Manchester United supporters fortunate enough to witness the great teams of the 1990s and 2000s have seen many great players represent the club.
One of these was academy graduate Paul Scholes, revered by many as the best midfielder of his era.
Scholes ended his Manchester United career with two Champions League wins and a staggering 11 Premier League titles.
A club legend in his own right, Scholes was even picked out by Sir Bobby Charlton as his favourite Manchester United player of the modern era.
Paul Scholes had a tremendous scoring record
Paul Scholes is one of Manchester United’s highest appearance makers of all time, with 718 in total.
The England ace was also a regular source of goals from midfield, currently ranking 10th overall in the all-time rankings with 155. That’s more than Cristiano Ronaldo, although 98 short of Wayne Rooney‘s tally.
Scholes’ best ever season came in 2002/03 when he netted 20 goals in all competitions from midfield, helping Manchester United to reclaim the Premier League title.
His most famous goal was the long-range semi-final strike against Barcelona in 2008, the winner across a tight two-legged tie, which saw United go on to win the Champions League that season.
The team Paul Scholes scored most against
There was one team Paul Scholes had a particular knack for scoring goals against, and this was Newcastle United.
Scholes netted against them in the 1999 FA Cup final at Wembley, as part of the Treble, and also scored a memorable hat-trick against them in a 6-2 win in 2002/03.
In total Scholes scored 11 goals in 30 matches against Newcastle, more than he managed against any other club in his career.
Here is a breakdown of the top 10 teams Scholes scored goals past most regularly…
- 11: Newcastle
- 10: Blackburn Rovers
- 8: West Ham, Bolton Wanderers
- 7: Manchester City
- 6: Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, Southampton
- 5: Coventry City
The team Paul Scholes never managed to net against
There was one Premier League team that Paul Scholes faced more than 10 times that he could not manage to score goals against during his career.
This was Leicester City, who he went up against 15 times in total. Manchester United won nine of those games, drawing four, and losing two.
But when it came to finding the net, it didn’t quite happen for him in these games, despite the score lines including a 4-0 win and a 4-1 win. For United’s biggest win over the Foxes during this era, a 6-2 win in 1999, Scholes was an unused substitute.
If looking at a smaller sample size, there was one other top flight team Scholes didn’t score against, Stoke City. He faced them six times at the tail end of his career, winning all six games, without netting.
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