Manchester United

Gary Neville names Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole as Man Utd's best strike force

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 28 March 2020

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville names Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole as the best strike partnership he played with during his 19 years at the club.

Former Manchester United full-back Gary Neville has named Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole as the best strike partnership he played with during his time at the club.

Neville spent 19 years in the United first team from 1992 to 2011 and played with a number of forwards considered to be among the best in Premier League history, including Eric Cantona, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez.

However, when asked to pick his best striking duo, Neville went for the 1999 treble-winning pair, who scored 53 goals between them in that season alone.

"I don't think they really hit it off to start with in memory. I think it took like 10 or 15 games for them to get together. Leicester away sticks in my mind where they both played together and something happened that day," Neville told Sky Sports News.

"Then I think they started socialising together, getting on with each other. There was a respect between each other. The thing was about those two they didn't mind which one of them scored, and I think that's unique because when you've got a goalscorer like Cole, or players like Ruud van Nistelrooy or Michael Owen, it's always sort of the goalscorer needs to score for them to be happy.

"But actually with Coley and Yorkey they got to the point whereby they didn't care if either of them scored, they were both happy with each other. Dwight Yorke, he was an unbelievable player, he could do all things, score goals, set up play, run in behind, dribble, bring other people into play. He was the all-round centre-forward.

"When I first came into the team it was [Eric] Cantona and [Mark] Hughes, then that period we had Yorke and Cole, and Teddy [Sheringham] and Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer], then it went into Ruud, and then Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez who were sensational as well. I'd probably say Yorke and Cole [were the best] just for that season where they were just absolutely sensational, the way they played together they just lit up the whole league, lit up Europe."

Yorke and Cole scored a total of 119 goals for United during their time together at the club.