Who is Fergie best ever big game player?

For me it came down to


Peter, Rio and Dwight and I'm not even considering Eric or Roy - they are just on another level and everyone else, perhaps save Peter is a mere mortal.

I think its still very early to include Ronaldo and Rooney.

One name that stands out that shouldnt be there IMO... yet is Rooney.

It was a toss up for me between Keano and Ole. I went with Ole.

Ole.

For me the player that always stood out on the great European adventures was Ryan Giggs. He always seemed to just be electric, particularly his performances against Juventus. Going up a gear I think was the phrased commonly used.

Of more recent years, its definately Ronaldo for me. Man of the match in the FA cup final in his first season, a foreigner here & 18/19 years old, was also impressive against Liverpool at home. Next season he did well against Liverpool again at home, as well as Arsenal at home, and his goals at Highbury drew us level & put us ahead respectively. Man of the match in the cup final as well. Our best and only really threatening player against Milan in the CL, that fantastic run from near the edge of our pen area (I think) right into theirs which Quinny almost scored from stands out, he really took the game to them. Ridiculously subbed at the end of the first leg though This season I think the stand out one has been the Benfica game away.

Case for Schmeichel etc as well, so undecided at the moment.

Interesting enough, if you look at the big games Fletcher has played in, he's been outstanding in quite a few (namely against his bitch Paddy Vieira )

Hughes was always the go to guy on the big occasion; his goalscoring record in semi finals, finals and showpiece events was unparalleled.

I chose Ole, but only just. Cantona and Schmeichel were both very close to getting my vote. I guess it's just for me that Ole has proven time and time again he can score big goals in big games for us, and he doesn't even need to have played in a full game to have a major impact on it as proven in the 1999 season for example. He always comes out of the dark and wins it for us.

Re: Was

I guess its easy to confuse being a clutch player with being a big game player. When the situation was dire, Eric was immense.

Re: Was

Another clue...

Re: Was

Europe.

I don't buy for a second this European argument against Cantona. If not for Cantona, we may have never got to Champions League at all. We went 26 years without a title before him, ffs. And back then you actually had to win it in order to participate in CL.

It's not like we've had a lot of success in Europe besides 1999 season. And, in fact, I think Cantona is one of the main reasons why we were able to win in the late 90s, after he retired. Just ask Beckham/Scholes/Giggs. And btw, Beckham was our MVP in 1999 - if the likes of Ronaldo and Rooney are included, surely he needs to be in the list.

The difference between Eric and everyone else that was after him (I am talking players, not SAF obviously) is that Eric created the winning team. Eric made Manchester United the biggest club in the world.
Voting for him.

ROM, as far as Europe - you should've shown their concert version of the countdown - it's much better than the video

[youtube]YuayFYlMXt8[/youtube]

Regarding Cantona, I had a look back at his goals (thanks to rsssf.com).
He was the only United scorer in 17 games, 12 of which were wins (just league games, excluding cups). In 95/96 alone, he was the only scorer in 5 of United wins(remember the stretch of his 1-0 wins?) and also the only United scorer in 3 other games that ended up as draws.

I think that's irrelevant to our question here. No doubt, Cantona's contribution to this club was immense. But the fact that he never really replicated his domestic form in Europe (and at the international stage) makes him less of a "big game" player IMO.

Hughes always seemed to pop up with goals when it mattered, and Robson was a big game player for us even before Fergie took over at the helm.

Fine then. Cantona was not a "big European game" player. But what about all the big games domestically he won single handedly? Do they not count?

Look at my previous post regarding the games where Cantona won by himself. 1996 alone in the second half of the season when we were 12 points behind Newcastle, he won a number of games by himself e.g. 1-0 wins over Newcastle, Arsenal and Spurs. Not big games? Not to mention 1-0 over Liverpool in the FA Cup final that year.

Eric Cantona was not the only reason why United fared poorly in our first years in the CL.

Yes they do count, but if it's a question of being Fergie's best big game player then Cantona's European form doesn't do him any favours.
But like you've pointed out, if we were to focus only on domestic competitions, then Cantona proved to be an incredibly reliable player in big games. In Europe, he was far from it. I guess that makes it even more debatable when considering who the best ever big game player under Fergie was - I think it's a toss up between Cantona and Hughes. If we were to consider Bryan Robson's contributions in the pre-Fergie era as well, I think he would deserve a mention as well.

But really, how many European games did Cantona have a chance to impress himself in? Throughout his career he maybe played in 10 games in Champions league for us? Rooney already played in almost twice as many games for us. The most important game was probably against Porto, and Cantona led the team to a victory and semi-final. And we lost to eventual winners.

Gah.. What is with all these narrow minded conceptions -- and it's not just SM.

Yes, no one denies Cantona was big and great in the EPL.

Just factor in Europe APPROPRIATELY, and then balance things out. I was from the post-Cantona era, in fact, post-treble. I don't know anything.