How Does The Current Manchester United Team Compare To The Class Of '99?

Less than four hours to go now before the biggest match between two English club sides ever.

Unlike their opponents, Manchester United have a history in this competition, having won it twice already, the most famous of which coming nine years ago in Barcelona where they completed the treble.

Perhaps it's fate for them to win it again, 50 years on from the tragic Munich air crash.

Here, though, I will be comparing the squad of '99 to the class of 2008, to see if they are as a good a team as the treble winners, if not better.

GK    Peter Schmeichel        beats             Edwin van der Sar

RB    Gary Neville                beats             Wes Brown

LB    Denis Irwin                loses to          Patrice Evra

CB   Rohnny Johnsen         loses to          Rio Ferdinand

CB    Jaap Stam                 beats             Nemanja Vidic

RM   Ryan Giggs                loses to          Cristiano Ronaldo

LM   Jesper Blomqvist        loses to           Ryan Giggs

CM   Nicky Butt                  loses to          Paul Scholes

CM   David Beckham            beats            Owen Hargreaves

CF   Andy Cole                   loses to          Wayne Rooney

CF   Dwight Yorke               beats             Carlos Tevez

Other Players:

       Teddy Sheringham        beats            Louis Saha

       Phil Neville                     beats            John O'Shea

       Roy Keane                     beats           Micheal Carrick

       Paul Scholes                  beats            Park Ji-Sung

       Ole Gunnar Solskjaer      beats            Nani

       Wes Brown                   loses to         Gary Neville

From these personal battles, out of the likely starting teams in the '99 final and the 2008 final, the '08 one just has the upper hand (6-5).

However, out of the players that were on the bench or unavailable, the class of '99 beats the current 2008 squad hands down.

I personally think that the '08 squad is better than the '99 squad.

The current squad has more 'superstars' than the '99 squad, and when the players of '08 won the player battles, they won by more than when the '99 players won.

For example, Rio Ferdinand beat Rohnny Johnsen by a long way, whereas Jaap Stam only just beat Nemanja Vidic.

I also think that Sir Alex Ferguson has got better with time, which goes in favour of the class of '08.

As far as the players that were involved in both squads are concerned, I think that the Gary Neville of today, excluding injury of course, is better than that of '99.

The Wes Brown of today is also better than the one of '99.

However, Ryan Giggs in 1999 was better than the one today, and Paul Scholes is about the same. Perhaps a bit better now.

Carrick has said to judge them on honours before comparing them to the 1999 squad but, in my opinion, they are already better than their treble-winning counterparts.