Manchester United can boast of some fierce attacking partnership in the last two decades, from Yorke and Cole to Van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney but former Right-back Gary Neville believes that Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole were the best Manchester United strike partnership he played with – and arguably the best the club has ever had.
Yorke and Cole played a huge part in United’s legendary Treble victory in 1999, leading the line for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side and helping them win the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League.
Neville name-checked several other excellent forwards to have graced Old Trafford, including Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wayne Rooney and current boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but admitted Yorke and Cole were head and shoulders above the rest as a duo.
“It’s interesting that because when I first came into the team it was [Eric] Cantona and [Mark] Hughes,” Neville said on a special edition of Monday Night Football on Sky Sports as he and Jamie Carragher analyzed United’s iconic 6-1 victory over Arsenal in 2001 in which Yorke scored a hat-trick.
“And then obviously that period we had Yorkey and Coley, and Teddy [Sheringham] and Ole worked well as strike partners.
“Then it went into Ruud who played sometimes with Scholesy [Paul Scholes] and sometimes with one of the other lads that I’ve just mentioned.
“And then it went into Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez who were absolutely sensational as well.
“I probably think Yorke and Cole just for that treble season where they were just absolutely sensational. The way in which they played together, they just lit up the whole league, lit up Europe.
“I always remember a game we played in the Champions League group stages in Barcelona where both of them played together and I’d never seen anything like it.
“We conceded three goals, I was center-back, but we scored three and those two that night was absolutely brilliant.”