Do you agree with former Welsh international and S4C football pundit Malcolm Allen's best team ever?

In the eighties and up until the mid-nineties, I had the privilege of playing with some great players, some who may have been the best in the world in their position, at the time – and I count myself very lucky.

This is the best team of players that I have been fortunate enough to be on the same team as. I will try my best to make you feel the emotions I felt in sharing the pitch with them, and to give an insight into each of these stars’ personalities and characters and explain why they are in my best ever team.

My system for the team will be a 4-4-2, the most successful shape of that time.

At times, I think football clubs have forgotten how effective this formation can be, a great way to attack and defend in numbers.

With Kevin Keegan as my top boss, I’m sure this squad would have won the Premiership over and over again, and how lucky I was to have played with them.

Keegan was awesome saying: “Go and excite the fans, go and entertain them. Show everyone how good you are!”

He would make every player feel this way. He is a man’s man and as honest as they come. A great person firstly, who became a great player and then a highly respected manager.

1. NEVILLE SOUTHALL: He was one of the best readers of dangerous situations. He didn’t need to make it look spectacular. He kept his nerve better than anyone in the one v one psychological battles with forwards and was an inspiration to those in front of him and never left a doubt in the air for confusion.

If he shouted, ‘GOALKEEPER’S’ everyone would move out of his way. The best goalkeeper in the world during my playing days.

2. DAVID PHILLIPS: He was as good with his left foot as he was with his right. Dave rarely gave the ball away and never seemed to be in a rush.

He didn’t clear the ball out of defence, he always passed it, and more times than not, he found his target. Always played a 100 per cent ball to your strengths, never a 50/50 ball. You could always rely on him - a manager’s dream.

3. JOEY JONES: As a youngster being called up to the international squad at 18 years old, and obviously being from North Wales, I’d heard a lot about Joey Jones. What I didn’t know about him is that he was – and still is – a born leader. He took me under his wing and was like a father figure to me.

Joey has a degree in people, and that is an attribute that comes naturally to him. He told me at the start of my career, “never give anything less than 100 per cent effort – those people who have paid to watch you deserve that.”

4. KEVIN RATCLIFFE: Kev was the best player at getting in your head during a game. He would say, “bad touch there Mal,” or “bad pass” – he was a genius at mind games. But no one can forget how quick Kev was at covering danger, and he always got the players back into their shape as soon as we lost possession.

5. MICK MCCARTHY: He could turn 80-20 situations against him to win the ball, such was his will to win – and of course still is! Mick would never let any player shirk their responsibility for the team.

6. GARY SPEED: He was a manager on the pitch. If the tactics weren’t going as planned, he would improvise and would not be afraid to change things around and explain to the manager why he did it.

He always put himself through an extra session at the end of training.

7. PETER BEARDSLEY: He always encouraged me to turn with my first touch rather than just to control it, to always have the ball moving and make it hard for defenders to nick it from you.

The most difficult pass is the one that counts, the one that hurts the opposition, and Peter didn’t just see that pass, he would produce the perfectly-weighted pass to put you through on goal time and time again.

8. IAN CROOK: In my two years at Norwich City, I played with this maverick of a player. He was instrumental in Norwich City’s success in the late 90’s and getting the Canaries into Europe.

9. IAN RUSH: Ruthless is the word that sums up Rushie. He passed, volleyed, curled, chipped and headed in a split second to be able to score so many goals. “The goalposts never move”, are the words he said to me, “you just sense in the back of your head where they are”. Best striker of all time.

10. TEDDY SHERINGHAM: Even though Ted was the slowest professional footballer I’ve ever worked with, he always used to say, “You’re only as quick as you think,” – hence, Mr Anticipation. Defenders react to what the forward anticipates, and there is only a second’s difference - but that’s all he needed to put the ball in the back of the net.

11. JOHN BARNES: So we’ve got the mental strength, the big characters, the flair, the clinical strikers in front of goal, and then you had Digger – John Barnes.

You could not read what he was going to do next and he always produced an end product.

The best I’ve ever played with, he was nothing short of special. You couldn’t get the ball off him, even when he was in a telephone box!

Substitutes: Phillip Albert, Andy Cole, Les Ferdinand, Tim Sherwood, Ryan Giggs.

Malcolm Allen is a part of S4C’s Sgorio team. Sgorio is replaying some of Wales’ most memorable matches from the last two years on Saturday nights, on S4C. This week, Slovakia v Wales will be shown at 5.30pm on Saturday.

For the latest from the world of Welsh football, follow @sgorio and @S4Cchwaraeon on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.