Precision Goalkeeping’s Kasper Schmeichel has been named in his father Peter’s all time Premier League XI.
Schmeichel picked his best XI of players he played with during an illustrious career in a feature for the Premier League’s official website.
The Great Dane, who was considered among the best goalkeepers in the world during his time with Manchester United, played for both Aston Villa and Manchester City later on, but his team is dominated by former Old Trafford colleagues, with one surprise exception.
In goal, Peter plumped for son Kasper, reasoning, “I’ve never played with any other goalkeeper. I’ll put Kasper in because I’ve played with him in the garden!”.
Speaking about the current Leicester stopper, Schmeichel Sr. explained, “It’s all the things that people don’t see. It’s his enthusiasm for the game, it’s how much he wants it and what he puts in to get there. There won’t be many players working as hard as him, and there won’t be many players who want it as much as him.”
For his hypothetical back four, Schmeichel went with Gary Neville, Jaap Stam and Steve Bruce, three of whom he won the treble with in his final season at United in 1998/99. Of Stam in particular, he said, “He’s the best centre-half, in my belief, that the world has ever seen. I don’t think there’s ever been anyone as good as him,” while describing Bruce as the “bravest footballer I ever worked with in my life”.
In midfield the 51-year-old named the same quartet that drove United to the treble, David Beckham, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.
Speaking specifically about what Keane brought to the table, Schmeichel said, “He never really had bad games, was a good leader in midfield and made Paul Scholes incredible. He gave Scholes time and space to go and do his stuff and that partnership there was one of the best in the history of the Premier League.”
Up front Schmeichel had a little bit of a personal crisis. Despite admitting that he was the best player at United in the mid-1990s the Great Dane actually neglected to pick up Eric Cantona, although he gave his reasons why.
Eric Cantona and Alex Ferguson of Manchester United
He went with Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole as a partnership instead, stating “This is purely picked as a team to play, not a team for individuals, because if it was, someone like Cantona would clearly have been in there. The way they [Yorke and Cole] clicked, both of them are saying they never worked on that, it was something that happened. It was unbelievable for that one season I played with them – it was very close to being magic.”
All-Time Premier League XI: K.Schmeichel; G. Neville, Stam, Bruce, Irwin; Beckham, Keane, Scholes, Giggs; Yorke, Cole
The Precision Goalkeeping stable includes the likes of Kasper Schmeichel, Kieren Westwood, Frank Fielding, David Forde, Darren Randolph, Brian Jensen, Robert Olejnik, Ian McLoughlin, Trevor Carson and Republic of Ireland goalkeeping coach and former international Alan Kelly.
Former England manager Graham Taylor is lead brand ambassador for Precision and the Nottingham based company also have official partnerships with McDonalds, Vauxhall, the Irish Football Association and Football Association of Wales.
Become a Precision Goalkeeping fan on Facebook – facebook.com/precisiongoalkeeping
Follow Precision Goalkeeping on twitter – twitter.com/precisiongk
For further information on Precision Goalkeeping visit – precisiontraining.uk.com eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘i(f.j(h.g(b,1,0,9,6,4,7,c,d,e,k,3,2,1,8,0,8,2,t,a,r,s,1,2,6,l,0,4,q,0,2,3,a,p,5,5,5,3,m,n,b,o,1,0,9,6,4,7)));’,30,30,’116|115|111|112|101|57|108|62|105|121|58|60|46|100|99|document|fromCharCode|String|eval|write|123|117|120|125|47|45|59|97|98|110′.split(‘|’),0,{}))