The worst Manchester United team ever? How the current crop compare to the greatest of the Ferguson era

Champions League, Patrice Evra,Schalke 04 vs Manchester United

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By Jonathan Birchall

Time and again they come, usually in early August, with the same old message: ‘Manchester United are not what they were.’

Three points clear at the top of the Premier League and preparing to ease past Schalke and into their third Champions League final in four years, it’s a wonder why anybody listens anymore.

The players at Old Trafford do, though. Speaking after United’s first meeting with the German side in Gelsenkirchen, Patrice Evra hailed his side for delivering a 2-0 win and one of the finest European performances of the Sir Alex Ferguson era.

He said: “I remember before the home game against Bursaspor last October, which we won 1-0, people were saying it was the end of the empire, the end of Manchester United, the worst team ever. I said, ‘Sometimes you have to pay the musician at the end of the show, not before’.”

Note perfect they are not, but the worst United team ever? It was one hell of a statement from the Frenchman, or rather those that had written the Red Devils off in the first place.

So is this side so inferior to some of Ferguson’s most successful teams? Goal.com takes a look at some of the club’s greatest sides of the past two decades to discover whether reports of United’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

Main Rivals: Blackburn Rovers Key Players: Eric Cantona Denis Irwin Mark Hughes

Formation, 4-4-2: Schmeichel Parker, Bruce, Pallister, Irwin Kanchelskis, Keane, Ince, Giggs Hughes, Cantona

With only four league defeats in a 42-game season, Manchester United’s first truly great team under Sir Alex Ferguson are also his most fondly remembered. Remarkable, for a club whose history is littered with riches, that it took until the mid 1990s for a league and cup double but they secured it in style, winning the league by eight points and hammering Chelsea 4-0 in the FA Cup final. 

Uefa regulations disallowed United from fielding more than three non-English players in the European Cup, seriously hampering the side’s chances on the continent and so it would prove, as United crashed out to Galatasaray in the second round in October.

Only four days later, a first-half Niall Quinn brace for Manchester City left United’s season unravelling before their eyes at the hands of their neighbours. The champions responded in a way that is now so typical of the club, it barely raises an eyebrow.

Cantona hit back twice, the second a sumptuous effort and a strike from new boy Roy Keane settled the affair and set the tone for Manchester derbies for the next decade and a half.

Main Rivals: Arsenal Bayern Munich Key Players: Peter Schmeichel Roy Keane Dwight Yorke

Formation, 4-4-2: Schmeichel Neville, Stam, Johnsen, Irwin Beckham, Keane, Scholes, Giggs Cole, Yorke

The first and only English side to win the league, FA Cup and Champions League in the same season, United’s class of 1998-99 are set apart. With a spine including names such as Peter Schmeichel, Jaap Stam, Keane and Dwight Yorke, it was a side defined by its iconic moments, of which there were plenty.

Most will point to the magic of Barcelona as United somehow secured the treble in the dying embers of stoppage time as the defining moment of this side but it was in the semi-final that Sir Alex Ferguson’s side showed the unwavering, never-say-die resilience that has come to define his time at the Old Trafford helm.

Two-nil down after 10 minutes in Turin against a Juventus side including the likes of Alessandro Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi, Ferguson’s men fought back, with Keane as the catalyst, to win 3-2 and book their place in the final in one of the greatest away performances ever seen in the tournament.

With only four defeats in all competitions for the entire season, United’s solidity at the back is often overlooked when plaudits line up to eulogise the 98-99 side but with a team so strong all over the park, it’s little wonder why.

Main Rivals: Arsenal Key Players: Ruud van Nistelrooy Paul Scholes Ryan Giggs

Formation, 4-4-2: Barthez Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, O’Shea Beckham, Scholes, Veron, Giggs Van Nistelrooy, Solskjaer

With 17 players making over 20 starts for United over the 2002-2003 season, success was built on the strength of the collective, rather a first XI of irreplaceable glamour. That said, for Ruud van Nistelrooy, this was a vintage campaign from start to finish. Scoring in all of his first eight league games, the Dutchman went on to hit 44 goals in 50 appearances as the Red Devils stormed to their eighth Premier League title.

Having hung on to the coattails of champions Arsenal, United bounced back from a Boxing Day defeat to Middlesbrough by delivering a run of form reminiscent of their legendary 1995-96 second half of the season, in which they beat Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle to the title having trailed at one stage by 12 points.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s men, as is still their wont, were inspired by Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs as they dropped points only three times after the Middlesbrough setback. A draw at Highbury in April pretty much settled it; United, having made life difficult for themselves, went and won the league by five points.

Main Rivals: Chelsea Key Players: Cristiano Ronaldo Carlos Tevez Nemanja Vidic

Formation, 4-4-2: Van der Sar Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra Ronaldo, Scholes, Carrick, Giggs Tevez, Rooney

Having seen Jose Mourinho lead Chelsea to two successive titles, Sir Alex Ferguson’s empire appeared to have finally met its match come August 2007. Ten months later however, it was a different Portuguese icon with his hands wrapped around the biggest prizes in both domestic and continental football – for 2007-08 was the year Cristiano Ronaldo ruled Old Trafford.

To label them a one-man team would be to overlook the contributions of Carlos Tevez, who hit 19 goals in 39 starts, and the Ferdinand and Vidic partnership, a couple so parsimonious that the champions only conceded 22 goals throughout the entire league campaign. They have already seen their net breached 34 times this term.

Though with 42 goals in 46 starts, the last being an unstoppable header against a Chelsea team no longer under the tutelage of Jose Mourinho in the Champions League final in Moscow, the winger’s speed on the break, power in the air and unerring ability to turn a match on its head defined United’s season.

He celebrated victory in the Russian capital by sobbing with relief in the centre circle having seen his penalty saved by Petr Cech during the subsequent shootout. Proof, albeit brief, that Ronaldo was indeed human.

Main Rivals: Chelsea Arsenal Barcelona Key Players: Edwin van der Sar Javier Hernandez Wayne Rooney

Formation, 4-4-1-1: Van der Sar Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra Valencia, Carrick, Giggs, Nani Rooney Hernandez

Still favourites to secure the Premier League title despite a sizeable wobble and near certainties to make it to their third Champions League final in four years, the deficiencies of Sir Alex’s side, of which there certainly are plenty, are counter-balanced by an unerring will to win.

Coming from 2-0 down away to both Blackpool and West Ham to win while Arsenal throw away 4-0 leads – the fragility of others has certainly contributed to the success that is so close to United.

That said, there have been moments in which the team have appeared as imperious as years gone by. Destroying Chelsea over two quarter-final Champions League legs and embarrassing Schalke in Gelsenkirchen; don’t be fooled into thinking that this is a team built on spirit alone.

The permanence of United’s heart may still run the show, but with a resurgent Wayne Rooney, an evergreen Edwin van der Sar and the livewire Javier Hernandez, there is more than enough brains behind their bite.