As in the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/football...P=share_btn_tw
I'm surprised with Rob Jones, he was a bit before my time.
Who would your best ever premier league 11 be?
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Goalkeeper: Petr Cech (Chelsea/Arsenal)
Cech has been extraordinarily dependable and with 149 clean sheets has more top-flight shut-outs than any other Premier League goalkeeper. He kept 25 clean sheets in the 2004-05 season alone, when Chelsea had the most impressive defensive statistics of the past quarter-century. Gianluigi Buffon considers him “the best goalkeeper in this era” and José Mourinho declared in 2013 that “I always thought, even when I was not at Chelsea, that we have the best goalkeeper in the world in Petr”. In 2006 he fractured his skull in a collision with Reading’s Stephen Hunt, an injury that evidently also upset his confidence, but more than a decade later he remains the first-choice goalkeeper for one of the nation’s top clubs.
Right-back: Rob Jones (Liverpool)
On 28 September 1991 19-year-old Jones played at right-back for Crewe against Gillingham in the Fourth Division. The following weekend he started for Liverpool against Manchester United in a televised game at Old Trafford, marking Ryan Giggs. Four months later he started his first match for England. His rise was rocket propelled and his performances stellar. Over the following seasons Giggs and David Ginola picked him out as the Premier League’s finest defender; he was remarkably assured and outstanding in all aspects of the game (except shooting). Virtually ever-present for Liverpool in the first four Premier League seasons, his body then started to let him down. By the age of 28 he had retired.
Centre-back: Tony Adams (Arsenal)
Adams was not only an inspirational English centre-back, captain of club and country, but he became in many ways an embodiment of the Premier League itself, and the changes it forced upon the domestic game. By the time the top flight rebranded, Adams was well established at the heart of Arsenal’s defence, with 19 England caps and four of his five international goals behind him. He also drank too much and trained too little but all that was soon to change. Adams recently said that Arsène Wenger is “essentially not a coach” but the Frenchman’s arrival certainly coincided with a transformation of Adams’s game and resulted in a goal against Everton in 1998 that was among the most joyful of the past 25 years.
Centre-back: Jaap Stam (Manchester United)
Stam became the most expensive defender in history when Ferguson spent £10.75m on him in 1998. He spent only three seasons in England but what years they were, bringing a hat-trick of league titles and one unprecedented Treble. He was tall, extraordinarily strong and yet also fast: simply put, opponents could not go past him, through him or over him. And then, suddenly, he was gone. There had been an achilles injury and a book that Ferguson considered a little too frank but most of all United needed the money. Stam was informed, in a petrol station forecourt, that he would be sold to Lazio. “It was one of the mistakes I made,” Ferguson later admitted. “Hopefully I haven’t made too many but that was one.” As the BBC’s Mike Ingham put it: “Without Jaap Stam, Sir Alex would still be Alex.”
Left-back: Ashley Cole (Arsenal/Chelsea)
It is curious, given England’s problems on the left flank between Stuart Pearce’s retirement and Cole’s emergence, that the vast majority of the left-backs in the PFA team of the year since 1992 have been English. Ryan Bertrand, Wayne Bridge, Luke Shaw and Alan Wright have had a go; Danny Rose, Graeme Le Saux and Leighton Baines have been picked twice. Cole surely deserves more than his four selections – having famously “almost crashed [his] car” when Arsenal offered him £55,000 a week rather than his desired £60,000 one can only imagine what must have happened when he was told his peers considered Gaël Clichy the better left-back. Cole lost only 14.8% of his 385 Premier League games, was an outstanding international – if his performance against Cristiano Ronaldo at Euro 2004 could be magically bottled it would be extremely potent and instantly intoxicating – and was remarkably consistent.
Right midfield: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Real Madrid have witnessed most of Ronaldo’s career but Manchester United surely saw the best of it, the part where he transformed before our very eyes from a brilliantly talented, excessively lollipopping trickster into the world’s most fearsome and focused attacking force. In his first two seasons combined he scored only nine league goals but there were 17 in his fourth – when he was named player of the season by the PFA and the Football Writers’ Association – and 31 in his fifth, when he won the golden boot as well as the two player-of-the-year gongs. After another 18 in 2008-09 he was on his way to Spain.
Central midfield: Paul Scholes (Manchester United)
In 2011 Xavi memorably told the Guardian that Scholes was “the best central midfielder I’ve seen in the last 15, 20 years. He’s spectacular, he has it all: the last pass, goals, he’s strong, he doesn’t lose the ball, vision.” Zinedine Zidane considered him “undoubtedly the greatest midfielder of his generation”. Scholes was, like many of the greatest artists, underappreciated during his career – his two appearances in the team of the year put him level with Stephen Carr, Bacary Sagna, Shay Given and William Gallas – and though he won 66 England caps he completed only 26 international games, three fewer than Barry. Perhaps this was because his career coincided with those of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, both of whom certainly trumped him for attention, but in terms of pure ability Scholes probably surpasses them both, and most others.
