CENTRE-FORWARD: ERIC CANTONA

There are United strikers with more Premier League goals than Eric’s 64 – Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Andy Cole – but none who can match his talismanic effect on this club. When Cantona arrived, the Reds had not won the title for 25 years. By the time he retired in 1997, the club had won four championships in five years. The only season of failure during Cantona’s time was 1994/95 – a campaign Cantona missed almost half of, due to a nine-month ban. Eric was a huge catalyst for United’s rebirth, and was pivotal in all four of the title wins he helped to achieve. An impressive 41% of you voted him as the first centre-forward in our greatest Premier League XI, ahead of a list of incredible players such as the aforementioned van Nistelrooy, Solskjaer and Cole, plus Robin van Persie, Dwight Yorke and Mark Hughes.

CENTRE-FORWARD: WAYNE ROONEY

The final position in our greatest XI of the Premier League era goes to the club’s all-time leading goalscorer, Wayne Rooney. It was a narrow victory, with van Nistelrooy (23%) just falling short of Rooney’s 31% vote share, but the Liverpudlian is a worthy winner. Rooney won five titles in 13 seasons at the club, notching a monumental 183 Premier League goals. Somehow that doesn’t quite tell the full story: though primarily a striker, Rooney performed admirably in every position across the midfield and attack, and was always willing to sacrifice himself for the greater needs of the team. A great goalscorer, and a wonderfully gifted all-round footballer, it’s fitting that our all-star team is completed by the man who could do everything.



THREE LEGENDS HAVE THEIR SAY

Before the voting closed, We asked Andy Cole, Denis Irwin and Bryan Robson to nominate their own picks for our greatest XI...

I’m biased to the 1999 team

Andy Cole: “For me, I look at the team I played in, with great respect for what we achieved and the way we played football. If I was to go for two centre-backs, I would most likely say Ronny Johnsen and Jaap Stam. When I first came to play, Brucey and Pally were fantastic. One was the aggressor, the other the slick individual who came out to play little one-twos and didn’t get too involved in the physical confrontations. To see those two gel together was phenomenal, but I wouldn’t know who to pick without being biased to the 1999 team. When you saw Ronny and Jaap, they were on the block, they were difficult, they were very quick and they were physical. They could mix it both ways.”

My front two would be…

Denis Irwin: “I’d stick Ronaldo in there, any day of the week. He came as a winger who was capable of scoring plenty of goals and developed into a player who could play anywhere along the top. He’s so clever. You could he tell he behaved like a centre-forward, with his movement around the box and we’ve seen his progression in that, so he would take some stopping. I’d also play Ruud – he was a fantastic scorer from my era. So I’d have one from my era and one from the era after me – Ronaldo and Ruud.”

My perfect midfield four