De Gea – Ready to make a spectacular save when called upon. Will be livid to not keep a clean sheet which he thoroughly deserved. 8
Jones – Burst up and down that right-hand side and put in one good cross after another. Only downside was his slow response to Sunderland’s assist. Should have been more alert. Great nonetheless. 6
Rio – His usual solid self beside one momentary lapse in concentration which could have made this game a lot more edgy. Held the defence brilliantly though. 6
Smalling – He reads the game as well as somebody with 10 times more experience than he has. Always assured and calm at the back. 8
Evra – Not too much wrong from the Frenchman which is always nice. Tried to support Young with multiple overlapping runs. End product wasn’t there. 6
Valencia – Just looks out of it. Yes he works hard but that’s not good enough for United. Lacking in touch, skill and heart. He could do with a break because he’s not a bad player. Just needs to sort his head out. 5
Carrick – Last week he set an example of how to defend from midfield and break down attacks. Today he was equally as good when attacking. Play some unreal passes forward at times and even got an assist. If you still don’t understand his importance to the side, just compare our team performances from both halves. What a player. 8
Cleverley – Formed a devilishly exciting midfield pairing with Michael Carrick. The fact that Fergie took him off to rest him shows how highly he’s valued by the gaffer. And deservedly so. 7
Young – Mixed performance from Ashley. Always involved with our attacks but his passing was sometimes wayward or under/overhit. Expect more from someone with his experience. 6
Rooney – Missed a few sitters but eventually got his name on the scoresheet. He was all over the pitch and I enjoyed watching him play today. 7
Van Persie – What more is there to say about this boy. Scored a quality goal but I was even more impressed with his assist for Wazza. Touch of gold to beat two men and then whipped in a low and dangerous cross to restore our two goal advantage. 8
Subs:
Scholes – Just not doing it at the moment. His key attribute is his passing accuracy but even then he’s losing the ball too often. 5
Vidic – It’s going to be a long and hard road to recovery for Nemanja. Today wasn’t impressive. 5
I think the ratings are fair. De Gea was quality and really deserved a clean sheet. I think if Dea Gea was playing in front of the defence we had 3 years ago then he probably would never concede a goal. Smalling was the stand out in our defence and is getting sharper with every game he plays. We cannot rule out Smalling and Evans forming a long-term central defence partnership.
In midfield Cleverley and Carrick are developing a good partnership. Its not the most defensive pairing, but not to dissimilar to the pairing of Scholes and Carrick in 2007 and 2008. Young was a mix bag but Valencia was well of form. I don’t think he has been playing well this season, but today was probably his worse performance. I think whatever injury he has is effecting him and he needs a break during this Christmas period. The problem is that Nani is injured and out of favour.
Valencia doesn’t look himself. I think he needs a break as well to recover from this injury and to get ready for final surge after Christmas. The guy works his socks off but we need to protect him a bit now. If we cannot get anyone in at January then we should look att getting Fabio back because he can play as a winger. QPR have a new manager and he might be happpy to let him return.
Young deserve more than 6.He was excellent.
I too think young deserves a higher rating than that. I would rate him at 7 from yesterday’s performance.