Paul Scholes my perfect player article

Scholes says: “That’s easy, Ruud. Although we had some brilliant finishers, don’t get me wrong: Coley, Teddy, Ole, what a finisher. But I always felt Ruud took chances as if it were the last chance he was ever going to have in his life. He was ruthless, so I would go for Ruud. 

“If we won 5-0 and he hadn’t scored he would be annoyed, if we had got beat 5-1 and he had scored, he would be quite happy. He lived for scoring goals, I loved that about him.” 

STRENGTH: JAAP STAM 

Scholes says: “An absolute beast, animal of a man. Loved playing with him and they probably don’t get the credit they deserve, these defenders, because if you’re at United it’s all about scoring goals and entertaining.  

“When you’re a midfield player, especially my type of midfield player – I just wanted to think about scoring goals, I didn’t have to defend when you had Jaap and people like Rio Ferdinand, Ronny Johnsen. They were so good one on one, they just took the ball off the centre-forwards and we all know the power and strength Jaap had. Not just defensive, he used to spring forward as well.”