De Gea – Can’t see how people are blaming him for the first goal since his view was severely restricted. He’s grown a lot too, as shown by how well he handled the aerial bombardment of his box in the last 10 minutes. 7
Rafael – Worked his socks off to add an attacking threat from the right hand side. Caught out of position for their first goal though. Mixed performance. 6
Ferdinand – Lacked leadership when commanding the defence and looked lost at times. Not a good enough performance for someone with his experience and ability. 6
Smalling – Weak, slow and easily beaten all too often. It was expected though as he’s been out for a long while and will need time to find his form. A fantastic defender nonetheless. 5
Evra – Another great performance by the captain. I’m beginning to wonder whether we’re finally seeing the Patrice Evra of old. 7
Valencia- Painful to watch at times. I don’t understand how a Premier League footballer on his salary can get away with being as one-footed as he is. Runs, stops and passes back to the defence. Worryingly predictable with his play. 4
Carrick – Failed to set the tempo against a relatively weak midfield and was neither able to add an attacking threat to our play, nor provide protection to our defence. 5
Scholes – Struggled to keep up with the pace of the game and lost the ball all too often, but even then provide a moment of magic to set up our first. A great spark to have in our squad. 6
Rooney – All over the place in the first half as he misplaced pass after pass. Improved as the game wore on but even then you’d expect more from him. Always trying to ‘force the ball’ with his passes. 6
Young – Taken off at half-time after a lacklustre 45 minute cameo. Again, he was too predictable with his play by cutting in and crossing the ball with his right foot all too often. 5
Van Persie – Saw little of the ball but when he did, you simply knew he was capable of making something happen. The definition of the word ‘talisman’. 7
Subs:
Hernandez – What a turn around for the young boy. Only a few weeks ago there were fans calling for his head yet now he can’t stop scoring. Enthusiastic, sharp and clinical with his finishing. His off-the-ball play was world class. 9
Cleverely – Helped us keep the ball when our midfield turned sloppy. 6
Anderson – Added some much needed energy to the midfield. 6
(A lot of people tend to comment on these posts but I’m unable to respond to them via mobile. If you want, feel free to tweet me @Nashat_Hassan so I can answer your questions or reply to you comments. Thanks)
Carrick was a 1 or less. A total waste of space. Slowed us down, couldn’t pass or shoot. I don’t understand what people see in him.
Nice to see someone else finally figure how one-dimensional Valencia truly is. All he has is his pace, the step inside, and the predictable and often wayward cross. One of the key reasons United lost the race home late last season is that the team, bereft of any real attacking threat through the middle, became extremely predictable via their wing play, especially through the manner in which they channeled the ball up the right via Valencia. The further the season wore on, the more predictable this play became, and defenses started reading it better, realized how much United were focusing their attack on the right – and shut them down. That’s how we blew a nine point lead with only a handful of games left.
Yet will Fergie play Nani? No. Fergie has taken arguably the best and most creative attacking talent we have in the Portuguese player, ruined his confidence, and left him second-guessing his own abilities. Does Nani make poor decisions, turn the ball over, and put on errant passes? Sure. So does Rooney – ALL THE TIME – yet the Englishman rarely if ever gets called for his crappy play, while all people do is focus on Nani’s negative play. Creatively Nani is head and shoulders above not only Rooney, but any of the other wingers at United. He’s one of ht every few players on the team with the ability to leave defenses second guessing his play because he has so many attacking strings to his bow. He can jink past players, dribble effortlessly past them off either foot, cut through on pace, or lay on a superb pass. What do the team do instead? Play Valencia, who seems just as mistake-prone of late, yet offers very little by comparison in attack, particularly to a team that entirely lacking in creativity or ideas in the final third of the pitch.
It’s a sad indictment of the game in England today, and of how far removed Fergie is from the days when he’d give youth and talent its head, that Nani is seeing so little playing time. The same could be said of Berbatov in his final 18 months at United. Nani is worth far far more in attack than his occasional liabilities, and he’d be a standout player in just about any major team in Europe other than in the UK.
As for the midfield today, it was woeful. Scholes should be kept back for second-half cameos, while Carrick has been round long enough now to show that he’s never going to get any better and is far too inclined to go missing in games where opposing midfields press. Neither player offered much protection to the back four, and the fact is United still lack someone to add some steel to the middle of the pitch. Fergie should just bite the bullet and try and give Cleverly and Anderson some time together in the middle, especially as the latter looks like he could use the conditioning.
Finally, Smalling needs to get his game in order, because his play today was abysmal. He can at least be partially excused on the basis that he’s coming back from injury.
It’s far too critical to point out the weakness of both wings for United against Villa. Fergie once said that, Young is one of the best crosser of football but evidently it wasn’t that against Villa nor Valencia did anything by his standard. Perhaps, his travelling back from Portugal did have some jet lagged on both Young and Valencia. If it wasn’t for Nani’s injury, i wonder how would the team look or would Fergie throw Nani on Young or remove Valencia for Nani? I won’t understand how would it look if Nani was fit?…. I don’t know why those vocal fans never highlight the fact that Young’s and Valencia’s wasn’t up to standard? If it was Nani, twitter would be bombarded with criticism of his performance but where are those criticism now?… Be honest and just when criticising don’t for the sake of it.
fuck you.gave smalling a 5?didn’t you watch the game???he won every header.solid perfomance.yes,easily beaten off for the first goal,but overall perfomance is good.if you dont know how to rate people,then dont.
I agree with the mark for Valencia, when will he put the ball over first time like Beckham did instead of trying to pass all the time. I thought Scholes deserved the same mark. He left the middle wide open causing the full backs to come in to cover for him therefore leaving space out wide which they took. Until Fergie realises that Scholes and Giggs are past their sell by date and should only play the last 20 minutes and that is if we are winning. I think Fergie should also give King a chance on the wing, also Petrucci
Can I just say that ever since Valencia took the number 7 shirt he thinks he is a lot better player than he is. Since wearing the shirt he has gone downhill, Give the 7 shirt to Van Persie. When United show on MUTV famous players who wore the number 7 shirt will they give Valencia a miss.
Valencia wasn’t that bad. He had loads of crosses in the box, while running around the LB, and faking a run, just to pass in in front of the LB.
Predictable – yes. Have anyone figured out HOW to stop him? No.
People who still cry for Nani at Valencias spot – please, Nani does have brilliant abilities, but his decision making is awful. Nani haven’t even shown improvement in his decisions on the field for the last 4 years.
I agree that Smalling should have a higher mark He
won every header against a very good strong centre forward.
Whats happened to Fletcher, I would rather see him playing before Scholes and Giggs.
Playing the two old men last season in the so called easy games cost us the league.