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Manchester United have been the most successful team in Premier League history though they have tailed off somewhat recently. As any fan will know, the majority of that success came under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Like many great football managers before him, Ferguson recognised that successful teams are built on a strong spine in defence, midfield and attack with class running throughout the team.
You just have to see some of the teamsheets under Ferguson to see evidence of that fact: particularly towards the end of his time at United where he had world class players (albeit most of them ageing) in every single position.
Part of building successful teams and a strong spine relied on Ferguson's legendary man-management skills (even though a certain Roy Keane may disagree!) and knowing which players would gel together and create effective partnerships.
There have been numerous successful partnerships for United in the Premier League era, not just on the pitch but on the sidelines too (Sir Alex and Brian Kidd before they fell out). This article looks at the 3 best partnerships for United in the Premier League Era, with the best for defence, midfield and attack all selected.
#1 Defence- Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic
Though United are, of course, traditionally renowned for their attacking football (though that's definitely not been the case in recent seasons under Louis Van Gaal and Jose Mourinho), they've also had numerous world-class defenders and consequently many great partnerships.
The earliest would be Bruce and Pallister and other honourable mentions go to the Jaap Stam/Ronny Johnsen pairing and even the partnership of Chris Smalling/Phil Jones deserves recognition.
In terms of pure quality though, it's hard to overlook Ferdinand and Vidic as the most successful defensive partnership in United's Premier League Era and indeed perhaps of all time. When Vidic joined in 2006, the club was on the cusp of another golden era under Sir Alex and the Ferdinand-Vidic partnership was central to this success.
From 2006-2013, the club won 5 league titles, 3 League cups, the Champions League and the World Club Championship. As they say, you always build from the back in creating a football team and United could press forward knowing that they had a rock-solid partnership. Goalkeepers such as Edwin Van Der Sar and David De Gea owe a lot of their success at United to Ferdinand and Vidic.
Perhaps a lot of their success owes to their contrasting attributes- Vidic was the hardman and more physical of the pair and provided an aerial threat from corners and set pieces. Ferdinand was more of the cultured player, being excellent in bringing the ball out from defence and reading the game excellently.
Particularly in the earlier years of this partnership, Ferdinand was much quicker than Vidic though this could lead to lapses in concentration and a slight cockiness in Rio's game. Similarly, the only criticism of Vidic would be his lack of pace, which made him vulnerable to speedy strikers (we all remember how much he struggled against Fernando Torres!).
On the whole, though, Rio and Vida (as he was affectionately known by the United faithful) were an excellent partnership and provided the foundation for some of the most successful times in the club's history. How the current United side could badly use those two right now.
#2 Midfield- Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs
The caption says it all: Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs were two of the best players of all time for United and to have them in the same team was a treat for any football fan. It was even sweeter that both were local lads from Manchester and just like Gary Neville and the rest of the Class of 92 you could see the commitment they had to the United cause.
Ironically it could be argued that both Scholes and Giggs got better towards the end of their United careers. Scholes, in particular, became the midfield genius that we all remember so fondly after moving back from being the second striker to playing exclusively in central midfield where he would routinely run whole games on his own.
With Giggs, you could argue he also got better the older he got. In his youth, he was a fantastic winger tearing opposition defences apart with his pace though understandably as his age increased, so did his pace.
This led him to convert to being a central midfielder, where a mixture of him, Scholes and Michael Carrick formed an awesome midfield unit of ball playing skills and intelligence with Darren Fletcher and Anderson being the grafters.
Just like the previous partnership of Vidic and Ferdinand, this partnership was probably at its best around the 06/07 and 07/08 seasons whilst Giggs and Scholes still had the legs and stamina. Understandably, the older they got the less frequent their appearances became but they will always be legends to the United faithful.
#3 Attack- Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo
Manchester United have had many great attacking players throughout the Premier League era but Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo have to be at the top of the list, because of their individual achievements for United and the success of their partnership.
Ronaldo, of course, needs no introduction, going on to who many consider to still be the best player in the world. Though Rooney has been criticised for not fulfilling his potential, becoming United and England's all-time top goalscorers means there can be no questioning his ability.
Though Ronaldo joined United in 2003 and Rooney a year later in 2004, their partnership really only started to blossom from the 2006/07 season. By then, Ruud Van Nistelrooy had left (as did the over-reliance on him) and Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had both succumbed to injury.
At the start of the 06/07 season, Ronaldo was 21 and Rooney was only 20 and what followed over the next 3 seasons was magic as United took 3 successive Premier League titles by playing true, dynamic attacking football as has always been the United way.
Naturally, Rooney and Ronaldo were at the heart of this improvement, with perhaps Ronaldo being the more dominant of the two over the three years. They both finished with 23 goals in the 06/07 season before Ronaldo went to a whole new level scoring 42 goals in the 07/08 season with Rooney again netting around 20.
In Ronaldo's final season at United before joining Real Madrid he was again top scorer, though this time with a comparatively modest 26 goals.
Perhaps the only criticism of this partnership was that whilst Ronaldo thrived, Rooney suffered. Such was Ronaldo's dominance at United, Rooney was even farmed out to the left wing at times during the 2008/09 season to accommodate Ronaldo.
Indeed in the three seasons after Ronaldo left, Rooney netted his 2 best season tallies for United- 34 in 2009/10 and 2011/12 though curiously in both seasons United finished 2nd and missed out on the Premier League.
Nevertheless, Rooney and Ronaldo can go down as one of the best-attacking partnerships of all time for any club, not just United.
