NI v Denmark(20/11/2023)

PHIL GRAY’S BEST XI

Andy Greeves invites former Northern Ireland internationals to choose their best 11. The line-up can include players past and present and not necessarily former team-mates. Here Phil Gray chooses his squad…

GK – SHAY GIVEN I’ve played with some fantastic goalkeepers during my career, including Ray Clemence in a few reserve games for Tottenham. But the season we got promoted (to the Premier League) with Sunderland (1995-96), Shay Given came in on loan and he was absolutely incredible. LB – MICKY GRAY Pat Van Den Hauwe and Chris Hughton would be good shouts for the left-back spot, but I only played a few games with them at Tottenham. So I’m going to choose Micky Gray from my time at Sunderland. He was a typical modern full-back: good defensively but also great joining in the attacks. CB – ALAN McDONALD ‘Big Mac’ was immense for Northern Ireland. Fantastic in the air, a good tackler… he really was the perfect centre back. I played with some other fantastic centre-backs during my career like Kevin Ball but Big Mac gets the slot in my team. CB – ANDY MELVILLE I played with Andy Melville at Sunderland. Andy won 65 caps for Wales and I’d choose him as he’d complement Big Mac so well in defence. Mac was a defender who would look to be first to the ball, whereas Andy would drop off and was a ball-playing centre back. RB – MAL DONAGHY This is another position where I played with some top players during my career like Danny Thomas and Gary Stevens. But I’m going to go with Mal, who played right back for Northern Ireland a few times when I was in the team. His reading of the game

CM – PAUL GASCOIGNE Gazza is probably the easiest pick for this team. Technically the most gifted footballer I ever played with. He has to be in there. CM – MARK VAN BOMMEL I played for a Dutch side called Fortuna Sittard during my career and they had some very good players at the time like Fernando Ricksen and Patrick Paauwe. I also played with Mark van Bommel there – an excellent midfielder who was a regular in the Dutch national team for over 10 years and won major trophies with PSV, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and AC Milan. RM – KEITH GILLESPIE Keith was a magnificent player. He was a dream for a centre forward. His pace and delivery were exceptional. He’d keep it simple, get his head down, get past his player and cross it in. He created so many goals as a result. FW – DAVID HEALY David has to be included for goalscoring, particularly for the national team. He’s obviously a legend in Northern Ireland and a natural finisher. FW – GARY LINEKER As one of the most prolific goalscorers in English football history, Gary Lineker has to be in my team. An out-and-out goalscorer and the sort of forward any team would want. SUBS ERIK THORSTVEDT – A great goalkeeper for Spurs while I was there. KEVIN BALL – Kevin was a leader and a great defender. GARY STEVENS – An England international defender who I played with at Spur s. DANNY THOMAS – Another great player during my time at Spurs. PAUL WALSH – But for Healy and Lineker, Walsh would have got the nod as a forward in my team.

was second to none. LM – CHRIS WADDLE

Chris Waddle was a fantastic player who I had the good fortune to play with at Tottenham. He was great with the ball at his feet. He would run at you and you’d know exactly what he was going to do, but you just couldn’t stop him.

IRISHFA.COM

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