Probably Roy Keane for me. We were always OK up front, never too shabby in defence either, but our midfield before Alonso arrived was shit.
Keane would have brought us titles and not going to United would have made the class of '92 a footnote.
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Good call.
The Danes gush over Laudrup (understandably - wonderful player), but he spent the summer of '92 drinking sangria on the beaches of southern Spain, because he felt Denmark were a lost cause, and they went and won the thing without him. Schmeichel, I’d say, is the best out of Denmark.
He’s certainly up there. They’ve had some fantastic players over the years, the Danes.
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Might have signed Tevez in '09. 
Cantona for me. One of a kind that fucker.
Ironically Ole was the only one of their’s I ever liked.
And we all love him now !
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yep.
has to be Keane.
not so much saying hes a greater player than Ronaldo or Cantona etc etc but simply the timing.
as he went to UTD, was right around the power shift…i have no doubt he would have reversed the decline…not just stalled it, but probably reversed it, took it by the scruff of the neck…
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If the question is based around us being able to pinch a title or two somewhere over those 30 barren years, then probably Ronaldo.
But I can’t buy into this idea that the tables with United would have somehow been flipped with a single addition for us and a subtraction for them. We were fucking hopeless. And they certainly weren’t.
I know we have a laugh about United’s current predicament but they are much closer to us today than we were to them 15-20 years ago.
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Haha, didn’t watch the game, but it’s still nice to see that a little Swiss club can inflict some damage on these idiots. 
Hopefully they can do the double on them this season!
And seven defeats in eleven CL games for Ole… now that’s an interesting stat… 
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It’s the typical way these CL groups go. Clubs with the ‘easy’ groups tend to lose some they shouldn’t. Often when they overthink things and play a weakened team showing a lack of respect.
And often the team seen as cannon fodder in a group of death is the one that surprises everyone and makes it through.
Rule is unless it’s a dead rubber, play your strongest team. And treat each team like they are leading the group. It’s the CL. Not the Mickey Mouse cup.
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Ferguson had the perfect storm (in a good way) in terms of the players who came through the youth system. I don’t need to name them. Add the unbelievable Schmeicel (I’m not googling United player’s names) and 2 strikers who became legends (the one that looked like a horse and the jug eared scouser with a thing for old ladies). Their dominance was as hateful as the Aussie cricket team in the 90s.
But one player? Keene all day. Hate him but have tremendous respect for his ability and his attitude. I remember him walking out of his national team’s hotel and squad because of the lack of professionalism of his fellow players. Getting wankered the night before a game apparently.
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The key thing for me, when you look at the 2 squads back then, ask yourself 1 question.
If I was to be in a backstreet brawl with 1 person beside me, who would it be?
In my view, from that Utd squad, there are 2 I would want, Keene or Schmeicel. You put 1 of those 2 into that Liverpool squad and you would see the sort of influence they have and how they drag other players to a higher level than they would have normally reached.
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That is fucking brilliant.
I live seeing that muppet when United lose
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Roy Keane undoubtedly for me. Brilliant brilliant player and leader which was something we badly lacked during that era.
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I’ve always laid claim to “discovering” him because I had him in my Fantasy team from the beginning of his breakthrough season, haha! That said, his transfer to Man United puzzled me a bit because I had expected them to go for someone similar to Shaw on that flank. I wonder how he would have fared in a league with more tricky, confident wingers, those who are willing to make their fullback feel confident enough to commit himself to tackles before going past him.
I’m not saying he won’t come good, I mean, look at Shaw now, but I feel he’s simply intent on tackling the hell out of his winger (which often works for counter-attacking teams with so much pace ahead of defence) and not do much else. They did want to buy Trippier after all…
For some reason, I feel they were simply destined for greatness regardless of which players they signed. That said, while Cantona probably was the bridge between them being a good team and a title winning one, Keane was the reason they remained so bloody good for such an amount of time, at least in my opinion. The second best and the second most complete midfielder I’ve seen in Premier League.
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The wash & go’s bloody invisible!
AWB reminds me a little bit of Clyne, bar the few times he did something spectalar (like the goal he scored v’s us!) in attack they were/are primarily defenders only and get nose bleeds when going beyond the halfway line.
Now for a team like Southampton or Crystal Palace who spend a lot of their game defending this isn’t a bad thing, and I’m sure it stops them developing their offensive game; passing, movement, 1 touch football, crossing etc. But when you get to the Liverpool’s of the world you have to be a complete player at fullback - Look at the fullbacks at City, Liverpool, Chelsea etc. They must be able to defend but also be a huge part of the attack… It takes a special player to meet those levels. It’s no wonder Pep keeps buying them!
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Keane would have stamped out any of that Spice Boys nonsense. He was the mentality and drive in the middle of the park we were missing throughout the 90s.
Grobbelaar
Jones Wright Ruddock Nicol
McManaman Redknapp Clough Keane Barnes
Fowler Rush
Up against
Schmeichel
Parker Pallister Bruce Irwin
Kanchelskis Ince Keane Sharpe
McClair Cantona Giggs
Just immediately elevates us and drops United.
[93/94 season]
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Absolutely Roy Keane. Swap him for that spice boy Muppet Jamie Redknapp. Ronaldo would have massively helped us under Rafa and surely tipped us into some more silverware but, as Kopstar says, Keane would have changed the whole ethos of the club and we could have avoided the spice boys crap. James, Berger, McManaman etc would have been kept in line by Keane.
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