Best 11 made of most consistent Man Utd players of all time (Team of the Season appearances)
Just saw someone in another thread say that Cristiano Ronaldo had been here just a short while and only had 2-3 good seasons and I felt the need to post this. People just don't know history.
The most consistent Man United players, who made the Premier League Team of the Year most times are:
6 - Ryan Giggs, B Robson
5 – Cristiano Ronaldo, Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, David de Gea
4 – Nemanja Vidic, David Beckham, Roy Keane, Gary Pallister
3 – Edwin van der Sar, Patrice Evra, Wayne Rooney, Jaap Stam, Paul Ince
2 – Paul Scholes, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Denis Irwin
A little bit older link, as since then David de Gea added a lot more in the 2010s and the only times a Man United player added a Team of the Year appearance post-2020 is by Luke Shaw and Bruno Fernandes in 2020/21 and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021/22. But you get the picture.
Newer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFA\_Team\_of\_the\_Year
Of course, we should also take into consideration the pre-1992 Premier League era, as in the 1960s surely Ballon d'Or winners George Best, Bobby Charlton and Dennis Law dominated internally AND internationally even though such a thing as "Team of the Season" wasn't usually done.
Making a Best Man Utd 11 of all time in these conditions would end up with:
David de Gea- Neville, R Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra- Ronaldo, B Robson, B Charlton, Giggs- Best, D Law
The biggest surprise for me personally is that Schmeichel only got 2 Team of the Year appearances in the 1990s. de Gea has 5. In the time of Schmeichel Tim Flowers took it twice, one time in the 1995/95 season when Blackburn made a huge surprise and won the league.
Vidic was tied with Pallister, but Vidic was also the PL Player of the Year in 2 of those 4 years, not just in the Best 11, so he takes it.
Evra just barely takes it over Dennis Irwin with 3 over 2. I guess it's not a big difference and someone else could choose Irwin.
Keane misses out to Robson (4 times to 6 times).
Beckham misses out to Ronaldo, who has more and was also better in the years he was in the Best 11.
Cantona made the Premier League Team of the Season just 1 time in the 6 seasons he was here, in a period dominated by Alan Shearer, Ian Wright or Klinsmann as the 2 forwards.
Rooney made the Team of the Season 3 times. Not enough to beat Dennis Law who was Ballon d'Or in 1964.
By decade, the most consistent 11 of Man Utd players:
1960s: G Best, B Charlton, D Law
1980s: B Robson
1990s: Neville, Giggs, maybe Irwin
2000s: R Ferdinand, Vidic, Cristiano, maybe Evra
2010s: de Gea
There is talk of Bruno Fernandes making the Best 11 in the Premier League League this season. It would be his 2nd time though. He has a long way to go.