3 best partnerships for Manchester United in the Premier League era

#3 Attack- Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo

Many opposition defences would have had nightmares about facing these two

Manchester United have had many great attacking players throughout the Premier League era but Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo have to be at the top of the list, because of their individual achievements for United and the success of their partnership.

Ronaldo, of course, needs no introduction, going on to who many consider to still be the best player in the world. Though Rooney has been criticised for not fulfilling his potential, becoming United and England's all-time top goalscorers means there can be no questioning his ability.

Though Ronaldo joined United in 2003 and Rooney a year later in 2004, their partnership really only started to blossom from the 2006/07 season. By then, Ruud Van Nistelrooy had left (as did the over-reliance on him) and Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had both succumbed to injury.

At the start of the 06/07 season, Ronaldo was 21 and Rooney was only 20 and what followed over the next 3 seasons was magic as United took 3 successive Premier League titles by playing true, dynamic attacking football as has always been the United way.

Naturally, Rooney and Ronaldo were at the heart of this improvement, with perhaps Ronaldo being the more dominant of the two over the three years. They both finished with 23 goals in the 06/07 season before Ronaldo went to a whole new level scoring 42 goals in the 07/08 season with Rooney again netting around 20.

In Ronaldo's final season at United before joining Real Madrid he was again top scorer, though this time with a comparatively modest 26 goals.

Perhaps the only criticism of this partnership was that whilst Ronaldo thrived, Rooney suffered. Such was Ronaldo's dominance at United, Rooney was even farmed out to the left wing at times during the 2008/09 season to accommodate Ronaldo.

Indeed in the three seasons after Ronaldo left, Rooney netted his 2 best season tallies for United- 34 in 2009/10 and 2011/12 though curiously in both seasons United finished 2nd and missed out on the Premier League.

Nevertheless, Rooney and Ronaldo can go down as one of the best-attacking partnerships of all time for any club, not just United.