Realchester Madnited: Real Madrid & Man Utd Composite Best XI
By Chris Wright
With tonight’s Champions League blockbuster at the Bernabeu just hours away, we thought we’d have a dabble at putting together a stellar composite XI of Real Madrid and Manchester United.
Flick through our team, then leave your own XI in the comments. We’ve taken tonight’s list of injury absentees into account but, of course, you don’t have to bother…
What say you Pies fans? Agree/disagree? Feel free to leave your own ‘Composite XIs’ down below…
The 'Transfer Talks' Flowchart – Football Cliches
Remembering Ivan Turina – A Football Report
Moyes Has Done Sod All To Deserve United Job – Johnny Nic For F365
Anfield: The Victims, The Anger And The Shameful Truth – Guardian
The A-Z Of Football Boot Brands – The Boot Room
Man Utd Coach Delivers Opinion On Rooney's Form – Off The Post
19 Rules Of Playing Football When You're A Kid – BuzzFeed
Chiles, Keane, Dixon & Southgate Preview Madrid vs Dortmund – The False Nine
Brilliant 'Punk Aesthetic' West Ham Artwork – Is Saitch Yer Daddy?
Very American, Not Very Good: The 1971 St Louis Stars – IBWM
Anyone that’s watched United this season will know that Evra is back at his best and nobody would keep him out of that side fit or not.
Arbeloa over Rafael? You must be mad. Rafael arguably the best RB in Europe (with Zabaleta) this year. Crazy.
Rafael over Arbeloa (if you’re playing 4-3-3 then you need dynamic full backs who actually know what they’re doing in the attacking third). Carrick over Cleverley (a midfield of Carrick and Alonso looks irresistible, especially with Ozil in front of them). The rest is pretty much perfect
@Karl and Kaelon: We’d always pick Arbeloa. While Rafael is definitely improving, Arbs defends like a proper right-back – which will always be our main priority.
We were also working on the basis that you don’t need two dynamic full-backs if you’ve got Rooney, RVP and Ronaldo floating across the width of the pitch.
Arbeloa over Rafael is crazy, been putting in a stellar season, defensively, offensively, and reliably too, one bad game all season.
@Chris – agreed on the Arbeloa. He is consistently outstanding, whereas Rafael is just coming into his own.
Coentrao over Evra. Also, even if he can’t get in Madrid’s team, Modric over Cleverly.
@Trip
No he isn’t, he’s improved slightly and scoring goals but defensively he’s still pretty shocking.
Arbeloa is not constantly outstanding and never has been, he’s exactly the same as he was at Liverpool, completely average. Rafael on the other hand this season has been our best player behind RVP. Bombing forward he’s as good as ever and his drive is unmatched at United but most importantly his defending has improved massively. I’d like to see a stat for fouls committed this season, IMO Arbeloa’s would be far higher than Rafael’s.
Also where is Rooney actually playing in your XI, if it’s on the left then I would rather have Di Maria or Kagawa.
Diego Lopez
Arbeloa Vidic Ramos Evra
Scholes Alonso Ozil
Rooney
Ronaldo Van Persie
‘Realchester Madnited.’ Kudos to the headline writer.
@Mr Sensible, with a frontline of Rooney, Van Persie, and Ronaldo, I’d assume all thee of them would interchange at will as the game goes on. Making team sheet positions none too important.
I read somewhere once that in the 80s both United and Spurs were touring South Africa and actually played 1 game together as Manchester Hotspurs, I have never heard about it since and there’s fuck all about it on the internet. Am I going mad or did this happen?
If all are fully fit XI:
GK-Casillas;
RB-Ramos, CB-Vidic & Pepe, LB-Evra;
DM-Alonso & Carrick(on form);
CM-Ozil;
LF-Ronaldo, CF-Rooney, RF-Van Persie…
@harry, are you insane? scholes over carrick/cleverley or even giggs? not knocking scholes previous contributions to the united cause but this season hes been a bit of a liability…hence the fact he hasnt been anywhere near the team since christmas. a central midfield of carrick and alonso would be awesome to watch! cleverly for me just misses out.
have to agree with all the other commenters, rafael over arbeloa any day of the week. has come on leaps and bounds this year, an amazing attacking wing back whos defending is getting stronger game by game.
I, Pies fan, say: this format of picture gallery is really bad. But I digress…
I’d probably have Khedira over Cleverley in the composite XI, as he’s more aggressive and physically imposing, and offers just as great a goal threat from deep. Otherwise, I’d agree and say spot on.
@Mark: Hopefully, the clunky galleries will soon be a thing of the past. We’ve got a new format in the works.
Where’s Ryan Giggs?
Agree with a few comments on here about Carrick over Cleverly. Michael Carrick has been one of the stand out performers for United and his recycling of the ball has probably been only just behind the likes of Alonso, Busquets and Pirlo this season.
I think after tonight I would have to agree with arbeloa over Rafael. Unites defence held up pretty well, but Rafael on the flanks was a liability and really provided Madrid with the majority of their chances. Fergie has to sure up that back line for the home fixture, probably sticking av7 on the flank as he’ll put in a shift and provide a bit better coverage than Rooney did on the right. Maybe even shift jones or smalling over there
LOL. FFS. This sick weird idea that Arbeloa is a great player needs to end finally. He’s average. At best. You want a skillful, dynamic, attacking RB who can also play defense? Then that’s Torosidis- the new Roma pick up.
@Michael Samuelle: your point is somewhat moot, as Torosidis doesn’t play for either United or Real.
Chris: thanks for the news on galleries, I know you’ve mentioned before that it’s a website thing rather than out of choice. Looking forward to the new format.
[...] Top 10 Conclusions: Real Madrid 1-1 Man Utd [...]
[...] Realchester Madnited – A composite of the best players of the two CL giants [...]
Khedira over Cleverly from now until the end of time.
Someone said that the Rafael and Zabaleta have been the two best RB’s in Europe all season. You’ve never watched a Bayern match have you? Philipp Lahm is the best fullback (whichever side, he can do both equally well) in the world.
@Bruno At his brothers place shagging his wife?