Date: 13th April 2015 at 2:00am
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United’s two best performers on the day…

United bossed the derby with the ease of a team high on confidence, playing a side completely bereft of it, as the Reds moved a step closer to finishing above City in the table.

Here’s how the United side fared against our derby rivals:

David De Gea- forget Manuel Neuer- the young Spaniard is a real sweeper type goalkeeper and helped create United’s opener as well as preventing City getting a foothold in the game. 7/10

Antonio Valencia. The Ecuadorian had his best game in months and despite the odd positional lapse, more than made up for it with his pace and strength. 8/10.

Phil Jones. The biggest fear for many Reds was the former Blackburn defender ‘having one’ but he barely put a foot wrong. 7/10.

Chris Smalling. Assured performance from the one British defender United should definitely keep next season. 8/10.

Daley Blind. What he lacks in pace, the Dutchman makes up for with effort and his reading of the game, was caught out once early on but more than made up for it. 7/10.

Michael Carrick. Forget Toure, forget Nemanja Matic and Santi Cazorla, Carrick is the best defensive midfielder in the league by a country mile and it showed today. 9/10.

Marouane Fellaini. All is well and truly forgiven after a shoddy start to his United career, was immense against City and gave their midfield nightmares. 9/10.

Ander Herrera. We’ve missed a player like Herrera for years, he perfectly compliments Carrick and allows the likes of Mata and Fellaini to get forward. Was his usual energetic self against City. 7/10.

Juan Mata. Not as dominant as he has been in recent games but still very effective and took his goal superbly. 7/10.

Ashley Young. Fantastic performance by a player who’s always deserved more credit – or at least less stick- and has blossomed under Van Gaal. 9/10. MOTM.

Wayne Rooney. Huffed and puffed without creating much, but he at least showed energy and determination. 6/10.

Subs. Marcos Rojo for Jones. Did okay for his 15 minute cameo. 6/10.

Radamel Falcao for Fellaini. Tried to create something but was hampered when United went down to ten men. 6/10.

Angel Di Maria for Mata. Ran at the City defence a few times but couldn’t quite make something happen. 6/10.

 

One response to “Player Ratings: United 4 City 2 Dominant Day For Reds”

  1. lununcle says:

    Full of praise for Man U players….

    What Can I say about Herrera and Mata!! What a star Herrera was and I think he ran the show in the Man U mid-field. He is involved in almost all the ttacking moves Man U has. Man U benefits so much with Herrera playing alongside Mata and their clever positional play. So glad that these Spanish players have finally won the trust of Van Gaal. I thought Mata did superbly with his clever passes which have led to goal-scoring opportunities (not just for himself but also for his team-mates). He took his goal very well recently (vs Liverpool and Man C). He is calm when facing the goal keeper. I think he deserves at least 7.5 (if not 8).

    I have always wanted Falcao to score for Man U as I truly believe his class but for some reasons he has not been able to reproduce his goal-scoring form that we saw so often before his arrival at Old Trafford. With Rooney’s good form, Falcao’s opportunity will be very limited. I think everyone has to start right from the kick-off allowing himself more time to gel with the team in order play well. Unfortunately, he has only been given the last 20 minutes to run around when the game has already been wrapped up and Man U starts to sit back….i think he will not be playing for Man U next season.

    Young fully deserved his credit with the goal and assists and his work-rate on the left. I also like watching Blind on the left back position. I know he is slow but he links up so well with Young on the left hand-side (not just in the Manchester Derby, but also in the Liverpool and Villa game as well) and that’s why I am too keen on having Shaw back from injury.

    When the season began, Blind did well in the defensive midfield position, calmly protecting the back 4 behind him. So happen when Shaw was injured, Blind had to be deployed as a left back (which is a position no stranger to him). We did not have anyone who is comfortable playing in front of the back 4 like Blind did. We tried Jones before. He did ok defensively but his passes also disappointed his team-mates [and himself as well, : ( ]…….. here it comes Carrick back from injury just at the right time. And that’s probably the moment when Van Gaal began to figure out his best formation for Man U. Unlike few years back, Carrick has now become more mature and calm with composure and he seldom makes silly mistake in his own half and he also manages to find himself in those positions where he can either pass to his attacking team-mates or he can even score goal for himself. I think Man U would have looked differently without his presence and he is my Man of the Match.

    Jones and Smalling did ok together and they are beginning to play with composure but I don’t think we have solved our defence yet and Van Gaal will have some work to do in the summer. I think we can forget about Jonny Evans (I prefer O’shea who was sold few years ago to Sunderland but obvioucly I think O’shea is better than Evans by a million miles). Rojo? Expensive but still needs to prove his worth under a Man U shirt.

    Another player I want mention is Valencia. This game can easily be the best game he has ever played for Man U, as a right back. Whenever he has the ball at his feet, he constantly look for Mata who would run cleverly to receive the ball from him. He did not make many mistakes and he looks comfortable there. Never try anything risky, just does his job properly. Quiet and reliable.

    Rooney, after his goal of the season against Liverpool last week, he was relatively quiet in the Derby game. Doesn’t mean that he played badly. To the contrary, his assist to Mata’s goal was superb, despite looks fractionally off-side. Always very difficult for the linesmen to spot it. Well, I am not too fuss about this.

    Felleinni? I have written him off last season and I was not impressed that he was not sold earlier…but I just cannot believe how well he plays in recent games for Man U. Still lack of skill and control, his physical presence is something defenders hate to deal with. His built means he is good in the air (leading to his goal yesterday for United). I still don’t believe he is upto the Man U class, but he is becoming one of the key players Van Gaal relies upon in re-building the Man U in the post Ferguson era.