A combined Man United and Man City team without Paul Scholes, Eric Cantona or David Silva?
*Reaches for tin hat*
There isn’t even a place for Sun Jihai or Tom Cleverley.
Big decisions had to be taken to squeeze just 11 of Manchester’s finest into one team ahead of Sunday’s derby but we’ve come up with a seriously strong outfit.
Scholes and Cantona are the huge omissions from the Premier League era combined XI whilst David Silva has also been overlooked along with City cult heroes Georgi Kinkladze and Shaun ‘feed the Goat’ Goater.
Do you agree with our picks?
There were no disputes in the JOE office over the goalkeeper position, with big Peter Schmeichel commanding the number one shirt with the same authority he held at Old Trafford for eight years.
Poor Gary Neville may feel hard done by, but Pablo Zabaleta is one of the best full-backs in the world and had a stronger claim to the right-back spot than the England man.
Rio Ferdinand and Jaap Stam would have been just as effective at the heart of defence, but we’re happy with the steely pairing of Nemanja ‘he’ll f**king murder ya’ Vidic and Vincent Kompany.
The duo led United and City to seven of the last eight Premier League titles, with the Belgian’s derby-winning goal in 2012 securing City’s first success in 44 years.
Denis Irwin is in. No questions asked.
And you’d struggle to argue about Cristiano Ronaldo or Ryan Giggs, despite Kiki Musampa’s efforts for City in the top flight.
Roy Keane and Yaya Toure – good god, imagine that central midfield pairing. Talk about power, determination, leadership. They would rip teams apart with their box-to-box dominance and sheer will to win.
With 11 goals to his name – including that overhead kick – Wayne Rooney is the record scorer in Manchester derbies. He forms a formidable attack alongside Sergio Aguero with Ruud Van Nistelrooy possibly feeling unlucky to miss out. Unlucky, Ruud.
