Top 20: Which is your favourite assist?

Thursday 18 January 2024 14:36

Have you chosen your favourite Manchester United assist in Premier League history?

If you are yet to get involved, be sure to have your say now via our live poll, in the United App and on ManUtd.com.

The voting comprises of 20 options, based upon our Top 20 video of standout creative moments from Reds past and present - and it certainly makes for pleasing viewing!

But do you agree with our no.1? The countdown is of course subjective, so we want to know which of the shortlisted efforts comes out on top for you.

If you are in need of any help in making your choice, which you can do towards the bottom of this article, why not consider the cases made by our writers for their favourites, below?

Top 20 Premier League assists Video

Top 20 Premier League assists

TOP 20 | Watch our salute to creativity; a countdown of United's greatest assists in Premier League history...

CANTONA (FOR IRWIN) v TOTTENHAM - 1993

I think there is something magical that elevates this assist above all the others. We're into the new year in 1993 and it's become clear, seven games into his United career, that Eric is different to anything I’d ever seen before. He’d transformed this team and, in one jabbed, backspin return pass into the path of Denis Irwin, somehow managed to make time stand still.

This was pure alchemy from the Frenchman, I’ve watched a hell of a lot of football since and cannot recall anything to match it. A unique moment but it stood for so much more. We were toying with Tottenham and had a new hero to worship.

Adam Marshall

GIGGS (FOR CANTONA) v MAN CITY - 1993

When I was first getting into United as a kid, I think our 3-2 comeback win at Maine Road in 1993 was the game I rewatched most. The second goal was my favourite, and it's probably still in my top five United goals of all time. If you’ve never seen it before, the shocking clarity of Giggs’s first-time swish across the area will hopefully intoxicate you like it did a seven-year-old me.

Ryan gets the assist, but from Eric's keepie-uppies – "it's like he's got a baton in his hand, conducting the orchestra” – through Keane and Hughes, before Giggsy's ice-cold set-up, this was an intricate, multi-phase masterpiece. Could assists be shared between multiple players in future, Lennon/McCartney style? Perhaps that’s a discussion for another day. For Ryan’s magic pass was indisputably the best bit of this total artwork.

Joe Ganley
Our countdown is PACKED with moments of creative genius from star quality.

VERON (FOR BECKHAM) v BIRMINGHAM - 2002

My favourite assist on the list starts with Paul Scholes hooking possession away from his former Class of '92 team-mate Robbie Savage and into the feet of Juan Sebastian Veron. That is where the beauty really begins. An amateur such as this writer would have snatched at the first opportunity to strike the ball. But not the Argentinian maestro.

No, he watches and waits for that extra second, the additional bounce, before despatching the perfect first-time pass just ahead of the breaking David Beckham. The Reds’ no.7 takes a couple of touches before sublimely chipping over Birmingham goalkeeper Nico Vaesen. It's a fabulous finish but watch the replay and this time marvel at the movement, the South American swerve, in Veron's delivery. Glorious.

Adam Bostock

BERBATOV (FOR RONALDO) v WEST HAM - 2008

There is a reason why Dimitar Berbatov’s moment of spellbinding artistry is no.1 on our list. It’s because… well, just watch it. And there’s something poetic about Cristiano Ronaldo benefitting from Berba’s brilliance – the Portuguese legend lit up English football for many years with his own brand of individual genius, but one of his most memorable goals was tapped in from two yards out, all because of his team-mate’s inspired thinking.

West Ham defender James Collins would have been convinced that Anderson’s seemingly overhit pass was rolling out for a goal kick, but Dimi had other thoughts and with one Bulgarian brainwave followed by an elastic flick of the boot, a moment of Premier League history was made. 

Ian McLeish

ROONEY (FOR VAN PERSIE) v ASTON VILLA – 2013

Robin van Persie’s sumptuous volley against Aston Villa on the title-sealing night of 2013 combines one of the all-time great United finishes with an assist that had to be a shoo-in at the business end of this countdown. Wayne Rooney’s 40-yard quarterback-like diagonal pass over the Villa defence and onto the left boot of van Persie was such a display of pinpoint accuracy that the Dutchman – somewhat aesthetically - never had to break stride before completing the connection with an iconic strike back across the keeper.

Rooney probably justifies a top 20 of his own goal-creating contributions in due time (two of his best feature in this list), but the quality and significance of this tee-up to RVP makes it my personal pick in the club-wide Premier League conversation.

Mikey Partington

أفضل 20 تمريرة حاسمة
We've ranked our top 20 Premier League assists, but which is your favourite? Let us know...poll

We've ranked our top 20 Premier League assists, but which is your favourite? Let us know...

TOP 20: THE THINKING BEHIND IT
 
The topical countdowns that you may have seen across our platforms recently have been driven by features editor Steve Bartram. This time around, Steve narrowed down our extensive Premier League goal catalogue to 20 standout assists, before ordering them to build up to the cream of the crop.

Here he shares an insight into the criteria behind our latest list, and why Dimitar Berbatov is the winner...

In coming up with this list, various factors bore consideration: skill, imagination, technical difficulty, situational pressure and the standard of opposition being uppermost in the reckoning. There are some brilliant goals capped by fine finishes in the 20 but, in the vast majority of selections, the peak of the move is the assist. Only for David Beckham’s chip against Birmingham, plus volleys from Paul Scholes and Robin van Persie, is there a compelling case that the finish is equal to or greater than the preceding pass. 

While preparatory brilliance is a major factor in the ranking process, the key quality of an assist is how simple it renders the finish. Which is why, when it came to picking a winner, Dimitar Berbatov was a shoo-in. There are no right or wrong answers in these subjective lists (where was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sensational spadework against Newcastle in 2002? Why no Beckham wing-wizardry?), but Berba’s mind-blowing work against West Ham felt unopposed despite such sterling competition.

Not only did the Bulgarian perform an audacious piece of skill to fashion space; he then perfectly threaded the needle to give Cristiano Ronaldo a three-yard tap-in without the Portuguese ever breaking stride. All in all, it’s deservedly the outstanding example in United’s Premier League history of a goal best remembered more for the assist than the finish.

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