Central midfield: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Ferguson, not entirely unbiased when it comes to matters Liverpool, may have been “one of the few who felt Gerrard was not a top, top player” but the praise of the former midfielder’s team-mates shows quite how esteemed he was. The two-time European Championship and one-time World Cup winner Fernando Torres declared him “by far the best player I have ever played with”; Danny Murphy called him “the best midfielder I’ve ever seen”; Álvaro Arbeloa thought him “the most complete player I’ve played with”. Gerrard was only once named the PFA’s player of the year but he was in the team of the year an unprecedented eight times. Nobody else has managed more than six appearances. Lampard, the Englishman with whom he is most often compared, managed it three times. For longevity of excellence, and for displaying it across all attacking and defensive duties, Gerrard stands alone.
Left midfield: Ryan Giggs (Manchester United)
No player has played more Premier League games that Giggs, with 632, nor has anyone created more Premier League goals than the Welshman’s 167 (the next best, Cesc Fàbregas, is on a distant 107). Given the lack of outstanding specialist left wingers – David Ginola is probably next on the list, before you get to Damien Duff, Ashley Young and Stewart Downing – it is hard to imagine a plausible all-time Premier League XI without him. “Only two players made me cry when watching football,” the Italian forward Alessandro Del Piero memorably said. “One was Diego Maradona and the other Ryan Giggs.”
Striker: Alan Shearer (Newcastle, Blackburn)
The best goalscorer of the Premier League era. Shearer scored tap-ins, he scored headers, he scored free-kicks and he scored jaw-dropping 30-yard screaming volleys. He registered a record 11 Premier League hat-tricks, was the division’s top scorer for three successive seasons, between 1994 and 1997, and created perhaps the single most boring instantly recognisable goalscoring celebration known to modern humanity. He has not made a habit of making headlines off the pitch – he famously celebrated Blackburn’s 1995 title victory by “going home to creosote the fence” – but was routinely the focus of attention on it"
Striker: Thierry Henry (Arsenal)
“I’m obsessed,” Henry said, “with the idea of making my mark on history.” He certainly made his mark on the Premier League, scoring 175 league goals for Arsenal at the rate of one every 1.47 games and turning himself into an unstoppable blend of thrilling pace and technical perfection. Lilian Thuram considered him “the fastest man ever to lace up a football boot”, a claim with which only recreational footballer Usain Bolt could seriously quibble. Zidane called him “probably, technically, the most gifted footballer ever”, which may, on reflection, be true. He was tall, strong, fast, intelligent and skilful; in any game of positive-footballing-attributes bingo, Henry is the full house.
Possible second XI: Schmeichel; G Neville, Terry, Campbell, Baines; Beckham, Lampard, Vieira, Ginola; Le Tissier; Suárez.
Cech has been extraordinarily dependable and with 149 clean sheets has more top-flight shut-outs than any other Premier League goalkeeper. He kept 25 clean sheets in the 2004-05 season alone, when Chelsea had the most impressive defensive statistics of the past quarter-century. Gianluigi Buffon considers him “the best goalkeeper in this era” and José Mourinho declared in 2013 that “I always thought, even when I was not at Chelsea, that we have the best goalkeeper in the world in Petr”. In 2006 he fractured his skull in a collision with Reading’s Stephen Hunt, an injury that evidently also upset his confidence, but more than a decade later he remains the first-choice goalkeeper for one of the nation’s top clubs.
Right-back: Rob Jones (Liverpool)
On 28 September 1991 19-year-old Jones played at right-back for Crewe against Gillingham in the Fourth Division. The following weekend he started for Liverpool against Manchester United in a televised game at Old Trafford, marking Ryan Giggs. Four months later he started his first match for England. His rise was rocket propelled and his performances stellar. Over the following seasons Giggs and David Ginola picked him out as the Premier League’s finest defender; he was remarkably assured and outstanding in all aspects of the game (except shooting). Virtually ever-present for Liverpool in the first four Premier League seasons, his body then started to let him down. By the age of 28 he had retired.
Centre-back: Tony Adams (Arsenal)
Adams was not only an inspirational English centre-back, captain of club and country, but he became in many ways an embodiment of the Premier League itself, and the changes it forced upon the domestic game. By the time the top flight rebranded, Adams was well established at the heart of Arsenal’s defence, with 19 England caps and four of his five international goals behind him. He also drank too much and trained too little but all that was soon to change. Adams recently said that Arsène Wenger is “essentially not a coach” but the Frenchman’s arrival certainly coincided with a transformation of Adams’s game and resulted in a goal against Everton in 1998 that was among the most joyful of the past 25 years.
Centre-back: Jaap Stam (Manchester United)
Stam became the most expensive defender in history when Ferguson spent £10.75m on him in 1998. He spent only three seasons in England but what years they were, bringing a hat-trick of league titles and one unprecedented Treble. He was tall, extraordinarily strong and yet also fast: simply put, opponents could not go past him, through him or over him. And then, suddenly, he was gone. There had been an achilles injury and a book that Ferguson considered a little too frank but most of all United needed the money. Stam was informed, in a petrol station forecourt, that he would be sold to Lazio. “It was one of the mistakes I made,” Ferguson later admitted. “Hopefully I haven’t made too many but that was one.” As the BBC’s Mike Ingham put it: “Without Jaap Stam, Sir Alex would still be Alex.”
