REVEALED: The two Manchester United players in our Manchester derby combined XI
Manchester United host Manchester City on Wednesday night with conflicted interests. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side desperately need three points to boost their chances of a top four finish and a victory at Old Trafford would also dent City’s attempts at retaining the Premier League title. While United supporters would revel in ruining City’s title celebrations, the likely consequence of that would see fiercest rivals Liverpool win their first ever Premier League title.
It’s also not as simple to suggest United can simply go out and beat City if they want to. Solskjaer’s honeymoon period is well and truly over and the scale of the job at hand at United has become truly apparent following a run of six defeats in their last eight matches. Few are giving United a chance against City following their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Everton on Sunday and bookmakers are even offering their longest odds ever for a United win in a Premier League home game.
It’s remarkable that there are 24 points separating the two teams heading into Wednesday’s derby but it’s just an honest reflection of how far United have plummeted in recent years. When comparing the two squads it will be alarming for Solskjaer that very few of his players would stand a chance of getting into Pep Guardiola’s team.
On paper you would say David de Gea would certainly get in ahead of Ederson but the United goalkeeper has endured an abysmal campaign by his own high standards and he only seems to be getting worse with each passing week. Guardiola will contest he would rather have Ederson over a top-performing De Gea anyway, due to his superior ball-playing skills.
De Gea used to be Mr. Reliable for United but that is certainly not the case for now, with many questioning whether contract talks in the background have distracted the Spain international.
Other than De Gea, Paul Pogba is the only other United player you would consider world class and the 2018 World Cup winner is hardly pulling up trees himself at the moment. To Pogba’s credit, he has astonishingly played a direct hand in 21 league goals (13 goals, nine assists) this season and is one of only two United players that makes our combined Manchester Derby XI, based on players to have made at least 16 league appearances this season.
Luke Shaw is the second and while the 23-year-old has enjoyed a steady season for United, he only makes the XI due to the fact City have no left-back eligible for selection. Benjamin Mendy and Oleksandr Zinchenko both have better WhoScored ratings than Shaw but both have only made 10 league appearances this term.
A front three of Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero and Leroy Sane has scored 45 goals between them this season, while United’s trident of Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial only combine for 32 goals. United’s front three have only scored 12 league goals between them in 2019, which is just two more than Aguero has managed on his own.
Kevin De Bruyne would usually be right up there but the Belgium international is ruled out for Wednesday and therefore doesn't qualify for selection. Bernardo Silva can consider himself unlikely not to make the combined XI but he just misses out to team-mate David Silva.
