

[Oranges038]

Buttner

 

[Chief123]

Van Der Gouw

Rafael
Evans
O Shea

Kagawa
Mkhitaryan
Gibson
Cleverley

They’d all get in our team.

 

[GlasgowCeltic]

Give SAF this XI and I would back it to beat our current side.

Barthez
Beardsley May Blackett CBJ
Gibson O'Shea
Park Cruyff Blomqvist
Sheringham

To Answer the question
A) Phil Beardsley
B) Blomqvist

Can remember watching Bardsleys first start for the club against Benfica, was superb dealing with Simao. Richardson was at leftback

 

[Hughes35]

At the moment there is loads of our previous lesser players that would get in to our team and probably improve us without even thinking about actually good players such as Berbatov and Nani.

Such as:

1. Kieran Richardson
2. Evans
3. Fortune
4. Forlan
5. Phil Neville
6. O'Shea


I mean we're getting tot the stage where players like Djemba-Djemba and Kleberson look more appealing that what we actually have in Midfield......... And I'm only half joking.

 

[OleGunnar20]

a) Kleberson

b) tough one .. Veron ?

 

[SadlerMUFC]

-------------------Howard
Bardsley--O'Shea--Sylvestre--Fabio
Obertan--Djemba Djemba--Kleberson--Richardson
-----------------Bebe--Smith

 

[Red Star One]

Starter probably Richardson or even Djemba-Djemba, but I might exaggerate a bit thinking the latter would actually be our starter.
Star player is a fun question, Valencia is a good answer I guess, Wes Brown perhaps?

 

[UnofficialDevil]

Djemba Djemba

 

[Trequarista10]

DDG

Shaw
Martinez
Maguire
Brown

Fabio
O’Shea
Gibson
Rafael

Bruno

Ronaldo

Managed by SAF: We finish 2nd or third max

Managed by anyone else: We get relegated

That Arsenal FA Cup game with that midfield

I'd love to have been on here when that happened. I imagine there was uproar when the starting XI was announced.

Also I had always wanted to see a game where we lined up with Rafael RB, and Fabio in front at RW, just to see the two of them overlapping each other and causing confusion as to which was which. Never happened unfortunately.

 

[RoadTrip]

Three words.

Eric Djemba-Djemba

 

[harms]

Starters: Evans, Anderson, Fortune, Cleverley, Forlan, Chicharito, Smith
Star players: Veron, Sheringham, Park, Berbatov, Saha, Valencia, Nani, Fletcher

 

[GazTheLegend]

I've got a whole first 11 that would definitely get into our starting side.

Pick any striker but Dion Dublin, Mark Robins and Diego Forlan were considered our worst options I believe at the various times and they'd walk right in.

In midfield, there were rarely any awful players but I guess Higginbotham, Chadwick and particularly Jonathan greening would definitely be in there.

In goal Jim Leighton would probably be similar in performance to de Gea right now, then in front of him I think just about any defender in a 4 that was a second choice from 1990 through all the way to 2012 would be our best defender right now.

 

[red_de_pologne]

a) Fletcher Cleverley midfield two would elevate us immensely

b) Ji Sung Park

 

[Bobski]

B) Saha. If not for injuries, he would obviously have been rated higher by fans. He would bully some of the defenders in this league, and certainly give Martinez more insight into PL attackers in training!

Saha without injuries would be one of the elite strikers in the league.

Phil Neville would be comfortably better than any of our RB or DM options.

 

[slored1]

Worst player to get in the XI:

Old man Fletcher from 2014, Diouf would definitely have started past weekend, so would Macheda.

Star man:

Park would be the captain and automatic starter. 2013 Jonny Evans walks into the team every day of the week as the captain as well.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

McFred would've looked half decent in a SAF team.

Cleverley wouldn't improve our current team at all - no chance. He was decidedly mediocre.

 

[King Azaz the Unabridged]

Sticking to the not-quite-top-class players that played at least semi-regularly:

2012/13 Valencia definitely gets in - that was the season he began his deterioration from one of the best wingers around to a menace to full-backs' shins. But he was still a bag of energy and contributed some vital assists. Can replace Rashford in this team and play Sancho on the left

2014/15 Fellaini gets into this midfield for sure, 2009/10 Gibson has a shot

2008/09 O'Shea makes the right-back spot his own.

Out of those guys, O'Shea has the best chance of being a star for us.

Berbatov, Nani, Park and Fletcher are no-brainers, but hardly names I'd put in a list of our "worst" players. And shouts in this topic that I don't agree with:

Forlan - not the version we had anyway, scoring goals at about the same rate as 2020/21 Martial. If we can have the 2004-10 version then yes
Macheda - bang-average footballer who produced two massive moments for us - his career since then tells me he's not offering us anything we aren't getting from the kids in the squad right now (Garnacho and co)
Smith - completely mediocre, both before and after injury. Would add nothing to this team in midfield (which is saying something) or up front
Djemba-Djemba - again, I know our midfield is in a state but let's not get carried away, folks - this guy left us at the age of 24 and did virtually nothing for the rest of his career.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

Blanc at CB
Silvestre at LB (we have few bad LB’s)
Darmian at RB
Djemba Djemba at DM
Sooooo many middies
Depay either wing
Falcao

All would start. Or be in with a shout.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

2008/09 O'Shea makes the right-back spot his own.

OShea would start at LB, RB, Centre half and DM right now.

 

[Alemar]

Kleberson walks into our starting XI
Veron would be our best player by a country mile

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

Really not fair to include Nani in these discussions. Peak Nani was one of the best wingers in world football.

