Lindegaard – Didn’t have a chance to do anything with the goals. Just a bad day at the office for him today. 5
Rafael – Pushed up and joined the attacks when possible but his crossing was off. 5
Rio – Unable to keep up with the pace of the Spurs attack. Was unable to command the defence. 5
Evans – Poor when defending against all three goals. Failed to link up with the midfield when attacking as well. 5
Evra – Could’ve been worse I guess. 5
Nani – Took his goal well but still very frustrating to watch. Needs to pull his finger out now with Valencia and Young both injured. 6
Carrick – Might as well have pulled out a cigar and started smoking in the first half. Virtually invisible, and barely improved in the second half either. 5
Scholes – Took him 45 minutes to get going but once he did, he was untouchable. Sprayed the ball all over the pitch like he was some 10 years younger. Legend. 8
Giggs – What is Ferguson doing to Ryan? How was he expected to keep up with arguably the fastest team in the league with Lennon and Bale. 3
Kagawa – Started to play his one-touch football in the second half and scored a beauty. Needs to get involved earlier on though. 6
Van Persie – Little service, but didn’t work hard enough to link up with the midfield either. Wasted whatever came his way as well. 5
Subs:
Rooney – Game changer. Brought some much needed speed and urgency to our play. 8
Welbeck – Expected him to do a bit better when he came on in terms of creating space for others with his usual runs. 6
Hernandez – Brought on with two minutes to go to get us a winner. Nice one, Fergie.
Fergie doesn’t get a rating? The manager deserves a 0 for undermining the team’s chances via his increasingly conservative approach to team selection, most notably in selecting Giggs and Scholes as starters. This is not a man who gives a crap about the future, otherwise he’d be harking back to his early days by giving youth its head and playing the likes of Cleverly and possibly Anderson. As soon as I saw the team sheet I knew were were going to have a bad day at the office, and with Fergie looking increasingly to shore up his legacy prior to retiring, rather than the future of the team, I see little chance for success this year, and today’s result bore that out. If we can play like that at home, what chance does United have on the road against the better teams?
This is a team in need of a clean-out, starting with a manager who has stayed on a few seasons too long and is clearly making the same mistakes that Busby made towards the end of his tenure as manager at United.
To touch on Nani, he is one of the few creative forces at the club capabale of being a game-breaker, and while his efforts today were a little mixed, the fact is that he’s a far better option for United against better teams than Valencia, who is very one dimensional and increasingly predictable. Nani would benefit from a regular stint on the right without constantly having to look over his shoulder, because he’s a confidence player who simply needs to feel the love to shine. When on song the guy is almost unstoppable and unplayable, and it’s a sad indictment on the state of things at United that he hasn’t been given the time to really establish himself in the way Ronaldo was given his head early on.
Well written, well reasoned, and inarguable. Top post!
Add one to Giggs for a 4 and take one away from Welbeck for a 5 and you’ve gotten it right.
While Giggs the legend might have been disappointing, he didn’t score an own goal, prevent a goal going in, etc. He just wasn’t that good. 4.
Welbeck the promising young man of the future hasn’t scored in his last what….8 appearances for the club? He’s a solid 5. Busy but ineffective. No goals, no assists, good effort. 5.
I knew, from the onset, that Giggs would be a waste in this game. How could Fergie match Giggs with Dembele and Sandro when he could have started Anderson or Fletcher and Rooney to compliment Scholes and VanP respectively? What’s that old man still doing with United self? It’s a shame that for the past 10yrs that Ferguson is still yet to get a full time replacements for Giggs and Scholes rather he keeps calling them up on big games despite their senile ages. Does Fergie need an added lens to know that Carrick is not a defensive midfielder? So sorry to state that United has no serious stake in this EPL…this is just skirmishes cos we have not played the likes of City, Chesea n Arsenal. We’ll end up chasing shadows this season again. So sad!!!
With all due respect, Giggs should retire, Carrick be sold out.
Oh Scholes are you a god in disguise?!
fergie 0.what is wrong with this old man.phelan -1m.shit assistant.
Keep it up, red devils. Come december 8th, city is going to tear us apart. Again.
We could beat city if Fergie realizes (which he won’t) that Giggs should have retired last season. Also that De Gea is better than Lindegaard and cleverly-ando should start over Scholes-Carrick and why not give brady a shot as a LM
let us hope so. i don’t think he learned anything from last season. I pray that i’m wrong. United til I die.
It was clearly a mistake to play Scholes, Giggs and Carrick together, and its not the first time Fergie has done this in big games. However, when we lost 6-1 against City none of these three were playing so although I disagree with the boss in playing all three at the same time I wonder if this influenced Fergie?
I thought Evra was much better than a 5/10 in this game. The pullbacks pushing higher up and making the game more compact was the main reason we dominated the 2nd half. I would like to see the back four pushing up a lot more, they have to do this if you’re playing with both Scholes and Carrick and no other defensive cover.
Average midfield age of 110 years, same as last week against L?pool they tore us apart first half and could have been 2 up. I think Fergie and Phelan are living off their past. I hope Fergie calls it a day at the end of the season and he can retire with his pride still intact. I thought Kagawa second half was the only player who seemed to be able to wriggle past their defence scoring one and could have had a penalty. I was supprised when he was taken off for Welbeck. who would have been better replacing Nani.