EPL dream team: The best of Manchester reserves

OCT 29 The inspiration for this article comes from a Tottenham Hotspur fan in Malaysia. During an online chat session on a Spurs supporters website, this fan, who carried the online moniker St Helder, drew attention to both the Manchester clubs reserves bench during their big clash at Old Trafford last Sunday.

He suggested that the Manchester United and Manchester City benches would make a formidable team by themselves and that such a combined team could make a strong challenge in the Premiership too.

And why not? After all, the calibre of both teams multi-million pound reserve players will be enough to shake up the English Premier League (EPL) and even take on the likes of Chelsea, let alone the rest of the Premiership.

Uniteds reserve team goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard has proven that he has the quality and ability to challenge first-choice David de Gea for a spot between the posts and is even comparable to Citys Joe Hart.

He has already played in several matches in the Champions League this season and might even resent being only a reserve goalkeeper over time and come to regret not moving for more regular football elsewhere.

At centreback, Argentinas Pablo Zabaleta has become a personal favourite of mine because the South American nation has a tradition of producing quality defenders.

He is clean and solidly effective in the way he covers at the back. Additionally, he likes to do overlapping runs to help out in attack and definitely is a player with a strong winning mentality and spirit within him.

Also on the bench in last Sundays Manchester derby was Alexandar Kolarov. The Serbian is a doggedly persistent defender while also possessing a strong left foot, especially when taking free kicks.

The pair of Phil Jones and Kolo Toure in the centre of defence makes for an ideal partnership as it is a combination of a young up-and-coming player with an experienced player who has won the league before while playing for Arsenal.

Jones is a player w! ith flai r and stylish control of the ball despite being a defender. He is also bold enough to go on the offensive.

Toure, on the other hand, was a pillar at the heart of the City defence before he was suspended from playing for allegedly consuming a banned substance, said to be a performance-enhancing drug. He still hasnt reclaimed his place in the first team since returning from the ban.

Such a line of defence comprising Toure, Jones, Kolarov and Zabaleta will be difficult to be breached by any team in Europe, let alone the EPL.

In midfield, having a world-class player such as Nigel de Jong as a defensive midfielder, supported by Park Ji-sung on the left wing and Antonio Valencia on the right wing is a dream line-up for me.

Then, if we add the agile Samir Nasri as a playmaker, this team will be strengthened simply by having one of the best players in the world as its mastermind pulling the strings from the middle of the pitch.

In attack, strikers Javier Hernandez and Edin Dzeko will bring different qualities to every game but combined, they will pose a variety of problems to opponents.

Hernandez has his quick runs to find space and create danger while Dzeko, as targetman, will simply produce goals from any corner of the world.

To summarise, the starting line-up for this totally hypothetical Manchester Ci-nited team of second stringers could be as follows in the 4-3-1-2 formation: Lindegaard; Zabaleta, Jones, Toure, Kolarov; Valencia, de Jong, Ji Sung; Nasri; Dzeko, Hernandez.

Such a team is more than capable of having a shot at the EPL title... provided no one gets injured of course.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.