RWF version of Valencia is a good shout. Seemed like a huge downgrade at the time (and was) but would be an excellent, consistent option for us now if we had a forward.

Valencia in 11/12 was better than Nani ever was, in fact Valencia was probably better for United than Nani overall. So if it's not fair to include Nani in discussions, why is it fair to include Valencia?

 

[Abraxas]

To be honest, I don't think Tom Cleverley or Gibson would be getting in my team. No better than what we've got. Even if they are, they are not better by much, I'd sooner play Iqbal or Garner because we know full well how shite Cleverley and Gibson turn out so there's no rationale to playing them. It's not as if they'd drive this squad to success just because they could sort of function back then at a different time, under a different squad and manager.

 

[Fingeredmouse]

Walks into this team.

Absolutely.

 

[GifLord]

DDG

Shaw
Martinez
Maguire
Brown

Fabio
O’Shea
Gibson
Rafael

Bruno

Ronaldo

Managed by SAF: We finish 2nd or third max

Managed by anyone else: We get relegated

No way in hell. The last season we won the league we lucked out so many times because of RVP's class. That midfield back then was absolute shit at times.

 

[berbasloth4]

Out of all the names yous have all named there’s one thing they all had in common. They made a fecking effort. They didn’t hide when made a bad pass the looked for it again. When we went 1 or 2 down they didn’t shirk responsibility they worked harder. Under sir Alex majority of players that played for him a lot captained their country at some stage. They were all leaders. We still do not have a leader - well maybe one but he wants to leave

 

[Beachryan]

Valencia in 11/12 was better than Nani ever was, in fact Valencia was probably better for United than Nani overall. So if it's not fair to include Nani in discussions, why is it fair to include Valencia?

Not sure where you get that from. In 10/11 Nani had 9 goals and 14 assists in the league alone. He was a monster. Valencia in 11/12 had 4 goals and 13 assists (his best season).

 

[Red the Bear]

Veron maybe? Perhaps the bew environment is going to suit him better.

 

[GifLord]

Valencia in 11/12 was better than Nani ever was, in fact Valencia was probably better for United than Nani overall. So if it's not fair to include Nani in discussions, why is it fair to include Valencia?

No way
Valencia vs Nani 11/12
Nani 40 Apps 10G 15A
Valencia 38Apps 6 G 16A

Valencia was way too one dimensional relying on his strength and speed his crossing was also a bit suspect at times while Nani had flair, bags of tricks and a decent cross.
Valencia was more consistent but i'd take a in-form Nani any day of the week.

 

[Adam_S]

Starter.... Ronnie Johnson. Would definitely be in contention for a starting place with the current squad.

Best Player.... Nicky Butt. He would easily be our captain too.

Great post but just another way to realise the state our club is in at the moment

Nicky Butt was a great squad player. The CMs United have now with the possible exception of Eriksen aren't fit to lace his boots.

Any love for Diego Forlan or Wes Brown yet?

 

[Adam_S]

As a slight aside, how many players can we think of from the SAF era who wouldn't get into the current squad. Bebe?

 

[Belisarius]

Sticking to the not-quite-top-class players that played at least semi-regularly:

2012/13 Valencia definitely gets in - that was the season he began his deterioration from one of the best wingers around to a menace to full-backs' shins. But he was still a bag of energy and contributed some vital assists. Can replace Rashford in this team and play Sancho on the left

2014/15 Fellaini gets into this midfield for sure, 2009/10 Gibson has a shot

2008/09 O'Shea makes the right-back spot his own.

Out of those guys, O'Shea has the best chance of being a star for us.

Berbatov, Nani, Park and Fletcher are no-brainers, but hardly names I'd put in a list of our "worst" players. And shouts in this topic that I don't agree with:

Forlan - not the version we had anyway, scoring goals at about the same rate as 2020/21 Martial. If we can have the 2004-10 version then yes
Macheda - bang-average footballer who produced two massive moments for us - his career since then tells me he's not offering us anything we aren't getting from the kids in the squad right now (Garnacho and co)
Smith - completely mediocre, both before and after injury. Would add nothing to this team in midfield (which is saying something) or up front
Djemba-Djemba - again, I know our midfield is in a state but let's not get carried away, folks - this guy left us at the age of 24 and did virtually nothing for the rest of his career.

For a) I definitely think Fellaini gets into the current midfield. Always made a real effort and would give us an outlet against the press.

b) I think Valencia. He was a little worse than Nani but still just good enough to be better than Bruno, Sancho and current day Ronaldo.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

No way
Valencia vs Nani 11/12
Nani 40 Apps 10G 15A
Valencia 38Apps 6 G 16A

Valencia was way too one dimensional relying on his strength and speed his crossing was also a bit suspect at times while Nani had flair, bags of tricks and a decent cross.
Valencia was more consistent but i'd take a in-form Nani any day of the week.

Yet Valencia was Matt Busby and Player’s Player of the year that season? Valencia was clearly better that season.

 

[DeGea’sFeet]

a) Maybe Cleverley/Anderson/Gibson...

b) Antonio Valencia?

Valencia was a solid winger for 3-5 years, played a major part in most of Rooney’s best goal scoring seasons.

 

[DeGea’sFeet]

Veron

Forlan or Rossi

 

[GifLord]

Yet Valencia was Matt Busby and Player’s Player of the year that season? Valencia was clearly better that season.

Because he was more consistent. But again i'd take an in-form Nani any day of the week he had way more in his locker than Valencia.