Man United and Man City Combined 11 Since 2000 Chosen by Rio Ferdinand

Highlights

• Manchester United and Manchester City have both had many supremely talented footballers since the turn of the 21st century.
• Rio Ferdinand has helped to select the ultimate combined XI from the two rivals since 2000.
• Many household names miss out including Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane, such is the fierce competition for a spot in the line-up.

A host of incredibly talented players have represented Manchester City or Manchester United since the turn of the 21st century. While it’s been a period of two halves for United, the past two decades have seen City become a global force following their takeover in 2008.

Although the past decade has been poor for United, the first part of the 21st century saw some of the world’s best players represent the Red Devils. Combined, the two Manchester clubs have a seriously impressive alumni list. Ahead of the Manchester derby on March 3, Rio Ferdinand helped put together the ultimate combined XI made up of players who have played for City or United since the year 2000.

With the help of his FIVE colleagues, the legendary defender put the team together during a video on his YouTube channel – and it’s fair to say there are some debatable omissions and inclusions.

Goalkeeper

Edwin van der Sar

Presented with three options of either Edwin van der Sar, David de Gea or Ederson, Ferdinand wasted no time picking the former. The two spent several years playing together in the 2000s, and the Dutch keeper was a standout performer for the Red Devils during that time. After years of searching for a replacement for Peter Schmeichel, Van der Sar was the man for the job, winning United numerous points on his own. Ferdinand had no doubt at all about picking the former Fulham man, commenting:

“I reckon Van der Sar is the standout for me. We said it straight away. David de Gea, I think, probably had more outstanding moments than Van der Sar, but Van der Sar was just that calming influence and that balance, and he was one of the first goalkeepers from that generation to be great with his feet as well. So, I just think as a package, I take him.”

Across six years, Van der Sar played over 250 times for the Red Devils, winning everything but an FA Cup with the side. While De Gea did have a solid tenure at Old Trafford, it’s hard to argue with Ferdinand here.

Right-back

Kyle Walker

The first slight surprise comes at right-back as Ferdinand chose to leave Gary Neville out of the side in favour of City star Kyle Walker. Spending his entire career at Old Trafford, Neville had an incredible tenure with the club and has gone down as one of the best full-backs in Premier League history. Considering the list is only looking at players from 2000, though, Rio decided to leave his former teammate out as he believes his run in the 1990s was stronger than the 2000s. Interestingly, he selected Walker for the team and made a pretty huge shout, claiming the City man is the best right-back of the Premier League era.

“Kyle Walker is the best right-back in Premier League history for me. I think he’s a top player.”

After making a name for himself at Tottenham Hotspur, Walker moved to the Etihad Stadium in 2017 and has flourished under Pep Guardiola. Playing close to 300 games and winning everything possible during that time, there’s no doubt he’s a fantastic talent, but the best right-back in Premier League history? Bold shout, Rio.

Centre-back

Rio Ferdinand

To avoid personal biases, Ferdinand refrained from commenting on the centre-back positions and instead gave his colleague and Man Utd fan Stephen Howson the task of deciding. Unsurprisingly, he selected Rio for the team, claiming the Englishman is the second-best central defender in the history of the Premier League. He was faced with some tough competition, with the likes of Ruben Dias, Vincent Kompany, John Stones and Raphael Varane all also up for selection, but Howson didn’t hesitate with his choice.

When selecting the next central defender, there was only one man who could have possibly been chosen to partner up with Ferdinand in the back-line here.

Centre-back

Nemanja Vidic

No real surprise here, right? While Howson believes Ferdinand is the second-best centre-back in Premier League history, he thinks Nemanja Vidic is the third-best. The Serbian was signed from Spartak Moscow in January 2006 and, despite a shaky debut, it wasn’t long before he was dominating Premier League forwards for fun.

He took to English football like a duck to water forged one of the best centre-back pairings football has ever seen alongside Ferdinand. He won virtually everything with United during his hugely-successful eight-year stint at the Theatre of Dreams and will forever occupy a special place in the hearts of every United fan.

Left-back

Patrice Evra

On the left-hand side of defence, there was no argument at all, as Patrice Evra was picked in the left-back role. The Frenchman was a standout in Sir Alex Ferguson’s team over the years, and if it wasn’t for Ashley Cole’s existence, he’d have easily been the best left-back in England during his time in Manchester. Rio had no trouble picking Evra and doesn’t think anyone else was even worth considering for the role.

“I think left-back, well, there’s only one candidate and that’s Patrice Evra. Longevity.”

