The end of 1988/89 from Match & Shoot! (in fact the same games) / The end of 1989/90 from Shoot! / Match Facts for the end of 1992/93 (week 39)
I've updated the table again, adding the 1991/92 Match selection (without a goalie though; Nicol at right back is maybe a stretch since Rob Jones is there in the Shoot XI and played for Liverpool too, but Nicol did play games in that position as well as others) In the Shoot XI I made (from picking out candidates and calculating averages myself) there were as well as Molby also Jones and Kanchelskis with under 30 games rated though, and I'm guessing Match had a limit of 30 minimum (seems like it and they did before in other years). What I might do sometime is calculate the averages from Shoot for the players who are Match's top rated player of their club (with 30+ games) I haven't calculated them for yet. McManaman also had under 30 rated games with Shoot by the way, so at this point (with Match giving ratings for 20 minutes or more), Match rated players in more games. Maybe Kanchelskis would have 30 or more with Match even - I'd have to work it out though. It seems like in the late 80s (when Shoot started doing ratings, and perhaps Match's tendency had crept towards higher ratings at that particular moment) it might actually be that Match were a bit more generous with their ratings than Shoot. It seems like it when comparing those pages for the last week of 88/89 I thought at first glance anyway. I believe there were some transfers of staff from Match to Shoot at some point - not sure when exactly though. Match also changed the style of the magazine a bit during the 90s - maybe moving away from their earlier ratings forte a bit in some respect but actually as Pavlin showed the ratings aspect did get a bit more detailed later on again (including with things like best rated player per game in a summary at the end too) than it was seemingly in 91/92. I can't really add a similar XI for 92/93 from Match because the list of top rated players by club isn't there and it seems like about 3 players would be needed from it again (with curiously Match having a high number of defenders among the top 10 average ratings again). I can't really be sure that Batty, Townsend and Fleck are making the 91/92/line-up but it seems likely (it'd need midfielders or strikers from QPR, Liverpool, Everton, Notts County, or Aston Villa, who played 30 or more rated games, to prevent them being in - players that weren't their club's top rated player but had higher ratings than those 3...but yeah although it's possible it's not highly likely any would I think). I put Houghton as number 7 and McManaman as number 11 (two Liverpool players again, who I think probably will have both played more as right winger/midfielder than left winger/midfielder that season, but with Houghton also I think playing in central midfield and McManaman playing a bit as a support striker, the 11 players, once a goalkeeper was added, could be in a kind of 4-3-3 or Christmas Tree system that would be a bit like some of Match's earlier Teams of the Season with a winger in attack, and more of a midfield winger deeper).
By my calculations, there is an error in Ryan Giggs' 1992-93 estimate! According to Match it is 7.35 out of 40 matches, I think it is 7.15. 7.33 is Paul Ince, 7.29 is Steve Bruce.
Do we still need to see the ratings for this game? Sheffield United v Manchester United, 15 August 1992 - 11v11 match report Even so, it would be impossible to rise from 7.15 after 39 games to 7.40 after 40 games. I'm just calculating Cantona's 92/93 rating actually, because I wasn't sure if he'd be excluded from the list because he only played 22 games for Manchester United (although he played 13 for Leeds United, so 35 overall - it is many seasons before but I remember Match had seemed to show Trevor Francis's average rating based on his Manchester City games only in 81/82, although he only played a small number of games for Nottingham Forest anyway). I don't know what his rating will have been in this game (unless you found the first week and I don't realise it), but can calculate for the 34 other games.... Leeds United v Wimbledon, 15 August 1992 - 11v11 match report
Cantona is on 7.18 over the 34 games (without the game from the opening day), so in theory if he had a 10 out of 10 in that first game, he'd be about equal with Keane on 7.26 it seems, otherwise whether they excluded him from contention or not it seems like he'd be outside the top 10 rated players for the season (taking into account Leeds and Man Utd games). He was on 7.08 (85 points divided by 12 games) from the other games for Leeds, and 7.18 (159 points divided by 22 games) from his Manchester United games.
Ah, yes, I remember now (I even repped that post before lol: it is hard to remember everything that has been posted I suppose!). I see Cantona only had a 6 in that first game of the season for Leeds then too, so for sure his average from all his games won't have been high enough for top 10.