Left-back: Ashley Cole (Arsenal/Chelsea)
It is curious, given England’s problems on the left flank between Stuart Pearce’s retirement and Cole’s emergence, that the vast majority of the left-backs in the PFA team of the year since 1992 have been English. Ryan Bertrand, Wayne Bridge, Luke Shaw and Alan Wright have had a go; Danny Rose, Graeme Le Saux and Leighton Baines have been picked twice. Cole surely deserves more than his four selections – having famously “almost crashed [his] car” when Arsenal offered him £55,000 a week rather than his desired £60,000 one can only imagine what must have happened when he was told his peers considered Gaël Clichy the better left-back. Cole lost only 14.8% of his 385 Premier League games, was an outstanding international – if his performance against Cristiano Ronaldo at Euro 2004 could be magically bottled it would be extremely potent and instantly intoxicating – and was remarkably consistent.
Right midfield: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Real Madrid have witnessed most of Ronaldo’s career but Manchester United surely saw the best of it, the part where he transformed before our very eyes from a brilliantly talented, excessively lollipopping trickster into the world’s most fearsome and focused attacking force. In his first two seasons combined he scored only nine league goals but there were 17 in his fourth – when he was named player of the season by the PFA and the Football Writers’ Association – and 31 in his fifth, when he won the golden boot as well as the two player-of-the-year gongs. After another 18 in 2008-09 he was on his way to Spain.
Central midfield: Paul Scholes (Manchester United)
In 2011 Xavi memorably told the Guardian that Scholes was “the best central midfielder I’ve seen in the last 15, 20 years. He’s spectacular, he has it all: the last pass, goals, he’s strong, he doesn’t lose the ball, vision.” Zinedine Zidane considered him “undoubtedly the greatest midfielder of his generation”. Scholes was, like many of the greatest artists, underappreciated during his career – his two appearances in the team of the year put him level with Stephen Carr, Bacary Sagna, Shay Given and William Gallas – and though he won 66 England caps he completed only 26 international games, three fewer than Barry. Perhaps this was because his career coincided with those of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, both of whom certainly trumped him for attention, but in terms of pure ability Scholes probably surpasses them both, and most others.
Central midfield: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Ferguson, not entirely unbiased when it comes to matters Liverpool, may have been “one of the few who felt Gerrard was not a top, top player” but the praise of the former midfielder’s team-mates shows quite how esteemed he was. The two-time European Championship and one-time World Cup winner Fernando Torres declared him “by far the best player I have ever played with”; Danny Murphy called him “the best midfielder I’ve ever seen”; Álvaro Arbeloa thought him “the most complete player I’ve played with”. Gerrard was only once named the PFA’s player of the year but he was in the team of the year an unprecedented eight times. Nobody else has managed more than six appearances. Lampard, the Englishman with whom he is most often compared, managed it three times. For longevity of excellence, and for displaying it across all attacking and defensive duties, Gerrard stands alone.
Left midfield: Ryan Giggs (Manchester United)
No player has played more Premier League games that Giggs, with 632, nor has anyone created more Premier League goals than the Welshman’s 167 (the next best, Cesc Fàbregas, is on a distant 107). Given the lack of outstanding specialist left wingers – David Ginola is probably next on the list, before you get to Damien Duff, Ashley Young and Stewart Downing – it is hard to imagine a plausible all-time Premier League XI without him. “Only two players made me cry when watching football,” the Italian forward Alessandro Del Piero memorably said. “One was Diego Maradona and the other Ryan Giggs.”
Striker: Alan Shearer (Newcastle, Blackburn)
The best goalscorer of the Premier League era. Shearer scored tap-ins, he scored headers, he scored free-kicks and he scored jaw-dropping 30-yard screaming volleys. He registered a record 11 Premier League hat-tricks, was the division’s top scorer for three successive seasons, between 1994 and 1997, and created perhaps the single most boring instantly recognisable goalscoring celebration known to modern humanity. He has not made a habit of making headlines off the pitch – he famously celebrated Blackburn’s 1995 title victory by “going home to creosote the fence” – but was routinely the focus of attention on it"
Striker: Thierry Henry (Arsenal)
“I’m obsessed,” Henry said, “with the idea of making my mark on history.” He certainly made his mark on the Premier League, scoring 175 league goals for Arsenal at the rate of one every 1.47 games and turning himself into an unstoppable blend of thrilling pace and technical perfection. Lilian Thuram considered him “the fastest man ever to lace up a football boot”, a claim with which only recreational footballer Usain Bolt could seriously quibble. Zidane called him “probably, technically, the most gifted footballer ever”, which may, on reflection, be true. He was tall, strong, fast, intelligent and skilful; in any game of positive-footballing-attributes bingo, Henry is the full house.
Possible second XI: Schmeichel; G Neville, Terry, Campbell, Baines; Beckham, Lampard, Vieira, Ginola; Le Tissier; Suárez.
Who would your best ever premier league 11 be?
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