The former England defender has a point, too. Evra spent eight years at Old Trafford and was consistently a key figure for the club. While he’s arguably the best left-back in United’s history, he’s certainly the best left-back to play for either the Red Devils or City in the last 24 years.

Defensive midfield

Rodri

Things got tough here, with Ferdinand and Howson split on who should slot into the team in the defensive midfield role. It all boiled down to Roy Keane and Rodri, but the Manchester City man got the edge from Rio, due to the impact he has on his team and the noticeable effect that occurs whenever he’s absent.

“Rodri, what he’s doing right now, he’s the best CDM on the planet. He’s nasty. He controls tempo, everything. In terms of influence on the team, I can’t go too far away from that. When he doesn’t play, City lose. Facts. He’s the only player in their team that the level of the team drops down whenever he’s out of the team. Dramatically. When Rodri doesn’t play, they don’t win games.”

Keane is certainly worthy of a big mention but, similarly to Neville, Ferdinand was judging him solely on their performances from the year 2000 onwards – something that didn’t work in the Irishman’s favour on this occasion. Rodri has been incredible at City, though, so it’s hard to really be surprised that he’s been included in this combined XI.

Central midfield

Yaya Toure

Moving a little further up the field, Rio was tasked with naming a pair of central midfielders to add to his team and he came up with some very different answers to Howson. While the former defender was dead set on including Paul Scholes in his team, his co-host was not and instead chose to add Yaya Toure to the mix.

Behind the camera, a third party ultimately ruled in favour of Howson and chose Toure, which, on the surface, is a questionable move. Scholes is one of the most influential midfielders in Premier League history, after all, and there will be many shocked at his absence here. Toure was a tremendous player, though. His goalscoring exploits from the middle of the park were unrivalled and he was near enough unplayable at his peak with City.

Central midfield

Kevin De Bruyne

Ferdinand went back and forth over whether to include Kevin De Bruyne, but he eventually went with the Belgian superstar – which seems a smart move. There are few players – possibly ever – who are on his level when it comes to creating opportunities for teammates. His ability to pick the perfect pass and execute it with no trouble whatsoever is a sight to behold.

“You’ve got KDB who comes up with those clutch performances and goals. He’s the icing on the cake.”

On his day, no one is on De Bruyne’s level, and he’s shown that with how much City miss him during his absences. His partnership with Erling Haaland has been a huge success so far – and if you’re any striker in the world, you want the Belgian playing behind you.

Right-wing

Wayne Rooney

In order to shoehorn Wayne Rooney into the XI, Rio and the team decided to slot him in at the right-wing position. It wasn’t his most prolific role and it wasn’t even one that he frequented very often, but the former United man was such a talented player that they wanted to squeeze him into the line-up anyway.

Few players have burst onto the scene with quite as much hype and promise as Rooney did at Everton in the early 2000s, but he still somehow managed to live up to the hype. Starting off as a forward, he scored goals for fun, before he dropped back on the pitch towards the end of his career. If he had played as a striker throughout his entire run at Old Trafford, Ferdinand is adamant that he’d be filling that slot in this team – but he didn’t, so he isn’t.

Left-wing

Cristiano Ronaldo

Considering he’s one of the greatest players of all time, it would have been blasphemous if Ferdinand didn’t include Cristiano Ronaldo. The two played together during the 2000s and won a significant amount of silverware together. It was during their time together that the Portuguese star really exploded into the superstar he is today.

Despite there being a huge array of attacking talents such as Raheem Sterling, Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden and more to select from here, it was pretty conclusive immediately that Ronaldo would be the one slotting into the team, and it’s hard to argue with that considering just how good he’s been for 20 years now. It wasn’t a matter of whether he was in the team, but which position he’d be selected in, but considering the success he had at Old Trafford on the left, that’s where Rio decided to put him.

“Cutting in, banging goals. When we were winning the league and he was scoring 40+ goals, he was playing on the left, so I think we’ve got to put him on the left.”

Striker

Sergio Aguero

While both United and City have had some top quality strikers in the 21st century, none could quite compare with Sergio Aguero, so he was selected to lead the lines. The Argentine was not only responsible for the most iconic moment in Premier League history, but he was also one of the most effective finishers in the league’s history.

If injuries hadn’t restricted him so much towards the end of his run in Manchester, he’d have given Alan Shearer a serious challenge for the top scorer in Premier League history. However, the South American struggled to stay fit towards the end of his time at the Etihad Stadium and departed as the fifth-highest scorer instead.

Statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt and 11v11.