Edwin van der Sar is the pick of the crop at Manchester United now. But who was better? Him or Peter Schmeichel?

Kelvin Leong looks at both players' game to see who was the true legend between the sticks for the Red Devils.

Click here for photogallery

Playing Style

Van der Sar

The ‘Ice Rabbit' does not command his box nor defenders.

He plays the role of a keeper well, but all too often the marshalling of United's defence is left to Nemanja Vidic or Rio Ferdinand.

Great shot-stopper who hardly gets beaten by crosses and corner-kicks.

Schmeichel

The ‘Great Dane' is, and probably will always be, best remembered for his star-jump which made the already huge physical frame of his look even bigger in one-on-one situations and for penalty kicks.

One of the most vocal keepers of all time, he could always be seen yelling and shouting at his defenders when errors were made.

Another aspect of his game which makes him a United legend is his uncanny ability to score goals and cause chaos in opposing defences when the need arises.

Verdict - Van der Sar 0 Schmeichel 1

Experience

Van der Sar

The Dutch keeper walked into United with a bucket-load of European experience from his time with Eredevisie giants Ajax and Italian outfit Juventus.

He won the Champions League with Ajax, and represented Juventus in the Champions League for many seasons.

What proved crucial however, was his move to Fulham. That got him used to the English game, and by the time he moved to United he hit the ground running to become an instant success.

Schmeichel

Schmeichel joined United after spending his early years playing for Danish clubs Gladsaxe-Hero, Hvidovre IF and Brondby.

He tasted European action for the first time with Brondby in the UEFA Cup but other than that, he was facing second-class strikers in a lower league.

To have moved to a club of United's status and make the No.1 jersey his own instantly was a great feat.

But it might be noteworthy to state that the Red Devils only achieved European success (1999 Champions League winners) in his final season when he was 35.

Verdict - Van der Sar 1 Schmeichel 1

Clean Sheets

Van der Sar

With his clean sheet against Fulham, van der Sar now holds the Premier League record for the most number of consecutive clean sheets - 14.

He also holds the English league record of most minutes without conceding a goal, overtaking Steve Death's previous record of 1103 by a long mile.

The Dutchman's record now stands at 1302 minutes which also gives him the single-season world record previously set by Jose Maria Buljubasich in the Chilean Clausura back in 2005.

Schmeichel

Planet football's younger fans will look at van der Sar's record and think that he is the best goalkeeper when it comes to clean sheet stats.

However, prior to Van der Sar's feat, it was not until 2005 that Chelsea's Petr Cech beat Schmeichel's 10 consecutive league clean sheets record. A whole six years after Schmeichel set the record.

But two records still remain with the Great Dane.

He is the record holder for most number of clean sheets in the top flight with 176 clean sheets in 388 appearances.

That gives him a 42 percent clean sheets-to-games ratio which means he is still the record-holder when it comes to clean sheets-to-games ratio.

Verdict - Van der Sar 1 Schmeichel 2

Trophy Haul

Van der Sar
Premier League - 2
UEFA Champions League - 1
League Cup - 1

Schmeichel
Premier League - 5
UEFA Champions League - 1
League Cup - 1
FA Cup - 3

Verdict - van der Sar 1 Schmeichel 3

And the winner is?

Send your comments to streettalk@espnstar.com