De Gea – Probably could have done a little bit better for the first goal but although he conceded two, he didn’t have much to do. Did well to save a near post early on. 6
Rafael – Always looked to push up and support the attack. Had little to do in terms of defending. 6
Rio – Disappointing to say the least. Nowhere to be found for the second goal. Should have commanded the box better for the first. 5
Evans – Impressed in midweek and carried on his fine form with another good performance. Always involved with the midfield. 6
Evra – Don’t know what more to say about him. His form really is dangerous to the team. For every one good performance, he puts in another 2 or 3 woeful ones. 3
Valencia- Knocked in a few good crosses and set up RvP for United’s second. He’s most effective when he’s direct rather than when he lingers on the ball. 7
Carrick – Kept the ball away from the Stoke midfield and allowed us to dominate the midfield in the second half. 7
Scholes – Failed to establish his dominance early on in the game and nearly saw red for two silly tackles. Substituted before he was sent off. 5
Rooney – Conceded a comical own goal but pushed on and showed real passion to get us back into the match. Developing a healthy relationship with his striking partners. 8
Van Persie – He doesn’t mess about, does he? He said he wanted more assists and be did just that. He also scored a clinical strikers goal just before half time. What a buy. 7.5
Welbeck – Always works hard for the team and finally has a goal to show for it. Needs to work on his dribbling and his shooting to really reach world class standards. 6
Subs:
Anderson – Kept the ship steady and filled in the gaps in midfield. 6
Nani – Nearly scored a goal. 6
Hernandez – Although he was only on for a short period of time, he was very impressive with his holding up play and his passing. 7
Enough has already been said about the rating for Evra – a joke!
Rooney may well have put two goals away and registered an assist, but he conceded a goal of epically stupid proportions (what was he thinking – trying to head it to De Gea at point blank range?) and both goals were nothing efforts right in front of goal (the only guaranteed method of seeing him slot the ball away) that came from sheer dumb luck, not class – as per usual when Rooney scores, both goals were stellar examples of Rooney’s inability to make goals for himself. As for his assist, it was actually a really poor effort, and only came down to the fact that Wellbeck put in a fine effort to dive forward and low to get his head on the ball. Throw in his laughable attempts to beat players one-on-one, which saw him dispossessed on a few occasions, plus his usual wayward or innocuous passing, and basically he had a pretty average game. Giving Rooney a higher rating than Van Persie was a bit of a joke – the Dutchman’s fine assist, plus his clinical finish, certainly gave him an edge over the Englishman.
Also, the rating for Valencia was silly. His crossing was abysmal at times, especially in the first half, and he’s definitely showing signs of being a one-trick pony who defenses are finding easier and easier to shut down.
I respect and understand Rio’s stance but I disagree with him. We now all know that racism has crept back into the game and has to be kicked out again. Rio is right that this isn’t being done quickly enough but the answer is not to withdraw from the campaign. Instead he and others should be working with the wider anti racist movement to ensure that we stamp out racism in the whole of society as well as in football.