I thought for 92/93 it might be a good idea to check the ratings for Alan Shearer and Chris Waddle (even though Waddle did play over 30 games so presumably didn't make Match's top 10 average ratings in league games either, and Shearer played only just over 20 and in fact exactly 50%; nevertheless Waddle was FWA Player of the Year, and Shearer had a great first half of the season and his rating can be assessed as a first half of the season rating). Shearer Crystal Palace (a) - 9 Arsenal (h) - 7 Manchester City (h) - 6 Chelsea (a) - 6 Coventry City (a) - 6 Nottingham Forest (h) - 8 Arsenal (a) - 6 Everton (h) - 8 Wimbledon (a) - 8 Oldham Athletic (h) - 8 Norwich City (h) - 9 Aston Villa (a) - 6 Manchester United (h) - 6 Sheffield Wednesday (a) - 6 Tottenham Hotspur (h) - 6 Southampton (a) - 6 Queens Park Rangers (h) - 6 Middlesbrough (a) - 7 Liverpool (a) - 9 Sheffield United (h) - 7 Leeds United (h) - 8 Average = 7.05 Waddle Everton (a) - 8 Coventry City (h) - 7 Manchester City (h) - 6 Nottingham Forest (a) - 7 Norwich City (a) - 7 Tottenham Hotspur (h) - 7 Liverpool (a) - 7 Oldham Athletic (h) - 6 Middlesbrough (a) - 7 Blackburn Rovers (h) - 8 Sheffield United (a) - 6 Ipswich Town (h) - 6 Wimbledon (a) - 7 Aston Villa (h) - 8 Leeds United (a) - 6 Queens Park Rangers (h) - 7 Manchester United (h) - 7 Southampton (a) - 8 Norwich City (h) - 7 Tottenham Hotspur (a) - 9 Chelsea (a) - 9 Everton (h) - 7 Crystal Palace (h) - 7 Manchester City (a) - 7 Liverpool (h) - 7 Coventry City (a) - 5 Aston Villa (a) - 6 Wimbledon (h) - 8 Oldham Athletic (a) - 7 Manchester United (a) - 8 Sheffield United (h) - 7 Blackburn Rovers (a) - 6 Average = 7.03
7.23 for his Manchester United games that should say, sorry. Anyway, thanks to Pavlin's reminder, I can say his season average for league games was 7.14 (250 points over 35 games), so a bit above Waddle's and above what Shearer's was at halfway too, but not as high as Beardsley's obviously (it might be interesting to know if that was the same with Shoot ratings and/or if it continued in 93/94). Perhaps similar to Giggs's rating it seems then, since you said Match seem to have mis-calculated that and stated it was higher than it was Pavlin (as per post #481).
Fitting the four defenders from the top 10 in a back four (although that means too many centre-backs really for a truly representative line-up in theory - Ablett may have played quite a bit at left back though at least, although my memory has faded on that so I'm not quite sure for that season without checking further which isn't really important as far as this goes anyway), and adding Ince based on Pavlin's calculations (but retaining Giggs too, on the assumption no other left winger had a higher average still which could be a bit uncertain), would leave this as the 92/93 Match Team of the Season in theory.... Neville Southall; John Scales, Paul McGrath, Dave Watson, Gary Ablett; Ruel Fox, Roy Keane, Paul Ince, Ryan Giggs; Peter Beardsley (although the write-up says midfielder I think he was basically still more a supporting attacker, like Cantona too, or they were 'in the hole' number 10 type players rather than truly midfielders anyway...although again I forget and Beardsley may have played some games more as an outright midfielder I guess like he did at Newcastle sometimes, later), Mike Sheron. The write-up did state it was Waddle who was being called for by fans for an England return most of all I see (which fits with how I remember it - although perhaps it was mainly Sheffield Wednesday fans singing for a return...but I think many people agreed with the calls anyway), so yeah, it's interesting that Beardsley (although without as many Match Star Player of his team selections as McGrath or Keane for example) has the considerably higher average (though Waddle's is still pretty good to very good, and cup games aren't factored in of course)
I've added that line-up into the updated table now, and also adjusted the 91/92 one to put in Iain Dowie who I realise now has a slightly higher average than Fleck (he did play a few less games, but qualifies with exactly 30, so on that basis makes it in even though the gap in average rating is negligible):
The best players of Man UTD season 1992-93 according to Match magazine Paul Ince 293 points / 40 number of grades / 7.33 Steve Bruce 306/42 / 7.29 Eric Cantona 159/22 / 7.23 Ryan Giggs 293/41 / 7.15 Mark Hughes 283/41 / 7.08 Gary Pallister 296/42 / 7.05
Hello, I have some more ratings for today - first, ‘Match Facts’ for 1981/82 week 37, the last of the season.
‘Matchman of the Year’ 1985/86 Divisions 1-3, and England at the 1986 World Cup (which is a bit strange since the actual ‘Match Facts’ didn’t have any ratings!) – anyway, it’s another West Ham player for the First Division, Alvin Martin. Jan Molby, Stuart McCall and John Hendrie were consistently near the top in Match ratings for several years...
@Pavlin Arnaudov Yes, it's nice to have a full season - just a few more to go! I have posted on 'The Best Players of Euro 92' thread this morning with Match & Shoot! ratings (Richard Gough comes out on top): The Best Players of Euro 92